The only Special Education Support Software
Rating: 9 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
PowerSchool Special Education is being used as a tool for educators to assist one of the largest populations of the school. This is used schoolwide by the entire special education team, including teachers, administration, counselors and school psychologists. The purpose of the software integration is for various departments, not just one department, to be able to track students' performance, services, and progress. This solves a major issue of miscommunication and a lack of support for certain types of populations of students. The special education population is often underserved, and as a result, it is necessary to implement certain protocols to help support those students, their parents and the educators that support the students. In terms of communication, there is an issue with compliance across departments. Most often the issue is timelines, and identifying what teachers or professionals are required of which forms or evaluations. Using PowerSchool Special Education, the school has a higher quality of delivery of services.
Pros
- It provides all the documents necessary for supporting federal and state laws in regards to the special education program.
- Extremely effective in helping to meet reporting standards for students. Teachers that fall behind on deadlines or timelines are given reminders and provided with processes to monitor progress and reporting.
- Case management is easy, which leads to 100% compliance. This is important because the best strength is that this platform helps to increase funding by meeting all requirements of the Fed and State.
- An additional strength is the collaborative potential it offers. The platform offers student portals to let staff access all resources on demand.
Cons
- In terms of improvement, the interface is extremely ugly and simple in design, color and icon design. The platform needs to have a much more interactive and appealing interface so that use is more comfortable.
- For parents, their side of the platform has a lot of options. That needs to be simplified. I think less and more drop downs within the key menus would help.
- The disability codes are very lengthy. Perhaps there are easier or faster ways to access subsections to select.
Likelihood to Recommend
PowerSchool Special Education is well suited in one specific area: special education in elementary, middle and high schools. It works here due to the nature of the platform, which focuses on meeting the needs of students with all disabilities. The software offers information on specific cases, students, as well as Academics. This supports the mission of supporting all students and making it easier for educators, parents, and administration to be more heavily involved in tracking, monitoring and supporting students. When using PowerSchool Special Education, it simplifies the IEP process. Collaboration is one of the best abilities the software provides. There is a need to track program eligibility, including 501 accommodations and Title 1, and in a school with such a large population, the functionality that this software offers to users is important.