This summer, we sat down with Kyle Erickson, Director of Special Education and Tiffany Litman, Educational Consultant at the Northwest Regional Interdistrict Council (NWRIC), where they shared their experience with switching to SpEd Forms software during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In early 2020, Kyle noticed an increase in the district’s student population at a time when it was also increasingly mobile. Having used SpEd Forms before coming to NWRIC, she liked SpEd Forms’ user-friendly features and that it was used by most other Minnesota districts. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, SpEd Forms was always on top of adding new forms released by the Minnesota Department of Education. “SpEd Forms was on the forefront of adapting to the due process paperwork,” said Kyle. 

At the time of the pandemic, NWRIC was already beginning to transition to SpEd Forms software. “SpEd Forms was great throughout the transition and supported us with the questions we had,” said Kyle. “Their changes, including the Thursdays at Three, and the support that they provided that was different, really did enhance our transition to the product.”

One step that Kyle and NWRIC took to streamline the transition was to onboard staff only using SpEd Forms v 2.0, SpEd Forms’ updated look. They also benefited from the community surrounding SpEd Forms software, including training videos and shared resources. “Because 95% of the state uses the platform, it really enhanced the ability to make that transition because there was the community already in place that had tools we could take and run with,” Kyle added.

Now, a year since NWRIC moved to SpEd Forms, Tiffany says that staff say that it “was a thing they were most proud of learning this year.”