At a Glance
Challenges:
- Costly paper-based registration processes
- Time-consuming administrative tasks
- Poor data quality and access
Decision:
- PowerSchool Enrollment
Results:
- $260,000+ in cost savings; reduction of 500,000 sheets of paper
- Up to 80% time savings for parents
- Vastly reduced workload for district staff
- Better data quality and access
With an enrollment of 34,000 students, DeSoto County Schools is the largest school district in Mississippi. Unfortunately, its annual paper-based registration and enrollment process was costly and time-consuming.
With an average of 15 pages per student registration packet, more than 500,000 sheets had to be printed, assembled, filled in by parents, re-entered by school staff, and filed away in an ever-expanded filing system. Human errors were inevitable, resulting in late registrations, inaccurate data, incomplete student information, and ineffective resource planning.
DeSoto County Schools turned to PowerSchool Enrollment, an online enrollment and registration solution that streamlines the process for schools and districts of all sizes. In year one of the new solution, 75 percent of students were registered, with data securely and accurately entered into the district’s student information system by the first day of school. Nearly 100 percent of key student registration data was entered within the first month.
“PowerSchool Enrollment has been the absolute right solution for our needs,” says Melissa Green, the Director of Management Information Systems for DeSoto County Schools. “We needed a secure online registration system to get kids registered on time and accurately. We needed to lessen the burden on our staff and parents. And we needed a technology solution that would prepare us for potential future growth. PowerSchool meets these needs and has exceeded our expectations.”
Time and money savings
The district’s budgeting outlook became a little bit brighter after it implemented PowerSchool Enrollment. Green estimates that DeSoto County now saves a whopping $262,113 in printing, copying, ink, and administrative costs alone each year.
The high cost of paper-based processes wasn’t DeSoto’s only challenge with their old system. District administrators were burdened by the need to input massive amounts of student data. In total, staff had to enter information from a half million-plus handwritten forms (including health documents, policies that required signatures, general student information, and more) into their system.
Administrators, particularly at the district’s larger schools, couldn’t collect and process all of that information until at least November or December.
“It would take months to get back that updated information,” Green says.
With PowerSchool Enrollment, data input and collection are automated. This reduces stress and provides significant time savings for district staff.
“It would take months to get data entered in the system,” Green says. “With PowerSchool Enrollment, it is a huge savings as far as employees getting work entered, which now happens within a day. It saves a ton of time.”
Improved engagement and 80% time reduction for parents
After adopting the online enrollment solution, DeSoto County staff helped parents overcome fear of using computers by offering a registration lab as well as computer kiosks with support staff at the district office to walk them through the process. The investment paid off, as parents embraced the new solution; PowerSchool Enrollment has reduced the time parents spend on filling out paperwork by as much as 80 percent.
“It’s a situation where parents were taking an hour or two to fill out as many as 20 paper forms for each of their children, and now that time has been cut down to a student being completely registered in less than 15 minutes,” Green says. “We’ve worked hard to help our parents so that they get past the fear of moving away from the known — paper registration — and trying a new solution done entirely on a computer. Now, our parents love it.”
DeSoto staff has also supported parents by offering enrollment opportunities at local libraries that provide free internet access.
“We knew that success in year one would help set the foundation for our long-term success down the road, so we were diligent in making registration as convenient as possible, with support staff meeting them to offer assistance,” Green says.
With a growing Hispanic population, the district offers registration for new and returning students in both English and Spanish. Additionally, families without computers or who don’t have internet access at home now have the ability to register on their cell phones.
Cleaner, more useful data
Not only has PowerSchool Enrollment helped DeSoto County Schools input student information quickly and at significant cost savings, but the solution has also improved the quality of the district’s data.
That’s had very practical benefits.
When one of the district’s busses broke down mid-trip, administrators were able to gather information about riders at the push of a button to easily re-route them.
District administrators also have quick access to a range of key student data, including updated and accurate data emergency contact, medical history forms, student food allergies, and medications. With PowerSchool, that’s available at the push of a button.
“When you bring up a child in PowerSchool, you can see right away if they have any types of allergies or any type of medical alert,” Green says.
Green also cites state reporting and the reduced/free lunch program as areas where PowerSchool Enrollment has helped the district become more efficient.
Conclusion
As the largest school district in Mississippi, DeSoto County Schools struggled with unnecessary costs and wasted time with its manual enrollment process. But after switching to PowerSchool Enrollment, the district has reduced the burden on families and administrators, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, and improved student data accuracy.
“It saves a ton of time,” Green says. “And it’s a huge cost savings as far as the employee and the work time that they put in within a day. It has saved a ton on paper and on ink costs.”
PowerSchool Enrollment has also provided the district wide-ranging and easily accessible student information in a system that’s customizable to meet each school’s unique needs. As a result, the district’s bottom line, employees, and families have all benefited.
“With a paper form there’s no way you could collect the data you collect with our online form,” Green says.
