OnBase by Hyland is an enterprise content management platform with business process and case management capabilities. It is modular by design and allows users to tailor the solution to their specific requirements.
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PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs
Score 8.0 out of 10
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PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs (Special Education) covers all areas of education including 504 processes, services capture for Medicaid billing, special education case management, gifted and talented, English language learners, and Response to Intervention (RTI). It is a comprehensive system that combines case management with tracking clinical services to ensure the delivery of IEPs and alignment of IEPs to state and local goals. The system is designed to support districts in…
OnBase is a content services solution for organizations that need high visibility to documents or information across multiple teams or departments. It supports users' access control, workflow functionality with transaction history, electronic document retention, and destruction documentation. Hyland can support the organization for implementations or solutions, or the organization can utilize the education services and build out the solution themselves.
PowerSchool Special Education is well suited in one specific area: special education in elementary, middle and high schools. It works here due to the nature of the platform, which focuses on meeting the needs of students with all disabilities. The software offers information on specific cases, students, as well as Academics. This supports the mission of supporting all students and making it easier for educators, parents, and administration to be more heavily involved in tracking, monitoring and supporting students. When using PowerSchool Special Education, it simplifies the IEP process. Collaboration is one of the best abilities the software provides. There is a need to track program eligibility, including 501 accommodations and Title 1, and in a school with such a large population, the functionality that this software offers to users is important.
It provides all the documents necessary for supporting federal and state laws in regards to the special education program.
Extremely effective in helping to meet reporting standards for students. Teachers that fall behind on deadlines or timelines are given reminders and provided with processes to monitor progress and reporting.
Case management is easy, which leads to 100% compliance. This is important because the best strength is that this platform helps to increase funding by meeting all requirements of the Fed and State.
An additional strength is the collaborative potential it offers. The platform offers student portals to let staff access all resources on demand.
I personally find the user inferface to be obnoxious and obtuse.
When we have issues it is often hard to resolve the problem as there are many variables such as file types, DPI, and scanner setting that combine to make it hard to pinpoint trouble spots.
The upgrade process has always been a nightmare for our team. We are not on the latest version now due to this issue.
In terms of improvement, the interface is extremely ugly and simple in design, color and icon design. The platform needs to have a much more interactive and appealing interface so that use is more comfortable.
For parents, their side of the platform has a lot of options. That needs to be simplified. I think less and more drop downs within the key menus would help.
The disability codes are very lengthy. Perhaps there are easier or faster ways to access subsections to select.
OnBase has become a core part of our enterprise solutions toolkit due to its ever-growing integration capabilities. Any business process that produces or tracks documents or object entities can be modeled and managed within OnBase and used to supplement almost any line-of-business system that we use.
You get out of something what you put into it. You reap what you sow! If an organization will spend time setting the solution up, dedicating staff to its development and ongoing support, and always keep the end-user in mind during development, you will have one of the most well-received solutions in your organization. So many organizations that I speak with stand up a solution but don't commit someone to its upkeep and development. It is vital that you have the staff to work within the solution on a daily basis.
This rating is a compromise because I technically have 2 tiers of support. I go through a re-seller that I give a (10). I send an email and receive acknowledgment within minutes. For the few times we need to contact Hyland for assistance, it sometimes takes a couple of days to receive a response - and then the first tier might go back and forth a dozen times through email instead of initiating a phone call. And for an advanced issue, they take too long before they forward to an evangelist or someone more knowledgeable that is able to assist. I give that process an (8).
The trainer was very knowledgeable and was a Hyland employee. The training was at their corporate headquarters, so it allowed our team to become familiar with organization and culture.
Using Hyland professional services to assist with the implementation made things much easier. They have the knowledge and experience to get the system live as users are expecting
The version of SharePoint we were utilizing was not very practical. We oftentimes had issues with archived documents, where they could be found or opening them all together. It seemed the older the document the harder it was to access when logged into SharePoint. This is critical in our business as we need to behave full access to documentation sent and received for an owner's account.
There is no other software on the market that is specifically focused on improving the support of special education programs. PowerSchool Special Education system has a similar interface and structure that Moodle Rooms offer; however, Moodle Rooms is for content management and student management. PowerSchool Special Education is not related to course curriculum management, it is primarily focused on special education programs. Managing special education programs can be very difficult and stressful. It is impossible to successfully comply and healthily support a special education program without tools such as PowerSchool Special Education. Even more important than what other software does do for schools and educators, this platform makes it more convenient for families. Electronic forms and parent portals make processes easier.
OnBase provides a very reliable ECM platform for the company.
OnBase helped to remove the dependency on paper files and file folders. This saved real estate cost as well as facilitated the ability to work from anywhere.
OnBase made same day processing of all incoming and outgoing documents a reality.
There is also a positive impact on ROI for the school. Utilizing this software provides the school with the ability to increase the potential it receives in Title 1 funding. Title 1 funding is a major source of funding for inner-city schools in particular.
Normally, the IEP and tracking process is lengthy, filled with paper, and often takes more time than necessary. Utilizing this software speeds up the process and provides clear requirements to be met, which reduces the number of questions and confusing meetings or papers left in teacher mailboxes.
I have not experienced a negative return on investment with the software, because, without it, the paper trail would be too lengthy and the process would be much more convoluted, with long meetings, long sheets of paperwork, and missed deadlines due to a lack of clear collaboration.
