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Flexible Pay in K-12: The Benefits and Debunking the Myths

Since the launch of the Wagestream partnership, available to K-12 districts utilizing Frontline Absence Management, the concept of financial flexibility has been a frequent topic of discussion. But what does that really mean, why is it of paramount importance for K-12 school districts and why is this absolutely critical for K-12 school districts?
 
Our lives are becoming increasingly flexible with the growing popularity of on-demand products and streaming services. If you really want to, you can order same day delivery for just about anything these days. Booking appointments can even happen with the click of a button. However, when it comes to the way many of us get paid, it’s still quite old school. When you consider how district staff gets paid, it can sometimes be months before they receive a paycheck. By offering your staff flexible access to their pay when they want it, as they earn in, your district can increase fill rates, foster financial wellbeing, and minimize stress.
 

Wagestream Fast Facts:

 

 

In the HR world, I’m about doing anything I can to benefit employees, including improving their well-being. And we know that financial wellness is a piece of that.

Dr. Lisa Hatfield, Assistant
Superintendent of Human Resources, Raymore-Peculiar School District

 

Financial Flexibility in School Districts

There are federal and state funding limitations that cause the timing of pay to be a very real detractor for individuals who would otherwise be interested in working at a district. Financial flexibility is the notion that with the right, sophisticated, user-friendly technology, pay at a school district could become on-demand with very little lift from the district or its employees.
 
Financial flexibility at a school district is the idea that a substitute, for example, could work a job and then access those earned wages instantly if they needed to. When gas is more expensive than usual, or bill cycles don’t align with pay cycles, district employees wouldn’t have to seek out predatory loans or high interest credit. Instead, they could just have simple, secure access to the money they have already earned.
 
We see this a lot in organizations that have front line workers, and it is a powerful benefit for organizations to attract and retain top talent. That’s why Frontline Education is exclusively partnering with Wagestream to bring financial wellbeing to employees at districts who use Frontline Absence Management.

Financial wellbeing is when you:

  • Have control over day-to-day, month-to-month finances
  • Have the capacity to absorb a financial shock
  • Are on track to meet your financial goals
  • Feel secure about your financial future
  • Have the financial freedom to make the choices that allow you to enjoy life

 

Debunking 3 Myths About Flexible Pay

MYTH: Offering flexible pay to employees is unethical.

Reality: Consider the ethical implications of not providing flexible payment options. Requiring employees to adhere to a pay cycle that suits the business but may not align with individual needs and preferences raises ethical concerns. Providing employees with choices and allowing them to opt for it, is a morally responsible approach. Ultimately, the decision to participate in the program should be left to the individual.

MYTH: If people get early access to their pay, they’ll end up in worse financial shape.

Reality: According to Wagestream’s findings, 72% of employees who utilize or have access to flexible pay benefits experience reduced financial stress, while 52% report improved budgeting and saving capabilities. This positive impact stems from reduced reliance on costly financial options such as payday loans, credit cards, and overdrafts.

MYTH: The fixed pay cycle helps people manage their money.

Reality: The fixed pay cycle is designed with businesses in mind. Its purpose is to enable businesses to efficiently manage payroll at a lower cost and meet tax filing deadlines. The perception that the fixed pay cycle benefits individuals is a result of familiarity rather than its original intent.

To support the credibility of this program, we want to recognize that Wagestream for Frontline is the winner of the EdTech K-12 Deployment of the Year Award for 2023!
 
Want to learn more about financial flexibility and Wagestream? Explore this powerful benefit
 

Suggested Resources:
 
Azle ISD: How Azle ISD uses Wagestream through Frontline’s Absence Management to support substitute teachers, raise fill rates, and expand its substitute pool.
 
Raymore-Peculiar School District: Dr. Lisa Hatfield, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, describes how the district offers flexible pay to help recruit substitutes through Wagestream and Frontline’s Absence Management.
 
Clovis Municipal Schools: Clovis Municipal Schools in New Mexico is offering Wagestream through Frontline’s Absence Management as a benefit to help increase fill rates.
 

Teacher Retention Strategies: Ideas to Keep Great Educators

The teacher shortage isn’t new — and neither are the day-to-day challenges that come with it. But that doesn’t make it any easier to manage higher turnover rates and disruptions to student learning.

Because these struggles have become so consistent and far-reaching, it’s essential to take steps, big or small, toward improving staff retention. But how? First, consider this list of best practices for retention. Answering the “how” of keeping quality staff members in your district can:

  • Reduce turnover costs greatly
  • Improve instruction and student achievement
  • Make staff feel heard, seen, and supported

Take our instant poll:
Which of the following is your district doing to incentivize teachers to stay?

 

You likely already implement one or more of these strategies to support teacher retention. Now take a look through these additional ideas and resources to take the next step.

Support Teacher Wellness

Teaching has always been tough, and we saw a marked increase in struggle and burnout through the pandemic years. Although things are now stabilized, the weighted impact of the last few years still lingers. With a rise in anxiety and depression, it’s critical to support and promote mental health in your district. Prioritizing your staff’s mental health will ultimately help them avoid burnout, and you turnover.

“Teacher burnout, it’s like a slow leak. You see it happening, but how do you support these teachers to make sure they get rejuvenated, and that every summer it’s not, ‘Am I going to retire this year? Am I going to leave this year?’”

from “Beating Teacher Burnout” on the Field Trip Podcast. Listen now

Consider offering:

  • Meditation breaks
  • Mental health days
  • Dedicated time for physical activity
  • Exercise challenges
  • Mental well-being sessions (either virtually or in-person)

It’s also important to note that while the teacher shortage is widespread, so is the school counselor shortage. The shortage of school counselors may lead to some teachers feeling pressure to adopt a counseling role for which they are neither prepared or trained to take on. In your district, you may also consider offering professional development targeted toward social-emotional learning.

Promote Growth Opportunities

Find ways to catapult growth among your district’s educators by developing a holistic, connected program that includes:

  • Individualize professional growth: Build relationships with teachers to understand their unique goals, needs, and share feedback more openly so that you can help create a growth plan with confidence.
  • Voice and choice: Offer plentiful learning opportunities so teachers can mix-and-match development that fits both their goals and desires.
  • Lively engagement: Switch out the “sit-and-get” model with learning that teachers can do in their way, at their pace, collaborating with educators in the building and around the country.

“Because every one of us likes to be listened to and to feel like, I am a part of something bigger than myself.

— from “Keeping Great Teachers” on the Field Trip Podcast. Listen now 

 

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[Calculator] How Much Is Teacher Turnover Costing You?
Get a quick picture of just how much money teacher attrition costs you each year, and what you can do to address it.
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Cultivate a positive school culture

Establishing a school culture where teachers feel they have a voice and are being listened to creates a better environment for student growth and achievement. Keep in mind this doesn’t just happen by checking a box; rather, it’s an ongoing process in which you can:

  • Provide continuous and relevant feedback
  • Offer a mentor program to new teachers
  • Reward your teachers for their hard work
  • Give acts of kindness — perhaps it’s snacks, supplies, or free lunch on Monday!
  • Network with your community to offer discounts or gift cards

Offer Employee Assistance Programs

Everyday stresses can impact performance and morale, especially during a pandemic. An Employee Assistance Program provides confidential health, financial, and legal services to your employees at no cost to them. Your district may already be offering this service, but if not, consider implementing one. From counseling services and child-care referrals to ride-share reimbursements, Employee Assistance Programs help support your employees and any life challenges they may face.

Any number of these strategies are a great place to start in considering a comprehensive retention initiative. Create an experience for your teachers from their application process through growing and staying with your district.

Explore Frontline Recruiting & Hiring and Frontline Professional Growth →
 

Navigating Parental Consent for Medicaid

 

It’s the end of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting, and stakeholders have agreed upon related services prescribed to your student. Before the meeting can conclude and the IEP document is finalized for signature, one last form needs to be addressed: parental consent to bill Medicaid. Outside of service logging, this conversation has the largest impact on Medicaid revenue for a school district.

As your district forms policies and procedures around best practices to obtain parental consent, here are some key areas to consider. Understanding the history and general regulations around consent will also help guide best practices.1

Jump to a section:

Medicaid Billing in Schools and Parental Consent: A Very Brief History

In 1974, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) gave parents the right to protect their child’s personally identifiable information (PII) within a school system.2 In 1975, the first iteration of what was eventually known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) paved the way for the special education programs we see in schools today and the billing of public health insurance, or Medicaid, to support the delivery of those programs.3

In 1997, an advisory letter by the Department of Education clarified that FERPA regulations on PII include the student’s Medicaid information, creating the requirement for parental consent to access public health insurance information. The reissuance of IDEA in 2004 specified parental consent requirements, explicitly stating that consent must be obtained each time services were implemented.4

From 2004 to 2013, school districts maintained a practice of requesting parental consent annually with each IEP. In 2013, new regulations were issued that realigned IDEA with FERPA requirements, which do not have a mandated frequency, to move to a one-time parental consent collection, and annual notice thereafter.5

In 2014, the federal government expanded Medicaid billing to services beyond those written into an IEP.6 The implementation of this expansion is still ongoing as each state rewrites and submits new Medicaid plans incorporating the new federal regulations into state practice.

Parental Consent: Requirements and Regulations

Current federal regulations stipulate that:

  1. Parental consent must be obtained to seek access to public health information, including Medicaid eligibility, and must be obtained to bill public health insurance for services provided.
  2. A notification of continued access to public health insurance must be sent annually to the parent.
  3. Parents have the right to revoke consent at any time.
  4. School districts are obligated to provide services to students through Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), regardless of the parental consent status.7

Parental Consent Best Practices

Because parental consent is required to bill Medicaid, it’s critical to assess your district’s process of obtaining parental consent and maintaining proper records. Following best practices and considering future regulations are key to successful compliance management and to bringing crucial funds back into your district.

Best practice should ensure your district not only maximizes consent for services that are billable today, but also plans for billing expansion, if your state has not already implemented billing expansion policies.

Is your district’s parental consent form designed for Medicaid billing expansion?

As states continue to expand Medicaid billing beyond IEP services, you should also update parental consent forms to reflect these options. Massachusetts, a pioneer in the expansion of school-based billing, issued new consent forms, available through this link, that define school health services beyond the IEP and mandated recollection for all students. Since most states are still in the process of updating their state plans to expand billing, current parental consent form templates offered by states often still specify IEP services in the language, making them unusable for any other type of school health billing. Districts should plan revisions to consent forms to reflect all school health services ahead of regulatory updates, to maximize potential revenue increases as state regulations change. 8,9

When should your staff ask for consent in the IEP process?

Parental consent is best obtained long before the IEP meeting, which can often be contentious as service levels and types are decided. It’s better to discuss parental consent when the parent provides permission to evaluate their child, for two reasons:

  1. Most parental consent forms have a single date to mark the start of consent: the signature date. If parental consent is collected prior to the evaluations, the evaluations can be billed.
  2. Second, it reduces the risk that disagreements in the IEP meeting will lead to a denial from the parent.
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Working with Parents in Special Education

My district is in a state that allows billing for students without an IEP. When should we ask for consent for these students?

504 services, school health services, and mental health services are the most common areas of expansion for Medicaid billing, largely due to entrenched practices of determining medical necessity and creating service plans. Obtaining consent should begin by cross training consent talking points within these departments, and adding parental consent forms to 504, school health, and mental health standard packets.

Massachusetts serves as a useful guide here as well: department of education consent collection and outreach guidance recommends including parental consent forms in

  • free and reduced lunch applications,
  • start of school year packets, and
  • health plan meetings10.

Who should ask for consent?

The role is less relevant than proper training. Equip personnel tasked with this duty with the proper answers to parents’ frequently asked questions.

What are the common questions parents ask and how can we best address those questions?

State education departments generally put together FAQs that apply to their state programs and reflect federal regulations. Here are some examples from Louisiana and Indiana. Common questions and answers are:

Question: Why am I being asked for consent? How do you know my family is on Medicaid?

Answer: To avoid discrimination, all parents are asked for consent to bill Medicaid.11 An added benefit to this policy is that consent will be viable should the family become Medicaid recipients in the future.

Question: Will this affect my family’s overall Medicaid benefits?

Answer: No. Your personal Medicaid and school-based Medicaid come from distinct pools of funding and do not affect each other.12 This answer is often distrusted, due to misinformation from advocacy groups, private practitioners, and other stakeholders. Equipping your personnel with regulatory materials that support this answer is beneficial.

Question: If I say no, will my student still receive services?

Answer: Yes, services do not depend on your consent to bill Medicaid.13

Why should I ask all parents for consent to bill Medicaid?

First, you avoid potential discrimination or miscommunication. Beyond morality, this protects your district in the face of legal implications. Second, if a student becomes eligible for Medicaid in the future, you already have the consent required to bill Medicaid. This point may become more prominent if your state adopts Free Care, opening up the possibilities to bill Medicaid for students without an IEP who have a Plan of Care.

Where should my district store parental consent information?

This is a very important question because, with the expansion of Medicaid billing beyond IEP service, it’s easier to lose the record of parental consent (which only needs to be obtained once) in the paper shuffle. And once parental consent is obtained, revisiting that conversation runs the risk of a revocation.

Districts often use disparate systems to develop IEPs, 504s, student health plans, service logging, Medicaid billing, student health documentation, and behavioral or mental health documentation. While all systems should be equipped to collect parental consent records, a single source system, which is typically the Student Information System, can feed that information elsewhere as necessary. For example, if parental consent for all health services is collected during a 504 process, this should be fed into the IEP system, so the parental consent conversation can be bypassed.

What is the best method to annually notify parents of the continuation of parental consent?

While parents/guardians are required to be notified annually, there is no stipulation that they sign or physically acknowledge this notice. Notices can be included in back-to-school information packets that are sent to all parents to ensure the notice reaches all required recipients and compliance is maintained.14

Bring much needed funds back into your district by simplifying health services documentation and Medicaid claiming procedures. Learn how Frontline can help

1 Mays, A., & O’Rourke, L. (2019, December). A Guide to Expanding Medicaid-Funded School Health Services. Retrieved from https://healthyschoolscampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/A-Guide-to-Expanding-Medicaid-Funded-School-Health-Services-12-19-19.pdf.

2 Electronic Privacy Information Center. (n.d.). Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://epic.org/privacy/student/ferpa.

3 U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). About IDEA. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/about-idea.

4 New York State Education Department. (2012, January 18). Parental Consent. Retrieved from http://www.oms.nysed.gov/medicaid/resources/parental_consent.html.

5 U.S. Department of Education. (2017, July 12). Sec. 300.154 (d) (2). Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.154/d/2.

6 Mann, C. (2014, December 15). Medicaid Payment for Services Provided without Charge (Free Care). Retrieved from https://www.medicaid.gov/sites/default/files/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/smd-medicaid-payment-for-services-provided-without-charge-free-care.pdf.

7 U.S. Department of Education. (2017, July 12). Sec. 300.154 (d) (2). Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.154/d/2.

8 Virginia Department of Education. (n.d.). Medicaid & Schools. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/health_medical/medicaid/index.shtml.

9 Mittnacht, M. (2013, July 13). Administrative Advisory SPED 2013-1. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from http://www.doe.mass.edu/sped/advisories/13_1.html.

10 Mittnacht, M. (2013, July 13). Administrative Advisory SPED 2013-1. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from http://www.doe.mass.edu/sped/advisories/13_1.html.

11 U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Sec. 300.154 (d) (2) (v). Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.154/d/2/v.

12 Louisiana Department of Education. (n.d.). 2013 Parental Consent to Seek Medicaid Reimbursement_Revised Final.docx. Retrieved May 20, 20202, from https://4.files.edl.io/8612/09/18/19/015629-dc236936-3003-4e59-9f78-81e0e0c764bc.pdf.

13 Indiana Department of Education. (n.d.). Medicaid Parental Consent Form Indiana. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.doe.in.gov/sites/default/files/specialed/medicaid-parental-consent-form-indiana.pdf.

14 U.S. Department of Education. (2017, July 12). Sec. 300.154 (d) (2). Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/b/300.154/d/2.

How to Solve Shortages and Increase Substitute Effectiveness

Substitutes aren’t babysitters; they’re educators. They often walk into unfamiliar environments, with unfamiliar people. They teach multiple subjects, save the day in emergency situations, and help prevent learning gaps. Many do so with grace and professionalism, and embrace the opportunity to impact student achievement in the process. There’s no question that substitutes are educators. And their ability to take the baton and lend continuity to the full-time teacher’s hard work is an art. Certainly, this is work worth doing. So why do so many schools struggle to maintain effective substitute programs? Why do low fill rates and substitute shortages plague administrators across the country?

The real problem: people don’t choose to substitute

Ask any group of kids what they want to be when they grow up. “A football player!” “A chef, because I like to eat!” “A veterinarian; I think my neighbor’s dog is cool!” But how many would say they want to be a substitute? With substitute teachers often saying they feel misunderstood or undervalued, it’s no surprise that the number may not be overwhelmingly high.

Unfortunately, substitute teaching can suffer from the misperception that the role is nothing more than school-sponsored babysitting. Consciously or unconsciously, this is the message often communicated — and so the dominos fall, leading to fewer people applying for substitute positions, lower engagement and plummeting fill rates. So what can districts do to overcome this issue to ensure teacher absences are quickly filled and student learning remains uninterrupted?

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Changing perceptions to re-engage substitutes

Substitute teaching is certainly not easy in many ways, and there are realities of the job we cannot change. We can, however, change the perceptions around substituting. We can help people see that it’s worth choosing. If substitute teaching is not seen as an educator-based role worthy of support, recognition and encouragement in your district — it’s time for a change. Be the one who embraces the humanity and capability of the substitute teacher and help others do the same. Here are five actionable tips to help re-engage substitutes in your district:

  • Lay the ground-work through community building and communication
  • Put the “substitute as educator” through strategic substitute management
  • Keep in touch with your former and retired teachers (they may just be up for re-engaging to substitute at your district
  • Make it easy for substitutes in your district to be prepared for leading instruction at your schools
  • Offer your substitutes a thoughtful, comprehensive, and connected experience from finding jobs, accepting jobs, and even all the way to flexible access to pay
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Fostering financial wellbeing for substitutes

Why is flexible access to pay such a critical step to re-engage substitutes? We see it every day: restaurants and retailers are offering same day pay to incentivize people to pick up jobs. You can’t drive down a main street or open social media without seeing an advertisement for “get paid as you earn.” And in order for districts to compete, they’ll have to ask their technology partners for innovations that support their mission to solve the substitute shortage.

Substitute teachers work hard for their money. However, due to district policies or pay cycles, subs can find themselves in a situation where they might work for weeks (or months) before getting access to their paycheck. An interruption in pay can be a roadblock for people to accept substitute teaching positions when they could either stay in their current role or seek employment with more flexible pay options.

If you’re stuck wondering how your district can provide flexible access to pay, Frontline Education’s exclusive partnership with Wagestream can help! This partnership offers substitutes access to their pay when they want it, as they earn it. Giving substitutes more control over their pay fosters financial wellbeing and minimizes stress, allowing them to bring their best selves into the classroom. Wagestream is not a loan and there is no interest: just simple, secure and reliable access to their earned money!

Ready to re-engage substitutes and revolutionize pay in your district? Learn more about the Wagestream offering

3 Characteristics (and Examples) of Great Teacher Job Descriptions

In the United States, there are over 13,000 school districts and 33,000 private schools, all vying to hire the most exceptional educators. But with the ongoing teacher shortage and the decline in teacher preparation program enrollments, it makes this stiff competition even harder and may leave district leaders struggling to meet school demands and serve student needs.

If your district feels as though your back is against the wall with little you can do to fill open positions when candidate supply is low, you’re not alone. The good news is, there are ways to stand out! By tailoring your recruiting practices, your district can rise above the competition and quickly attract the highest quality applicants from the existing candidate pool.

Making Your District Stand Out

In a perfect world, you’d have enough time to do a deep audit and revamp of your recruiting strategies. Chances are, you don’t have the hours to commit to such a big initiative right now. Instead, start with one piece that piece will make a quick impact, like job descriptions! Yes, those job descriptions. The ones that have been serving your district well enough for the past several years (or in some cases, decades).

Do they still accurately reflect the current job responsibilities? Do they clearly outline what you need and expect from candidates? If so, that’s a good start — but it’s just the beginning.

Great job descriptions are current and accurate.

Some districts haven’t updated their job descriptions since Prince turned himself into a symbol. What about yours? Set a goal to review job descriptions and job posting templates on a yearly basis —during employees’ year-end review, or as part of the planning process.

When you do update your job descriptions, it’s a good idea to conduct a job analysis and create an ideal candidate profile. That way, you can ensure that every job description accurately conveys the knowledge, skills and abilities you’re looking for.

Great job postings are written for job-seekers — not hiring managers.

Too often, job postings are written for a hiring manager’s point of view, when they should be written for job-seekers. Of course, job descriptions need to be honest, accurate and compliant, but they can be interesting and engaging, too.

The purpose of a job description is not just to outline a particular position’s main duties and responsibilities, but to inspire candidates to apply and become engaged with the district’s mission. When candidates feel a connection through your district from the moment they see your job posting, you’ll find you have higher-quality applicant pools, greater employee engagement and less turnover.

 

Job descriptions don’t just outline responsibilities. They inspire candidates to apply and engage.

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So, make your job descriptions work for you: write them in a way that speaks to what job-seekers are looking for. Explain what you’re looking for in a candidate, and give them a taste of why your district is a great place to work. And don’t forget to include your district’s mission statement: The New Teacher Project (TNTP) found that 53 percent of teachers were attracted to their school because of the organization’s philosophy and mission.

Great job postings put your best foot forward.

When educators begin searching for a new job, they can be inundated with open positions. What are you doing to make your postings stand out? It’s not enough to post a vacancy with a brief or nonexistent job description — this is your first opportunity to show off your district’s brand to candidates.

Make sure that your job postings are memorable and cast your district in a good light. Showcase the many reasons why great educators want to work in your district by including them in the job description or linking to resources on your district’s website.

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3 Districts to Learn From

What does this look like in practice? Check out a few recent job postings from K12JobSpot to see how other districts are leveraging job descriptions to entice more educators to apply.

Eagle Point School District 9

What we love: This job posting for a second-grade teacher at Table Rock Elementary opens with clear branding at the top, followed by a strong recruitment message: the district is located in a beautiful area, with a wealth of cultural and outdoor experiences just waiting to be discovered.

The district uses the opening paragraph to highlight their classroom initiatives, stability and benefits before laying out the position details, description and expectations. They have also included easily-accessible links to the district website, as well as a link to the Travel Southern Oregon site for job-seekers who aren’t from the area.

Minnetonka School District

What we love: Rather than introducing the district through text, Minnetonka included a video about their schools in a high school math teacher job posting. The use of media really stood out: after poring through what felt like hundreds of job postings, theirs was the only one to have a video directly embedded in the job description.

Oak Park and River Forest School District 200

What we love: This small district might only have one school, but they certainly aren’t short on information. Their job description for a family & consumer science teacher opens with a bullet-point overview of the position, followed by an engaging introduction that clearly defines the school’s progressive, success-driven philosophy.

It might be long, but it gives prospective applicants plenty of information to decide if this school is the right fit.

From Job Posting to Job Offer

Though revisiting your job descriptions is a great first step, don’t stop there! To continue to rise above the competition, it’s essential to understand the applicant’s journey, as well as which aspects of the recruiting and hiring process are most valued. What does that mean? Districts must look at the entire cycle from job postings to the job offer (and even beyond).

According to the Frontline Research & Learning Institute, over 90% of job seekers find the following outcomes important when searching for a job:

  • Job postings should clearly list required or preferred skills, credentials, and experience
  • Throughout the application process, job seekers want to be able to see the status of their application and hear from employers in a timely manner
  • Job seekers want to meet with an internal hiring decision manager, not a third party-recruiter
  • After receiving an offer, job seekers want onboarding instructions

 

Ready for more strategies to help your district stand out?

Check out Frontline Research & Learning Institute’s full research brief, “The State of the Instructional Teacher Shortage”, for up-to-date, data-driven insights that will help prepare school leaders with the information they need to attract quality staff to their district. Download Now

 

This article was originally published on March 12, 2018 and updated on November 8, 2020 for content relevance.

The Impacts of the K-12 Non-Instructional Labor Shortage on Student Success

When you think about the start and end to a student’s day, their first and last interaction with school (in many cases) is the school bus. In fact, according to the American School Bus Council, over 25,000,000 students across the United States rely on school buses to safely transport them to and from school daily.

Of course, this number heavily fluctuated throughout the pandemic as remote and hybrid learning became the norm. But as in-person learning has widely returned in the new school year, the number of school bus drivers across the country has dropped amid nationwide labor shortages of non-instructional K-12 staff.

With that in mind, one very significant question should come front and center: What exactly is the impact of the non-instructional labor shortage on student success?

Focusing in on transportation

Paint an early morning scene. School buses are cruising along from stop to stop, some traveling through rural, isolated areas, some through bustling urban neighborhoods. As the door swings open at each stop, students board the bus and begin their journey to school. But what happens when the bus doesn’t show up at a student’s stop, or arrives 20 minutes past the normal pick-up time? It may not be the first correlation you think of, but transportation has an impact on student success, and the national school bus driver shortage is disrupting student learning in more ways than one.

Let’s look at the numbers surrounding the shortage, as well as the impacts these numbers have on K-12 students.

The shortage

In a recent EdWeek survey, 86% of school and district administrators said they “don’t have enough candidates to fill open bus driver positions” and 79% said there are “fewer applicants for bus driver positions than last year.” This has already created scheduling challenges for many school districts’ transportation departments, leading to a high percentage of altered routes. In fact, the National Association for Pupil Transportation found that 91% of school districts have modified service to elementary schools, 90% to middle schools, and 83% to high schools.

When it comes to the number of openings districts have for bus drivers, the Frontline Research & Learning Institute (FRLI) found a large jump specifically in transportation job postings in 2021. See Chart 1 below.

Chart 1

 

A look across the U.S.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education was forced to step in to address the situation with a joint temporary action with the U.S. Department of Transportation. In various states, school district leaders have tried to alleviate the shortage with hiring incentives or pay raises but are still struggling to fill open positions and scrambling to alter service routes.

  • In Georgia, the Cobb County Board of Education increased bus driver pay by $5.25/hr at the beginning of the school year, but they are still 200 bus drivers short.
  • New Jersey is offering $35/hr, up from $26/hr in 2021, with full individual medical benefits for the first year, but district leaders are still reporting a shortage and fear the situation may not improve.
  • Chicago Public Schools had 400 vacant bus driver positions just four days before school returned.
  • In Texas, Comal ISD implemented several “no service zones” and cut 12-14 routes from service.
  • Massachusetts deployed the national guard to help get their students to school.

The impacts on student learning

When students don’t have access to the transportation they so heavily rely on to get to and from school, a myriad of challenges arise. Though district leaders are doing their best to alleviate the stresses of the national shortage, it’s clear there just aren’t enough bus drivers across the country, and student learning is being interrupted. Here are some of the impacts:

  • Educational inequity. Transportation is an essential component of educational access for disadvantaged students and under-resourced communities. According to the Bureau of Transportation, 70% of low-income families rely on the school bus as means of transportation for their children. What if a student’s delayed drop off gets them to school late and they miss out on the school breakfast program or critical instruction time? What if parents are forced to make alternative arrangements, but don’t have the resources to do so? The impact on educational equity is very real, and many are facing scenarios such as these on a regular basis.
  • Chronic tardiness is linked to student performance. The Department of Education has found that chronic absenteeism may prevent children from reaching early learning milestones and irregular attendance can increase the likelihood of a student dropping out. Ultimately, tardiness shouldn’t be forced upon a student.
  • Irregular or poor sleep patterns may result from altered bus routes or class schedules. If students are waking up early to make it to their bus stop, it can affect mental health and academic performance. The CDC reports early school start times can impact health, academic performance, and quality of life.
  • Extracurriculars are at risk. Getting student athletes to neighboring schools or districts for sports games also appears to be an issue. Some districts may be faced with the unfortunate decision of cancelling games, competitions, and other after-school events that students are involved in.

Focusing on mental health and well-being

Students may see their school bus driver every day, but not every student sees their school counselor every day (or even weekly). But no matter the frequency, both positions have direct impacts on student learning and success. So… what happens when there aren’t enough school counselors or psychologists and how does that gap impact students?

Over the last few years, K-12 students have been experiencing higher rates of anxiety, stress, and depression. These rates have only been exacerbated by the pandemic, and many districts have reported an increase in their students seeking in-school mental health services. However, with the nationwide shortage of school counselors, psychiatrists, and other mental health staff, some students may not be getting the mental health support or wellness guidance they seek.

What do the numbers say?

To outline how widespread and staggering the mental health staff shortage is, let’s analyze the recommended ratios per district compared to the current actual national ratios.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a student-to-school-counselor ratio of 250:1 but the current ratio across the United States is a staggering 464:1. This translates to 8,000,000 students without access to a school counselor.

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) recommends a student-to-school-psychiatrist ratio of 500:1 but the current national ratio is 1211:1, with some states reaching much hire. Maine is the only that meets this ratio.


 

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The impacts on student learning

School counselors and psychiatrists are key to developing a healthy school environment, providing a safe space for learning, and helping students establish greater connections with their peers. So when students don’t have access to these staff members and their services, it’s a risk to both their mental health and their academic success. Like the bus driver shortage, this shortage poses a challenge for educational equity. Check out these facts from the American School Counselor Association:

  • “Black students are more likely than their White peers to identify their school counselor as the person who had the most influence on their thinking about postsecondary education.”
  • “Research links the student-to-school-counselor ratios that meet the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommendation in high-poverty schools to better academic outcomes for students, such as improved attendance, fewer disciplinary incidents, and higher graduation rates.”

What’s behind the non-instructional shortage?

The Frontline Research and Learning Institute (FRLI) recently published a research brief, “The Longitudinal Recruiting and Hiring Landscape for Non-Instructional Education Employees,” that analyzed data from 1,160 public school districts across 48 states. The brief explores the potential causes of the shortage across the country, the supply and demand of non-instructional staff, and how much time non-instructional positions have taken to be filled. The non-instructional job postings are categorized as one of the following: facilities, food services, office support and other administrative roles, outside of school activity programs, security/safety, substitutes, teacher’s assistant/aide, technology services, transportation services, and tutoring. Here is a summary of the key findings for what’s behind the non-instructional shortage:

  • There has been a slight increase in non-instructional job postings.
  • The number of applications per posting has continued to decrease.
  • The decreasing number of applications for open positions results in a reduced pool of qualified candidates.
  • The shortage is due to a supply issue (not enough candidates) rather than a demand issue (employees leaving the position).

What districts can do to combat the shortage

While the non-instructional staff shortage is widespread, there are actionable steps school leaders can take that may help minimize the number of non-instructional open positions. Here are 8 strategies outlined by the Frontline Research & Learning Institute to help navigate the non-instructional staff shortage:

  1. Technology can help expedite the recruiting process and easily post openings.
  2. Don’t wait for job seekers! Proactively reach out to candidates to diversify your pool.
  3. Ask your employees to identify potential non-instructional staff with community outreach.
  4. Make sure your district stands out! Ensure your job postings highlight culture, unique benefits, or professional learning opportunities.
  5. Provide your staff with feedback and support individual growth.
  6. Develop a culture where the voices of non-instructional staff are heard.
  7. Reduce friction for candidates and improve the efficiency of your processes.
  8. Frequently communicate and engage with potential candidates.

Frontline Recruiting & Hiring can help districts ensure that open non-instructional positions are being filled in a timely manner. With Frontline’s job board, K12JobSpot, your district can easily reach thousands of non-instructional candidates across the country. Are you ready to combat the non-instructional staff shortage to ensure student success and wellbeing? You can learn more about Frontline Recruiting & Hiring here.

Interested in more on the non-instructional labor shortage?

Check out Frontline Research & Learning Institute’s full research brief, “The Longitudinal Recruiting and Hiring Landscape for Non-Instructional Education Employees,” for an in-depth look into the data and more recommendations to help fill these positions.
Download Now

 

Front & Center: Michele Trongaard

If you don’t work in the field of school business in Texas, it’s understandable that you might not know who our guest today is. But within the Lone Star State, inside school business offices, her credentials and experience speak for themselves, and she was kind enough to share some of her thoughts for our “Front & Center” series, in which we highlight school administration rock stars and the work they’re doing.

Michele Trongaard is the Associate Superintendent of Business and Finance at Mansfield ISD. After working in the corporate accounting world, she is now beginning her 20th year in public education. Here are just a few of the notable moments in her career:

  • Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Registered Texas School Business Administrator (RTSBA), and an Administrator in School Finance and Operations (SFO)
  • Bachelor’s in Accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas, and Master’s degree from Concordia University in School Finance and Operations
  • President of the Texas Association of School Business Officials in 2020
  • Pilot member of the Government Finance Officers Assocation’s Alliance for Excellence in School District Budgeting
  • Recipient of the Association of School Business Officials’ 2019 Pinnacle Achievement Award for School Business Innovation
  • One of the first in Texas to use Frontline Education’s Analytics suite (formerly known as Forecast5)

Michele is married to Jeff with a blended family of six children whose occupations include Membership Coordinator for nationwide sonographers, medical dosimetrist, computer software engineer at Microsoft, IB 3-D Art teacher at Uplift Education in Dallas, one pursuing animal research while working on her masters, and one in her last year of nursing school at the University of Texas at Arlington. She’s excited to become a grandma in December, and with another grandchild on the way in March! Besides being with her family, her favorite things to do are traveling, hiking, teaching and reading.

What was your first job in education?

My very first job in public education began in 2003 as an Accountant for Wylie ISD, located in a fast-growing suburb of Dallas, Texas. I served in the roles of Payroll and Benefits Manager, Director of Finance, and Chief Financial Officer, and now am Associate Superintendent of Finance and Operations. I’m that annoying one that has always asked questions about why something was done a certain way. Now, I can give back by answering those questions others are asking.

If you could give any advice to yourself at the beginning of your career, what would it be?

Listen more and talk less!

What is one skill every CFO in K-12 should have?

Hire the right people! I could not do my job without having the right team in the right place. I have been fortunate to hire some extremely talented people.

What is the value of seeking a mentor as a school district CFO or Business department leader? Who have been your mentors over the years?

Seeking a mentor is an absolute must in the school business official’s world. I have been grateful to connect with many other peers through the Texas Association of School Business Officials’ training and community forums that allow me to run ideas and collaborate to find the best solutions. My mentors have included Dr. Kimberley Cantu, Dr. Sean Scott, Donald Williams, Jeff Brogden, David Wright, Jennifer Young, Dr. Jennifer Stoecker, Dr. Jeannie Stone, Karen Smith, Randy McDowell, David Pate, Dr. David Vinson, Dr. Kim Spicer, Mr. Scott Winn, Amy Boerner, Brian Miller, Omar Garcia, Amanda Brownson, Janèt Spurgeon, Dr. Karen Wiesman, Dr. Tracy Ginsburg, Becky Bunte, David Marx, Elaine Cogburn, Jennifer Land, Shay Adams, Dr. Jennifer DuPlessis, Brent Ringo, Byron Bryant, Darrell Dodds, Brian Carter, Scott Wreher, Robb Welch, Katie Bowman, Brenda Mize, Diana Sircar, Kimberly Smith, Julie Novak, Monica Irvin, Ed Harper, Sheryl Moulden, Lindy Finley, Wes Eversole, Brenda Richmond, Kelly Penny, Bill Sutter, Claire Hertz, Carol MacLeod, Matt Bubness, Shayne Kavanagh, John Hutchison, Travis Zander… gosh, I think I could keep on going for hours and I’m sure I’ve left several off.

How does using data and analytics help you plan for and address challenges in your school district?

Using data and analytics helps to ensure I am maximizing our funds while being a good steward of our taxpayer dollars. Not only does it help monitor by function and object code, it can identify the outliers when benchmarking with peer districts as well as projections for the current fiscal year and budget planning. An outstanding feature when I teach with Travis Zander from Frontline Education is sharing their State of the District story and Economic Profile. Having those discussions about what makes up those numbers, and knowing if it is something the district should look into, is priceless. It tells their own story — and no two stories are exactly alike!

What is the best creative idea you have had as a CFO that has made a difference in your role?

Getting out from behind my desk and visiting principals at campuses! Sharing specific data analytic reports in Comparative Analytics from enrollment history, test scores with cost per student grid amongst their peers, and budget by object code over the years is extremely valuable. Having that dialogue about finance and academics to see if there are any concerns and what support is needed, along with building those relationships, has been one of my best strategies as a CFO.

What will change most in education over the next 10 years?

Innovation! Without a doubt, technology will change and continue to change how we all learn and operate as a school district. I always think of the Jetsons when thinking about the future. Does that mean a student will be able to push a button in the cafeteria and have the food just appear? Hopefully, they’ll still receive a smile in the delivery of that food that our Student Nutrition staff does.

What are you most hopeful about for the future of education?

That our future generations will learn faster than us and be the ones to take care of us. They will find those solutions that are still missing: a cure for cancer, addressing climate change, tackling mental health problems, and making the world a peaceful place for all.

Advisor Spotlight: Dr. CyLynn Braswell

Of the things we’re most grateful for at Frontline, at the top of the list is the chance to come alongside school districts in their work to provide the best educational opportunities for every student.

One way we do this is with our team of Advisors. These talented folks, many of whom have years or even decades of real-world experience working in school districts, are uniquely qualified to help districts solve modern problems.

Dr. CyLynn Braswell is a student data guru with over two decades of experience in the field. In this video, she talks about her love for data and analytics, along with some of her favorite stories from Frontline clients.

Check out our spotlight with CyLynn below.


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Front & Center: Superintendent James Craig

Our formative years in school look different from person to person, but one thing is true for all of us: we owe a hard-to-quantify debt to the people who work in education. For most of us, teachers immediately spring to mind — and rightly so! Yet countless others also work to make sure schools can operate. In this series, we’re highlighting some of these everyday superheroes and asking them to share their expertise.

James Craig is in his fourth year as the superintendent at Sibley-Ocheyedan Community Schools in Sibley, Iowa. This year marks his 25th year in education. With a background in music education, he also served for four years as a principal at Southwest Valley High School in Corning, Iowa. Married with three kids, he is also a volunteer church musician, a member of the Rotary and the Sibley Chamber, and enjoys golf and community service.

What was your first job in education?

My first position was elementary and high school band at North Kossuth CSD in Swea City, Bancroft and Ledyard, IA. It was a unique situation to follow Miss Kaufman, who had had a successful program, especially in marching band. The color guard instructor, Betty Lou, trained me more than anyone else in how to relate to students, work with others on a team, and work through conflict.

I learned a great deal from each of the positions I served in, met my wife while working at Orient-Macksburg, and developed my leadership skills at Nodaway Valley. I coached play and speech, was webmaster, and served as activities director. This experience allowed me to see several different aspects of how things worked outside my classroom.

At Nodaway Valley, I was a member of the curriculum lead team and worked with teams of teachers to learn, implement, and evaluate our professional development. It was at NV that I was encouraged by a principal to go after my master’s in educational leadership. I had never thought about being an administrator up to that point, but after the first class in the cohort I was hooked.

Southwest Valley High School (Corning, IA) hired me to be their principal in 2015. I was excited to take my leadership skills out of just my classroom or just my small teacher group and work with staff and students at the building level. During this time, I did a lot of the same things that I did in the classroom more extensively. I led professional development, worked with teacher groups and a curriculum lead team, and worked to develop a building climate where staff and students felt safe and supported. This work at the building level fueled my desire to reach out to bigger and bigger groups of people. Working toward a superintendent certification seemed like a natural step in the progression and achieving this position has started to fill my bucket for professional needs. It is a thrill to come to work every day to work on building a destination district for our stakeholders and communities.

If you could give any advice to yourself at the beginning of your career, what would it be?

Build relationships first. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. All the clichés. 😁 Seriously, making sure people know you are seeking out authentic communication and intently listening to those you meet are two of the most important things, even before content knowledge and teaching techniques in most cases.

Avoid acting like you know everything. Go back to relationships. Make connections with other employees in the building, including secretaries, custodians, and other staff. Support the other things going on in the school, not just what happens in your own classroom. Be a good team member and student advocate.

Ask questions. Any administrator I’ve ever had has wanted me to ask questions instead of messing up something important right away or just not doing it at all because I didn’t know what to do. As a music teacher, I had to know about registration dates, membership fees, purchase orders, where to look for money and who to ask for it. Ask questions, and ask again. We have great mentoring setups now with mentor/mentee programs and TLC support positions – when I started it was just the principal. It’s scary to develop a supportive relationship with the person that is evaluating you. Now you have a mentor, a buddy or instructional coach, department colleagues, veteran teachers who just know the ropes…new teachers have a team that can include the principal, which gives so many more options for collaboration and collegiality.

What is one skill every superintendent should have?

One of my favorite quotes is from President Eisenhower, who is credited with saying, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

That may seem somewhat manipulative, but I prefer to think of it as a negotiating skill. You have to be able to argue both sides of a situation, then advocate for the side you believe is the right solution for your students. I believe every superintendent should be able to have a conversation with someone that disagrees with them and come out in agreement for the best solution in the end. When you are trying to implement an initiative, you have to be able to get buy-in and see the project through.

What was your biggest “win” over the last year, and how did you achieve it?

My biggest win was getting a new pay structure approved for teachers, providing equal raises for all teachers instead of a stepladder format that rewarded new teachers and discouraged veteran teachers. There is now a negotiated amount that teachers receive, and a bonus for those teachers who have already completed their master’s. We also eliminated lanes and consolidated lane increases to reward teachers sooner for working toward their master’s degree. The plan is also forecasted to be more cost-effective for the school district than a stepladder pay scale. When it’s a win for everyone, it’s a big win.

How does using data and analytics help you plan for and address challenges in your school district?

I appreciate the ability to show my board finance team what happens to our unspent balance when we spend different funds and talk about negotiations. I can show what will happen based on our projected revenues and expenditures, and a more realistic scenario with projected unspent balance carryover. As a newer superintendent, [Frontline Analytics] has helped me learn about school finance and feel confident in our financial position. What should have been the most difficult thing about transitioning to the superintendency has been one of the most successful parts of my term!

What is the best creative idea you have had as a superintendent that has made a difference in your role?

My superintendent’s vlog gets me into classrooms and around the district more than I might be without this tool. This is the fourth season of the vlog, with over 100 episodes in publication so far on YouTube. I interview new teachers, students, and guests, as well as provide pictures and updates on what is going on in the district. I can take the pictures and videos, upload to my computer, then do the “anchoring” from the desk in my office. Not only has it been a good communication tool between the district and our stakeholders, but as I mentioned before, I get into classrooms more frequently and with deeper intent than if I just stopped in to say hello.

I also played Santa. That was pretty fun. I don’t sing like the one superintendent who has a new song for each of his weather announcements. Me before coffee isn’t very entertaining.

What will change most in education over the next 10 years?

At the state and national level, public education is going through a transformation — the most significant one I’ve seen in my 25 years in education. We have so many virtual distance education opportunities now that I think a completely online school on a local level will not be out of the question. I’m sad to see this become a reality, as there is no substitute for a quality parent-teacher-student relationship and society doesn’t know how to create that relationship on the other side of a screen.

What are you most hopeful about for the future of education?

Our students at Sibley-Ocheyedan have survived the effects of the pandemic and are on the other side with little to no loss of learning. Our teachers, support staff and administrators have worked tirelessly to get through the toughest time in education any of them have experienced to date. Now that the pandemic is behind us, I am hopeful we can get back to education, back to increasing student achievement, and back to a culture that supports and holds up our public education system.

Preparing Substitutes for the Classroom

It’s a story familiar to many school leaders: teachers are absent, and there aren’t enough substitute teachers to meet the need. Classes are combined, other teachers give up their planning periods, and paraprofessionals or administrators are compelled to fill in. In any case, student learning is derailed, and other staff lose valuable time to plan and complete their own work. It’s not sustainable. Before the pandemic further exacerbated the substitute shortage, over 4 million teacher absences went unfilled nationally. That means more than one in every five teacher absences had no substitute. This translates to about 250,000,000 days of individual student learning that were disrupted — in less than a single school year.

What can state education leaders do to ease the substitute teacher shortage burden? Some states have recently addressed their substitute teacher shortage with legislative changes, a modification to substitute teacher licensing requirements, and a partnership with Frontline.

That partnership has resulted in over 4,000 new substitutes who are eligible to work in the classroom. But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let’s dig into how we got here.

Barriers to Entry

To exacerbate the teacher shortage, many schools face a substitute shortage, too. While it’s crucial that substitutes are qualified to be in the classroom, aspiring substitutes face extensive state requirements, creating a significant barrier to entry. To apply for a substitute teaching license, state laws require an individual to complete anywhere from 24 to 60 semester hours (or more) of college-level credit. However, these requirements don’t always specify the type of coursework needed to fulfill credit hours, meaning there’s no guarantee that the substitutes meeting those state requirements have taken relevant coursework. In Illinois, the state requirement for a short-term substitute license is 60 credit hours. This requirement may serve as a barrier to entry for many individuals because according to a recent survey conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents (IARSS), 96% of school districts have cited a scarcity of substitute teachers and 90% reported the substitute shortage continues to get worse.

So how can school districts overcome these barriers to entry for future substitutes to ensure student learning goes uninterrupted?

Fast Fact: According to a recent EdWeek survey, 77% of school district
leaders across the nation reported difficulties in hiring enough substitutes.

Enhancing Accessibility for Substitutes

For the states who chose to partner with Frontline to address this national problem, the first step was to make substitute certification more accessible. Some state leaders have passed an amendment and emergency rule to approve an alternative route to become a substitute teacher through completion of a training course.

To ensure the training was high-quality, these school boards developed a rubric to determine the criteria and then sought out a partner to provide the training content. Frontline Education is a partner that offers individuals the ability to obtain their certification to become a substitute teacher in select states through completing Frontline Substitute Teacher Training, as approved by the state departments.

The training consists of twelve comprehensive online courses specifically designed for substitute teachers. Each course aligns to teaching standards and covers topics such as classroom management, instructional strategies, and supporting students with special needs. Upon completion, individuals receive a Frontline Certificate of Completion demonstrating their readiness to obtain a substitute teacher license. Not only will substitutes have the confidence of knowing they’re prepared to enter the classroom, but districts will also have the assurance that the most qualified substitutes are filling teacher absences.

Frontline Substitute Teacher Training’s self-paced courses cover the following topics:
  • Leadership
  • Working with At-Risk Students
  • Professionalism & Ethics
  • Diversity Awareness
  • Legal Obligations
  • Classroom Management
  • Instructional Strategies
  • Working with Students with Special Needs
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The Results

In the first six months, over 4,000 individuals enrolled in the Frontline Substitute Teacher Training, adding 4,000 educators to the eligible substitute teacher pool. Performance scores for substitutes, determined by ratings from the classroom teacher, show no difference between the traditional and alternative certification pathways. Providing consistent training to all incoming substitute teachers ensures substitutes have the skills they need to be successful. In turn, school and district leaders have the confidence of knowing the individuals that staff their classrooms are qualified, and students have a prepared substitute teacher — so their learning continues uninterrupted even when their teacher is absent.

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A Small (Yet Powerful) Tool for Consistency of Care in Your District

When you think about templates, you might not imagine the most exciting work. Even the word “template” feels a little dry. And because templates are all about making processes universal, you might not imagine individualized care.

And yet, templates are a way to empower school health professionals to focus less on paperwork, and more on students, something that benefits both the provider and the patient. So yes, it is totally reasonable to get excited about templates.

“Yes, it is totally reasonable to get excited about health templates. And here’s why. #schoolhealth #schoolnurse”

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Student Mental Health in Crisis: Are Schools Ready?

We spoke with ten people on the front lines of education and asked them what the future holds.
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Districts are facing countless challenges everyday: Student mental health is in crisis, there’s an ongoing school nurse shortage, and schools are being asked to provide greater care for students. According to a survey from the National Education Association, “90% of [teachers] say feeling burned out is a serious problem.” That statistic might not feel new to you, but you might have assumptions about teachers’ ideas for addressing that burnout. Interestingly, two top ways teachers suggested to address educator burnout were providing mental health support and eliminating paperwork with 94% and 90% support respectively.

Burnout is a challenge that so many working people face, for all kinds of reasons. And that diversity of reasons makes it challenging to tackle. There’s no magic cure or easy way to make the problem disappear.

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But rather than feeling overwhelmed by the challenge ahead, let’s flip the script. Let’s make incremental positive changes that add up over time for your staff and providers.

Templates, specifically those you’ll find in an electronic health records system, offer an opportunity to cut down on unnecessary paperwork for providers while making the necessary forms (and the providers who fill them out) more effective.

Accurate documentation is foundational to a school nurse’s success, and with so much on school nurses’ plates, templates purpose-built for K-12 school nursing can go a long way in making their day-to-day work lives better.

So how do templates relate to consistency of care?

To achieve consistency of care, you’ll need effective communication, collaboration, and coordination. And, as you might have guessed, templates can help you with each of those areas.

“Templates, specifically those you’ll find in an electronic health records system, offer an opportunity to cut down on unnecessary paperwork for providers while making the necessary forms (and the providers who fill them out) more effective.”

Communication

Let’s explore the idea of communication from two different perspectives, based on the student’s needs, and how templates can impact the student’s care.
A Student Returning from a Residential Treatment Center

If a student has spent time in a residential treatment center, they’ll enter their school with a detailed plan of care. It’s entirely possible — and even likely — that a host of educators, providers, and health professionals will be responsible to carry out that plan at the school.

Of course, documenting those encounters will make supporting that student even more effective, allowing the team to communicate about the support the student is receiving.

Without operational definitions to keep everyone on the same page, students’ behaviors and conditions could be described differently based on the person they saw last.

For this student, templates can help ensure that no step in their care plan is missed. Templates also help the district with state reporting so that providers don’t have to keep a mental checklist of what to include in session notes.

A Student with Diabetes

If a student has a medical condition like diabetes, templates are helpful to their providers, too.

Whether it’s documenting a quick encounter in the nurse’s office or pulling up medication history for the student, it’s crucial to be able to locate historical data for the child quickly.

When every encounter is documented in the same way, it’s much easier — and faster — to absorb that information and be able to act accordingly.

And templates are designed to do exactly that: make it easy to document encounters in the same format every time the child is seen, so even if you have a substitute nurse for the day, they’ll be better prepared to offer quality care to the child.

School health providers communicate with so many stakeholders on any given day. Communicating with parents and guardians is central to that work. Utilizing templates and having an easy, secure way to share them with a child’s caretakers helps build positive relationships.

Clarity is intricately linked to communication, and if you’ve read any Brené Brown, you’ve likely heard or seen the phrase “clear is kind.” Templates, in all their simple glory, are clear. Templates, in their own special (and sometimes dry) way, are kind.

Health templates, in all their simple glory, are clear. Templates, in their own special way, are kind. #schoolhealth #schoolnurse

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Collaboration

Although we’re moving on to collaboration, we’re not necessarily moving away from communication, because communication is so integral to effective collaboration. Take interpretation, for instance.

Interpretation is on the flip side of documentation. If a student is seeing multiple specialists in a school, each specialist might be in a situation where they are interpreting the documentation from another specialist’s encounter with that student. Or, thinking about a substitute nurse, they might be in a situation where they are scanning a student’s record before prescribing medication.

Templates can help create clarity around health protocols, vital information, and trends to ensure that no matter the number of specialists involved in a student’s care, everyone is set up for success to better support that student.

Collaboration also happens internally in the district, especially when you consider the Medicaid billing process. Your templates should provide direction around the kinds of information needed to submit claims to Medicaid. And if you’re planning to take advantage of something like school-based Medicaid expansion through Free Care, you’re going to need detailed plans of care to support claims.

For some students, the school nurse is the only health professional they will see over the course of a year. According to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, “more than one in ten (10.2%) uninsured children went without needed care due to cost in 2019 compared to less than 1% of children with private insurance. Furthermore, one in five (20.0%) uninsured children had not seen a doctor in the past year compared to 3.5% for both children with public and private coverage.” If your district has a higher population of uninsured students, your school nurses and other health professionals may experience greater pressure. Reducing paperwork is one simple way to reduce the pressure on these vital members of your school community.

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Coordination

Both of our first areas of focus — communication and collaboration — are required for excellent coordination. When you have a plan of care, something you might see with students coming from residential treatment centers, you might notice that those plans are not always supported in your SIS. Especially when you’re dealing with sensitive counseling session information, your SIS might not be equipped to handle the nuance needed for mental and behavioral health plans.

So even if your SIS does offer templates as part of a health module, they might not be sufficient depending on your district’s needs.

With the ongoing staffing shortage, your students may encounter different educators who have different specialties. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) recommends a ratio of 1 school psychologist per 500 students. In contrast, the current NASP data estimates an actual ratio of 1 per 1,211 students on average. That means that multiple people of varying experience levels will likely be supporting students, and supporting students’ health might not be their primary role in the school. That makes it all the more important that they are equipped with easy ways to document their encounters thoroughly to maintain compliance.

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Of course, your district’s experience might be entirely different. If you’re in a larger district, you might be facing the challenges associated with running your own clinics and having more people involved at different stages of each process. Data integrity and uniformity can become crucial in those instances. Conversely, in a small district, you might have one person responsible for a wide array of processes, meaning they’d benefit from shortcuts that don’t negatively impact the care they offer to students. No matter the size of your district, whether you’re an urban or rural school, or the unique challenges you face, your goal is to provide every student with consistent care. Templates can make it easier to achieve that goal.

How you can support consistency of care

As you might have guessed, we’re fans of templates as a way to support consistency of care for a few reasons:

  1. They make health providers’ jobs easier
  2. They help your district maintain compliance
  3. They save time for both providers and administrators
  4. They help providers offer excellent care to students

Those are just a few reasons to consider implementing templates if you haven’t already. And if you have already implemented templates, don’t forget to take a look at all of the ways you can use them. If you use a system like Frontline School Health Management, you’ll find so many wonderful uses.

Frontline School Health Management has so many wonderful features, and templates are just the beginning. You can learn more about Frontline School Health Management here.

3 Ways to Demystify Benefits Open Enrollment

Every year, benefits season rolls around. And every year, HR departments rev up their engines and kick into high gear to prepare their districts for open enrollment. Though the specific timeframe for enrollment may vary by state, the amount of hard work and preparation that goes into it does not.

But when it comes to navigating benefits, sometimes it feels like wandering through a thick layer of fog with no clear path to take. From insurance jargon to sorting through stacks of paperwork, benefits enrollment can leave employees feeling dazed and confused. The process is complex and complicated for all parties involved, so it’s no surprise that benefit literacy is generally low. According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), nearly half of employees in the United States don’t understand their benefits.

A closer look into benefit literacy:

Source: Voya Financial Consumer Survey

With that statistic in mind, it’s important to ask: how can school districts relieve the confusion their employees face and the arduous tasks their HR teams tackle during benefit season?

One district, Spring Grove Area School District, automated their processes into one system to make benefits open enrollment a whole lot simpler for their employees. One teacher described the new process as “settling for my brain, my heart, and my wallet.” How can you do the same for your teachers?

Communicate Clearly, Concisely, and Creatively

Employees need a detailed understanding of what benefits they’re choosing to feel secure and calm about the process. To make selections that suit their personal and familial needs best, they’ll need information and support. Think about the “three c’s” as you prepare to communicate effectively with your staff:

  • Be clear: Insurance jargon is confusing. What’s an out-of-pocket maximum? What does HSA-eligible even mean? Remove ambiguity wherever you can. Speak and write in the simplest of terms.
  • Be concise: If your staff receives a massive benefit handbook, will they actually read it? Keep it simple, keep it short, and if you need to share a long document, find a way to review it in simple terms.
  • Be creative: Don’t be afraid to mix up your delivery methods. Every individual has a different learning style. Cover all the bases by offering multimodal and multi-channel communications — varying your methods will increase engagement.

Offer Support Beyond the Open Enrollment Period

Open enrollment may be seasonal, but benefits sure aren’t — it’s crucial to keep the conversation going all year long. In doing so, districts can help their employees stay engaged with their benefits, understand how their annual plan works, and better prepare them for the next open enrollment season.

And when it comes to qualifying life events, employees need easily-accessible support at any given time. By offering year-round support, employees will know exactly where to turn, and frustrating scenarios like this can be avoided all together. Throughout the year:

  • Create a 12-month communication calendar: This is a great opportunity to visually outline what conversation is the most valuable to your employees each month. Perhaps it’s a back-to-school annual physical reminder or a telehealth information session information session during flu season.
  • Promote a wellness campaign: Get your staff on a health kick with events like a nutritional challenge, an employee field day, or a meditation-station.
  • Get feedback: Generate a survey and ask your employees what’s working well vs. what’s not. Do they want more creative resources? Do they want monthly reminders on how their benefit plan actually works?
  • Send reminders throughout the year: If health care plans offer free preventative care such as vaccines, screenings, checkups, nurse resources, health tools, and other options even before they meet their deductible, schedule regular communications reminding employees to get the most from their benefits.

Hand-picked content for you:

Are you ready to evaluate your benefits enrollment process and highlight areas for improvement?

Download the Workbook

Ditch Paper — Go Digital

If your open enrollment season is still a series of manual processes, your HR team might:

  • Find it hard to locate records
  • Struggle to read illegible handwriting on forms
  • Waste time updating inaccurate employee information,
  • Face redundant data entry

Not only that, but stacks of paperwork can often feel daunting and even tamper the enrollment experience for new hires. So it’s time to reflect on a few questions:

  1. How much time does your team spend transcribing written data?
  2. How many pages is your employee benefits packet?
  3. How long do you spend tracking down or updating employee information?

Are your answers a little (or a lot) higher than you would like them to be? If so, it’s probably time to ditch the paper. When you make the switch to a digital benefits process, your district will cut costs and save time, and employees will have a fuller understanding of benefits enrollment.

Benefits of Going Digital:

  • With self-enrollment, employees can make their own benefits decisions
  • The employee experience is improved through increased flexibility
  • HR teams can provide a greater level of support to their employees
  • Countless trees are saved through more sustainable processes

Do More With Frontline HRMS

Are you ready to start your journey toward demystifying benefits enrollment in your district? Frontline HRMS can help.

With Frontline, staff will be able to digitally…

  • Select and enroll in benefits packages
  • Adjust life/qualifying events as situations change
  • Change contact information with the click of a button
  • Access pertinent information pertaining to individual plans

Learn more about benefits management with Frontline HRMS.

“Trying to manage benefits without a system is, very honestly, impossible. [With a system] you can keep track of information, put the decision-making in the hands of the employees, allow them to make their own selections, and produce the information about those selections to various vendors to update the plan selection.”

Angie Doll
Director of Human Resources

Erin Shelton

Erin is a writer and member of the award-winning content team at Frontline Education. With experience in education, she is passionate about creating content that helps to support and impact the growth of both students and teachers.