Tag Archives for " ONLINE REGISTRATION "

0 Summer Break is not for Principals

Students and teachers alike look forward to the end of the school year. Time off, trips to the beach, vacations, and the pure simplicity of just doing nothing. But for a school principal, the end of a school year means turning another page and starting all over again. A principal’s job doesn’t stop at the end of the school year. Good principals spend their summers reflecting on the past year and searching for new ideas and making improvements for the upcoming school year.

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In a MetLife 2012 Teacher Survey, 9 in 10 (89%) principals say that ultimately a principal should be held accountable for everything that happens to the children in a school; 74% of teachers agree in 2012, compared with 60% in 1989. So, how are you tracking?

We talked to several principals to find out how they spend their summer break preparing for the new school year. 

Here are a few of their responses:

• -- Meet with teachers and conduct evaluations.
• -- Implement new systems or try a school management system to see if it meets their needs .
• --​ Review what worked, what didn’t, what new changes to implement for the next school year.
• -- Review the school handbook and determine what policies/procedures need to be updated.
• -- Meet with the Superintendent / Board to ensure we are aware of any changes for the upcoming school year.
• -- Classroom management is often conducted during the summer with principals having to determine the optimal student to teacher ratio, number of classrooms for each grade, etc.
• -- Hiring new teachers or interviewing for staffing positions.
• -- Designing curriculum changes, especially when incorporating common core standards.
• -- Communicating with teachers and admin staff. It’s helpful to communicate your expectations for the upcoming school year so that your staff can share your vision and everyone is on the same page.

Contrary to popular belief, principals do not get a summer break. As a principal, no matter how your previous school year went, there is always room for improvement and an opportunity to make a fresh new start. Before you know it, it will be the first day of school….AGAIN!

0 Alabama School District Addresses Parent Woes With K-12 Online

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- IRVINE, CA AUGUST 9, 2016

Jefferson County Schools in Birmingham, Alabama will be implementing K-12 Online’s Online Registration System with its Integrated Webstore and Reconciliation System this fall.

Jefferson County Board of Education, Alabama’s 2nd largest school district, has taken action to streamline registration for both parents and school staff.  This year, 36,000 students will be using K-12 Online’s Registration System to seamlessly integrate with Chalkable (formerly STI’S INOW), update demographic information, acknowledge permissions, pay for school items, and make donations….online!

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0 10 Questions to Help you Select an Online School Registration System

Do you currently process student enrollment and registration forms manually or with an outdated software system? Are you (and your employees) working overtime during peak enrollment weeks? Do you want to expand your institution and enroll more students and find that your student information system (SIS) is relying on manual forms for student information updates?

0 Residency Verification Made Easy with K-12 Online

Residency verification is a huge concern for school districts. The numbers vary by state but estimates by School Board Associations reveal that approximately 6,000 – 10,000 students in the state, respectively, are attending a school that is not within the district of their actual residency. Ironically, budget cuts at the state and local levels are forcing districts to ensure that all enrolled students meet residency requirements.

Schools spend countless hours and resources babysitting this process to ensure they are only enrolling students whose parent(s) or guardian(s) reside within district boundaries. However, the manual process of filling out proof of identity and residency forms, not to mention faxing or returning the forms back to the school is tiring.  K-12 Online to the rescue!

Besides some built-in features that alert school staff of a change of physical residency when parents update their students’ information, K-12 Online has also incorporated new technologies that may assist schools in identifying “out of district??? students even before they enroll. Contact us to find out how we can help your school or district verify residency with ease.

0 School Districts Revamp Spending Habits

In a recent article released by Education Week, there is a new push for districts to drop the year-to-year budget cycles and follow a budgeting process that requires long-term planning guided by efforts to improve student achievement. What started out as a six district pilot program has now expanded to over twenty districts implementing the principles instituted by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA).

“Probably the vast majority of districts don’t have that kind of regular dialogue that’s really needed in order to budget properly, [and] also budget effectively, especially given that most districts across the country are operating under continued pressures in terms of their finances,” said Matt Bubness, a manager at GFOA and a former operations director for the Chicago Public Schools.

GFOA’s best practices for budgeting emphasize planning and preparation as well as encourage community engagement. The creation of multi-year financial plans forces districts to rethink and realign.

Of course, the annual budgeting method is less controversial when year after year, districts do the same thing (along with a few tweaks) and their budget is accepted and approved because it worked before.

The multi-year budgeting approach requires districts to define their priorities and allocate funds accordingly. It allows districts to redirect funds from one area to another based on long-term goals and to allocate funds for successive budget years to support initiatives.

Susan Moxley, Lake County’s superintendent, called this way of doing business a “real paradigm shift.” The long-term planning has made it easier to deal with annual budget adjustments, she said. “It brought to light the importance of our resources and how precious they are and that they all need to be very strategically and deliberately focused on those outcomes,” Ms. Moxley said.

Every expense should be evaluated for its return on investment, considering not only initial cost and expenses during the life of the purchase, but also the savings that may have been realized from implementation. The benefit, is increased transparency and a consciousness about how money is spent and where dollars are allocated.

Can your district benefit from long-term budget planning? For more information visit the Smarter School Spending for Student Success website.

0 Smaller schools no longer burdened with the help of affordable online registration

One of the toughest challenges in education is managing a small school. Budget cuts instituted on a statewide level affect both large and small districts, however, smaller schools tend to feel the crunch more when operating on an already meager budget. But the burden of affordable online registration can be lifted!

Savvy schools know their future requires them to become more integrated with parents, teachers and students. The world we live in is becoming increasingly interconnected and small schools can’t afford to be left behind for the sake of our children, nor can they afford to pay large amounts of money to implement necessary improvements.

K-12 Online was developed to combat the problems of school wastefulness and the excessive time and energy required to register K-12 students year after year. K-12 Online’s solution helps schools overcome application, registration, enrollment, and lottery management hassles and streamlines the process to be more cost effective and eco-friendly.

Although our products work seamlessly for any size school or district, small schools choose K-12 Online over and over again for it’s ability to offer budget-friendly solutions while still providing high quality products and maintaining it’s high level of customer service.

0 Why is School Choice Gaining Popularity?

As parents look into more options for educating their children, one that continues to gain popularity is school choice – the freedom to choose where your child goes to school.

Most residence of a community pay tax dollars to help subsidize the cost of education in their district. School choice allows parents the ability to decide how their tax dollars are being applied and more importantly, how their child is being educated.

There are many school choice options: Private schools, charter schools, homeschooling, and online learning. Having the ability to choose a school levels the playing field for families, while encouraging healthy competition among schools to better service their needs.

Over the last few years, parents have been taking their child’s education into their own hands. Empowering parents with the ability to handpick a school of choice makes them feel as if their child is receiving the best possible education and one that is appropriate to their level of learning. Some public schools are highly accomplished and parents may feel it’s too competitive and will create a stressful environment for their child. While other parents place high academic standards on their children and feel that their home school is not stringent enough. Yet, for others the choice stems from how their child will assimilate or behave within a certain environment.

Whatever the reason a parent decides to follow the path of school choice, there is no denying that there is a growing threat to public schools. Many have experienced a decline in enrollment over the years and a few have even been forced to close their doors.

As doors close, opportunities are being opened for choice schools. We’ve seen charter schools gaining popularity and registration and wait list numbers increasing. There are pros and cons to any decision, however the more we can provide equality in education and give children the same opportunity to learn, the better off we are as a society in producing successful adults.

There are many types of school choice programs. Each state has its own set of regulations regarding school choice. Some states, such as California do not offer private school choice programs, but do allow online and charter school options, as well as intradistrict and interdistrict public school choice. Visit Freedman Foundation for Education Choice and find out more information about school choice options in your state.

0 Avoiding the “Where Is My Child on the List?” Call

Parent tours, application submitting, and lottery night! Yep, it’s that time of year for selective enrollment schools. For parents, the gut wrenching, finger-crossed hope that their child gets accepted to a school of choice. And for admins, here come the “Where is my child on the list?” parent inquiry calls, acceptance letters, decline letters, sibling pairings, wait listing, and ideal classroom size selection process.

Yes, lottery and selective enrollment schools are happy to tout wait lists longer than the line of eager candidates whose spots they can fill, but they also dread the time consuming, tedious procedures of the process.

By automating the entire process from application to classroom selection, schools can save both parents and admins undue headache (and heartache). Does your current process allow you to effectively:
• Manage seat availability for each grade
• Generate individual or bulk acceptance and decline letters
• Send email alerts and notifications of wait list status and rank to parents
• Enroll multiple siblings at a time, avoiding redundant data entry
• Use an algorithm that assists with weight distribution and priorities
• Track applicants through the process from beginning to end

These are just some of the many benefits of using an online lottery management system. Such a system ensures fair placement of applicants, helps create ideal class sizes, and automates the application through selection process saving schools time and money. Admins no longer have to waste valuable time thumbing through printed pages to answer a parent’s “Where is my child is on the list?” call and parents no longer have to waste time asking admins about the status of their child’s placement. Ultimately, an online lottery management system stops the endless cycle of wasting the time of both parents and admins involved in a selective enrollment school.

0 Celebrate Presidents Day this year by saving some cash

In these challenging economic times, just about everyone is looking for ways to cut back—even schools. From implementing virtual technology to accepting online payments, districts are continuously seeking money-saving methods. Here are some of our favorites.

Automate Your Processes. Thanks to companies like K-12 Online, districts can simplify everything from managing their lottery and registering students to updating PTA forms. K-12 Online offers an online payment system for uniform orders, field trips fees, textbook fines, and any other payments your district collects.

Channel Your Inner Jerry Lewis. Fundraising is an easy and effective way to raise money. Offering online fundraising options for parents has proven to increase donation amounts by 30%.

Realign Your Resources. Parents are a great resource for schools.   The contributions they make and impact they have on the success of a school are immeasurable.   A key aspect in managing school operations is ensuring that parents are happy. Online registration for schools is a proven parent-pleaser, reducing the amount of time parents spend in line and filling out forms.

It’s Easy Being Green. Reducing paper consumption is an easy, eco-friendly way to help save the planet. By using web-based technology, schools help set the example and address the increasing concerns of deforestation and environmental conservation.

Take our Free School Savings Survey and let us help you save some cash this President’s Day.

0 Tips for Choosing the Right Educational Technology

Are you looking for ways to cut or reallocate your budget? Do you need to streamline processes? Have you considered improving educational technology by implementing an online registration system?

If you currently process student enrollment and registration forms manually or with outdated software, your staff works overtime during peak enrollment weeks, or updating your SIS requires manual labor, then an online registration system may be right for you.

More and more schools and districts are turning to educational technology solutions to help manage everyday tasks. The trend of working with partners has proven to be valuable however; the daunting task of comparing products, attending demos, etc. can be exhausting.

We’ve compiled a list of questions to consider as you review educational technology to ensure the service provider you select will perform how and when you need it. Our list pertains directly to online registration but can be applied to other software solutions as well.

1. Does the system help reduce parents’ time spent filling out forms as well as waiting in line, creating a better experience for parents?
2. Can online forms be created and used year-round (i.e. field trip forms, special event sign-up, etc.), making the system more versatile rather than just for the beginning of the school year?
3. How easily can forms be created and edited, allowing schools to make necessary changes when necessary?
4. Does the system provide residency verification alerts, increasing your registrar’s operational efficiency?
5. Can forms be created and viewed in multiple languages, making it user-friendly for ALL parents?
6. Does the system have built-in ways to solicit donations, increasing your return on investment?
7. Will the system assist in recouping fees for lost textbooks, further saving your school money?
8. Are e-commerce and credit card processing capabilities offered, allowing parents to take care of all purchases online?
9. Does the software allow privileged-level access; allowing PTAs, Boosters, etc. to access certain information while still maintaining security of data?
10. Is the software all-inclusive, allowing you to utilize all applications at no extra charge?
11. How is customer and technical support provided for administrators and parents (online support, live customer assistance)?
12. What other suite of products are offered (lottery management, merchant processing, web store, etc.) that integrates to allow for a one-stop shop?
13. And lastly, one of the most critical questions is how easily does the educational technology integrate with your school information system?

Choosing educational technology that is inclusive and considers the needs of parents, students, teachers and administration is important. Make sure discussions include representatives of the student body, staff and parents. Parents want registration to be quick and easy, while administrators want a lot of information.

Any company can create an online registration system, but K-12 Online knows and understands the basic registration needs of K-12 schools and will help you identify the most useful features that work for your school and with your system.