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PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs

PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs

Overview

What is PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs?

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…

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Special Programs, although having a complex interface and not being user-friendly, has various use cases that aim to improve the …
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What is PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs?

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…

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  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Details

What is PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs?

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 meeting results-driven accountability requirements. The vendor says that in turn, this can positively impact student education and growth.

PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs Features

  • Supported: IEP
  • Supported: Response to Intervention

PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs Screenshots

Screenshot of IEP Progress reportScreenshot of IEP considerations

PowerSchool Unified Classroom Special Programs Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android
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Reviews and Ratings

(5)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Special Programs, although having a complex interface and not being user-friendly, has various use cases that aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of schools and educational institutions. PowerSchool, the parent company of Special Programs, offers a convenient portal for accessing attendance and grading information in one place, helping teachers with lesson plans and creating assignments. It allows for easy access and data analysis across multiple platforms. The Groups feature simplifies grading by displaying all students in one grade at a time. Additionally, PowerSchool eliminates the need for manual paper attendance reports by allowing digital attendance tracking, maintaining accurate attendance and grading records for students.

PowerSchool also facilitates quick communication between parents and teachers, reducing the need for phone calls or visits to the school. Parents can conveniently review daily assignments through the platform. Moreover, PowerSchool alerts staff about students' disabilities and necessary accommodations, assisting in keeping detailed and updated Individualized Education Programs - IEPs. It enables schools to deliver special education services and transfer student documents within the district while legally documenting accommodations and protections for students with special education needs. PowerSchool helps schools stay in compliance with state laws and serves as a platform for certification courses, facilitating assignment distribution and team communication.

In addition to these features, PowerSchool provides a centralized location for students to log hours, access homework assignments, and store files. It simplifies the exchange of student record information and paperwork from other districts. With its ability to organize assignments and activities, PowerSchool ensures individualized instruction for each student while making it easy to develop and track IEPs, generate reports, and stay organized with due dates. It also serves as a valuable tool for grading and tracking student progress in music classes. PowerSchool is used schoolwide to track students' performance, services, and progress in Special Education, addressing communication issues and supporting underserved special education populations. Overall, it improves the delivery of services and compliance across departments at various levels within schools.

Organization: Users appreciate the organization of the program, particularly the side menu with clickable categories. Multiple reviewers have stated that the side menu and category structure make it easy to navigate through PowerSchool and find what they need quickly.

Usefulness: The program is praised for its usefulness in grading, posting assignments, and allowing students to track their progress. Many users have found PowerSchool to be a valuable tool in managing student grades, assigning tasks, and providing visibility into student performance.

User-friendly nature: Users find the program easy to navigate, and they appreciate that parents can also access it. Several reviewers have mentioned how user-friendly PowerSchool is, making it intuitive for both teachers and parents to use. They specifically mention the ease of navigating through different sections of the program and accessing relevant information.

Difficult Navigation: Users have consistently found the software frustrating to navigate, with some stating that it is not user-friendly. Many reviewers have experienced issues with filling out information and having to repeat tasks, leading to a cumbersome user experience. Additionally, the login process has been described as time-consuming.

Technical Issues and Slow Loading Times: Numerous users have mentioned frequent technical issues with the Special Portal and Unified Classroom features. They have also reported slow loading times for certain tabs within the software. These technical glitches have caused frustration among users and hindered their productivity.

Limited Integration and Cluttered Reports: Users feel that the software lacks updates and has limitations in terms of integrating with other platforms. This has resulted in difficulties in managing various tasks efficiently. Furthermore, many reviewers find the reports provided by the software difficult to filter through and lacking clarity in their intentions, which adds to their frustrations.

Users in the Education field recommend this program for its ease of use and accessibility, making it ideal for managing Special Education records and reports. They highly recommend purchasing this program and suggest participating in professional learning to fully utilize its features. Users also advise saving digital files from previous IEP software and manually inputting old information to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, they recommend creating documents in a separate program, such as Word, to avoid the risk of losing work.

Reviews

(1-1 of 1)
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Christopher Power | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
PowerSchool Special Education is being used as a tool for educators to assist one of the largest populations of the school. This is used schoolwide by the entire special education team, including teachers, administration, counselors and school psychologists. The purpose of the software integration is for various departments, not just one department, to be able to track students' performance, services, and progress. This solves a major issue of miscommunication and a lack of support for certain types of populations of students. The special education population is often underserved, and as a result, it is necessary to implement certain protocols to help support those students, their parents and the educators that support the students. In terms of communication, there is an issue with compliance across departments. Most often the issue is timelines, and identifying what teachers or professionals are required of which forms or evaluations. Using PowerSchool Special Education, the school has a higher quality of delivery of services.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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.
  • 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.
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.
Google Classroom, Adobe Flex, SchoolMessenger
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