Our special educators at our high school have been asked to formally keep track of the services that they are giving students under their caseload next school year. My colleague, Kerri Lunn, and I sat with one of the case managers to truly understand all that they are being asked to document. We wanted to make sure that they will not spend hours each week documenting the necessary information.
Based on the conversation, we landed on creating a spreadsheet template that each case manager can make a copy of. Things we considered:
- Streamlined workflow so that they are making selections from as many drop down columns as possible – less typing the better
- Each student has its own sheet tab so that finding information later in the year can be found easily
- Use of column stats can give a quick overview of each student when meetings arise or questions are asked in an email throughout the school year
- Workflow that all special education case managers can work with – we met with the whole team to get feedback and made adjustments based on their suggestions
Craig M Sheil 