A Buyer’s Guide to K-12 Service Tracking Systems

How can a service tracking system help me with progress monitoring?

Not only is progress monitoring crucial in understanding students’ performance over time, it is also a critical piece for district compliance. In the past, progress monitoring was an entirely manual process, and that meant it was slow, labor-intensive, and error-prone. Of course, special educators face pressures that add up, so it’s rare that any one teacher would have the kind of time that manual progress monitoring requires.

Using a service tracking system can help make progress monitoring easier…and even automate the entire process.

As you evaluate potential systems, look for the ability to generate quick, accurate progress monitoring without duplicate data entry. Those reports should capture the tools, strategies, and assistance levels used to work toward each goal.

The software you choose should make it easy to automate and streamline progress monitoring across your entire district, too, making it easy to look at district trends over time.

Tip: To ensure that services can be monitored for progress in a meaningful way, make sure that services documented in the IEP are specific, clear, measurable, and time-bound.

How can a service tracking system help administrators succeed?

Compliance

In your role, compliance might be the most critical part of your job. Have you been keeping your district compliant in spite of the tools you use? If so, kudos to you! But also, yikes! You should have tools and systems that support you.

Frontline’s service tracking software proactively monitors IDEA compliance and gives you instant access to the data you need in event of an audit.

Easier Mondays (and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, too)

With the right software, you’ll gain visibility into providers’ time. That’s important so that you can understand your resource needs and make sure you’re appropriately staffed across campuses. And depending on the system you choose, you may have access to time spent outside service delivery, complete with dashboards with a birds-eye view.

Additionally, you shouldn’t have to micromanage your providers or their supervisors, but with the stakes so high, you need to feel confident that services are being documented properly across your district. That’s why Frontline’s system features alerts for documentation lag time (at the provider, student, or IEP service mandate level), or percentage of compliance with an IEP mandate. With proactive alerts to warn providers and the appropriate supervisory personnel of potential service delivery or documentation issues, you’ll know that no students are being overlooked.

How can a service tracking system help me support service providers?

This probably sounds almost too obvious, but providers are critical to your student support. Attracting and keeping your best providers can make everything feel easier. Getting the right system can go a long way in making service providers not only feel valued, but also make it easier and faster for them to document services in a compliant, Medicaid-ready way. Let’s dive into a few ways the right system can make that happen.

Data Collection

Data collection should feel like a natural part of a provider’s workflow, but if they’re working manually, they could be duplicating efforts as they take notes during a service and then repeat that documentation in a system later.

When you’re looking at potential vendors, a solid service tracking system should offer functional data collection for both academic and functional interventions.

Insights into the Day-to-Day

Both administrators and providers can benefit from the kinds of dashboards and reporting you get with a service tracking system. Depending on the system you choose, you may be able to get at-a-glance information action items such as past-due or rejected services, both of which can directly impact your Medicaid reimbursement. You can also see how many days have passed since the last service was delivered, which can give you as an administrator a better grasp of which providers are most active.

And of course, you need access to compliance related reports, so you’ll want to make sure your chosen vendor offers something like a service line compliance report.

Where Their Effort Goes Matters

The more time your providers are spending rekeying the same information into multiple places, the less time they have in their day to focus on students, so it’s critical that they’re able to spend their time wisely.

A great service tracking system can eliminate some redundant tasks for providers. For example, in a group session, a service provider shouldn’t have to document the session for each student. But they should have the ability to document in bulk and then go back in and edit an individual’s record as needed.

Additionally, a system like Frontline’s Service Tracking software offers simple, yet powerful time-saving features such as…

• Predictive type
• Pre-populated fields
• Copy and paste features for calendars
• Instant access to action items and helpful information from a provider’s homepage — think pending approvals, pending evaluations, expired service lines, and past due services
• The ability to export their schedule to their calendar, retaining the quick links embedded into each event so that they can even document a session within the application

What kinds of features should I look for in a service tracking system?

Getting a system made for K-12 is so important when you’re looking for a service tracking system. That’s because tracking services has a direct impact on your district’s Medicaid revenue, and if you choose a generic system, you could be leaving money on the table…or on the bus, if your system doesn’t track transportation services.

A robust, made-for-K-12 system will track transportation, personal care, and paraprofessional services to give you a full picture of student services at your fingertips.

As you know, service tracking is foundational to the Medicaid billing process, and that means your service tracking system is only as good as the claims the software helps you submit. They should be audit-proof, and should give you the data you need to back you up.