How Embrace® simplified progress tracking for Sherman ISD

Before Embrace®, Sherman ISD tried various special education vendors and programs and often faced difficulties tracking all data and processes in one place, ensuring data compliance, and communicating efficiently within the team and with student families.

The staff, in particular, was struggling due to the need to spend too much time tracking student progress. “That… used to take a lot of time for our staff, and it was a lot of training,” Andrea shared.

On top of that, the previous software did not allow for the electronic collection of signatures from parents and other involved parties.

“The program before did not have any way for the parent to electronically sign. So that was a huge piece for us looking for new software,” Andrea explained. The inability to collect signatures digitally caused stress and hassle during audits, putting the district at risk.

They also struggled with messy reporting using the previous special education program. “Running district-level reports was difficult… I think we had 240 reports that had been created. It was difficult to know what each report contained and why it was created,” Andrea explained.

One of the key goals for Sherman was to find software that would allow them to collect parent signatures electronically. Andrea said that “one challenge for us was that we were not getting signatures back. We were holding meetings. Parents were going home with [signatures], but [they weren’t] coming back, so signatures were a huge issue.”

Ease of use and navigation was another priority. “You had to exit a student file and go back in and start all over [in the previous software],” Andrea explained.

Also, as it often is in most public school districts, when staff face any issues, they seek initial advice from their administrator. Being able to fix issues by logging into users’ accounts was something that Sherman wanted in a new software to resolve issues faster and more easily for both administrative personnel and staff.

“I couldn't impersonate staff in the other program. So they would call me with issues, and I wouldn't really know what they were talking about, because I couldn't log in as them,” Andrea explained.

“We have lots of educators that come in with different levels of backgrounds and experience. We needed something that was user-friendly. Our former [software] was very complicated.”Improving compliance and easing the teachers’ workload was important, too.

“Because the case manager is responsible for so much… They don't have enough time to complete their job. So if the system can give us more time, then that's gonna be what drives people. The efficiency,” Andrea explained.

Managing all special education data in one place

“The evaluators were looking for something where they would be able to access the RTI/MTSS data without leaving that program and going somewhere else,” Andrea explained. By acquiring EmbraceMTSS® together with the EmbraceSE® and Embrace504® programs, Sherman staff could finally access all data in one place.

“That was a huge piece. So every user in our district, every staff member, has a user login. And so they can put in that information. Now, instead of one person being the manager of it, there are teams of people able to access that information and update it. That was a huge ask—something where we wouldn’t have to keep teaching everybody multiple programs so they could log in and see all the things.”

Effectively organized reporting via the Dashboard
“The report building is a lot simpler than it was [in the old program],” Andrea said.

Thanks to structured reporting via Embrace®, Sherman staff no longer get lost in hundreds of custom reports. “The way that Embrace® has it set up, that, you know, you saved it. So, you know you created that versus ‘I don’t know if I named it that or if that’s from a previous person?’ And so I think that's nice,” Andrea confirmed.

Free translation of forms, along with user input, into multiple languages
“The translation feature,” Andrea continued, “they were floored and in love with it, because, in the other program we had, [it] did not translate what you typed up. It was only what was predetermined on that form. And so that's been a huge hit, because we do have lots of languages.”

One of Sherman’s goals was to improve communication with the families of their English-language-learner students. And thanks to Embrace®, they could ace this goal, too.

“The entire thing was huge because we wanted our families to be able to understand what we're sending home. When we shared that information with classroom staff and campus staff, they were excited… That was a really big thing in making us feel like we're doing a better job at communicating with our families by having the feature.”

Easy navigation and simplicity

The Embrace® program’s focus on students turned out to be a much better solution for the special education management needs of the Sherman staff. “The amount of steps just to go screen to screen was a longer process than it is right now with Embrace®,” Andrea said.

This level of simplicity has had a huge positive impact on all of the staff. “Being able to look at when you open up the conference and see all the pages that are in the conference, and not having to scroll through all of them… saves time. And it is helpful with the checks,” Andrea explained.

Efficient training and minimized help requests
Training to use the Embrace® software “was pretty simple. This year, I just sent out information, and no one asked questions. So that in itself was huge—that, basically, after a year of being able to work with it, we now have experts on campus,” Andrea reported.

Also, training for new hires in the subsequent year of using Embrace was provided free of charge and helped alleviate some of the training responsibilities from the administrative staff’s shoulders.

“The availability of the full training online… that made a big difference. Yes, I had to do some training, but it wasn't super in-depth. And if something doesn't work, it's more of a tweaking versus foundation laying. They're able to get that through what you guys provided. So that's been super helpful.”

Built-in compliance checks and reminders
For staff, seeing reminders about fields that had to be filled out or double-checked ended up being very helpful. “Staff really liked knowing. Oh, they hadn’t even started that form, because there's nothing on it, or there's an exclamation point—somebody started it, but didn’t finish it. And so that was a huge piece, too.”

Ease of managing the district for administration
The ability to log into users’ profiles to quickly eliminate any issues was key for Sherman’s administrative staff. Andrea confirmed that “now, when people call me with an issue, I can log in. Is it a user issue? Or is it a software issue? And so that has been super helpful.”

Responsive customer support
Andrea confirmed that the number of calls and tech requests for help has decreased across the district.

“That was a huge piece, how we can get our needs met. With other software programs?... The user would not be able to reach out at all. It had to go through one person. And so, as your district is growing, you're going to have lots of things, and if you're trying to funnel it right through one person, you're not going to know in time that there’s a bigger problem, possibly. And so that was also a huge indicator for us.”