Errors in School Records: More Common Than You Might Think
Growing Needs & Lacking Resources in Schools Lead to Mistakes in Records & Can Impact Students’ Futures. GPS Finds Mistakes, & Advocates for Solutions!
Today we’re wrapping-up our discussion about the ways that GPS Education Consulting works to empower and support parents, caregivers, and school staff to: identify, & rectify the significant issues that arise from errors and omissions in documentation within educational records.
To recap our last few posts:
Unfortunately, errors & omissions in Educational Records are very common & impact many students.
Remember: School staff are under-resourced and stretched too thin. Even with the best of intentions, educators don’t operate in a vacuum. When they are being asked to do so much, it’s impossible to do everything well.
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Today, we’re discussing some of the ways that insufficient resources & increasing needs in schools often contribute to increased errors and omissions in educational records:
School staff are rarely in positions where they are only expected to work on documentation. They have the enormous responsibility of teaching and supporting students.
When choosing between: A) supporting an upset student, B) providing legally-mandated services & instruction to students, etc., and C) completing paperwork with fidelity… Most educators are kind and compassionate individuals who will devote their time and attention to supporting students in need. As a result, they often rely on strategies to increase efficiency to complete documentation (e.g., Copying/pasting from older documents written for that learner, or from other documents written for different learners; Providing qualitative descriptions that lack objective data, etc.)
School staff are trained to be educators, not lawyers/stenographers. They might not have the knowledge and skills needed for accurate and efficient documentation despite their best efforts.
Staffing shortages contribute to:
A scarcity of trained individuals to complete these specialized responsibilities,
Miscommunications in distribution of roles/responsibilities, and
A disorganized, inconsistent, & piecemeal approach to supporting students throughout the year.
Burnout – impacts the quality of documentation and motivation to “get it right.”
Schools take a team approach. Involving many different experts in decision-making and discussions has so many benefits (it’s also legally-required), but it also introduces inherent challenges. Specifically, when there are many folks who have some degree of responsibility for the outcome, it is easier for things to fall through the cracks if people are assuming others will fix it (e.g., Relying on the team’s input to catch and correct errors from the first draft, etc.)
These factors often contribute to confusion, errors, and omissions within educational records, and, unfortunately these can have negative repercussions for your learner’s future that range in severity from trivial to life-altering.
Not ready to proceed with our services? No worries! Here are some tips to help encourage accurate documentation:
Document information/concerns (IN WRITING) as soon as possible after it occurs.
Be specific and objective.
Be organized.
Be Respectful.
Advocate for more resources/funding for your learner’s schools.
Get involved in School Board Meetings and have your voice heard!
Best,
Evan Gallena, Ed.S., NCSP
Founder & Lead-Consultant: GPS Education Consulting L.L.C.
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Together, as one… Navigating the path to school success!
School Assessments: Moving Forward with an Advocate
How GPS Education Consulting’s life-changing Advocacy Services increase productive collaboration with schools, & help your learner to achieve more successes.
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Let’s continue our series exploring services that help get your learner on a path to school success!
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been doing a deep-dive into the often emotionally-charged and confusing world of school assessments and psychological reports. We summarized some obstacles that are encountered when hardworking school professionals attempt to juggle competing demands within overburdened systems.
From that depiction of an effective school team juggling their many competing responsibilities within an over-burdened system, it’s easy to see how productivity and meaningful discussions compete for that scarce resource known as “time.”
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Next up: Obstacle #3:
“Opportunities to collaborate…felt less productive.”
We laid out several ways GPS Education Consulting can help folks to meaningfully use assessment data to support learners’ strengths and areas of need (If you missed it, give it a quick read). As a bonus, those services also contribute to more productive collaboration across home, school, and community partners!
Here are a few of the many ways GPS Education Consulting will increase productive collaboration with schools:
Fewer continuation meetings due to breakdowns in preparation (e.g., documentation / prior-written-notice, meeting participants, meeting purpose(s), etc.).
Advanced opportunities to:
thoughtfully consider,
empower yourself with knowledge and resources, and
emotionally process the likely choices and outcomes that you will be presented with at the meeting(s).
Increased structure during meetings.
Less time spent on lower mutual-priorities and time-consuming explanations.
Getting key school system stakeholders/decision-makers involved earlier, which often leads to clarity and access to resources during complex situations.
More time to spend engaged in creative and solution-focused problem-solving with the experts who work with your learner.
Sounds great, right? Here’s how we do it:
Our record review and one-on-one conversations prior to the meeting will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of personalized documentation proposed to bolster your learner’s interests and talents, and to develop skills in the areas that are harder for them.
We’ll review possible interpretations of the information and proposed supports, detailing the ways that these could lead to choices and decisions for the upcoming meeting(s).
With GPS Education Consulting representing you and your learner(s) as a non-attorney advocate throughout the process, you’ll have peace-of-mind knowing that we are putting our years of training and experience running thousands of IEP & Section 504 Meetings into advocating for your learner, while supporting the folks that work closely with them.
We will support the team using time-saving communication strategies ahead of time to establish common priorities for the meeting(s).
We will ensure that the necessary stakeholders participate in the meetings.
We’ll help the team to efficiently follow the established procedural safeguards and regulations for learners who require more creativity and support than their peers.
We'll employ our substantial experience with interpreting standardized assessments while important decisions are being made about your learner’s future.
We will lend our expertise and talents with complex problem-solving and solution-focused advocacy to overcome the obstacles often encountered in large systems like schools.
We will read between the lines using our training and experience in the school, and respectfully ask the challenging questions to get the answers your learner deserves.
We will review documentation from meetings and collaborate with the team to rectify errors and omissions.
We will support the team to envision and construct a path to school success for your learner.
We will guide you and the team to resources and additional professionals when the road is blocked.
Best,
Evan Gallena, Ed.S., NCSP
Founder & Lead-Consultant: GPS Education Consulting L.L.C.
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Together, as one… Navigating the path to school success!