Category Archives: Email

Email 5/13/15: ECSE Reporting Tool

The ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) reporting tool is free for SpEd Forms customers and is fully integrated with existing SpEd Forms products. The program provides a way for ECSE teachers and MARSS reporters to keep track of special education information (ATTENDANCE, MEMBERSHIP AND SPECIAL EDUCATION HOURS) for ECSE and shared time students for reporting purposes.

Special Education teachers and MARSS reporters have either calculated the number of attendance, membership and special education service hours for each student by hand or by creating an spreadsheet — a tedious task, though necessary for fulfilling reporting requirements. The SpEd Forms ECSE reporting tool makes this process much simpler and faster. It allows teachers to open a child’s existing SpEd Forms record, click on the date, add the number of attendance, membership and special education minutes and click “save.” The system automatically calculates the total number of hours in each category, both ensuring accuracy and saving teachers and administrators a lot of time. The system is able to generate these hours based on MARSS enrollment records that have been entered by the case manager.  These enrollment records mirror the MARSS enrollment records in the district’s Student Information System (SIS), which creates a cross check of information to ensure data accuracy.

SpEd Forms staff worked closely with Alexandria School District ECSE Services Coordinator Michelle Steele to develop the reporting tool and user guide. The user guide is online here:

Enrollment and Attendance Guide

“In this ‘age of accountability’, anything that can help us fulfill our reporting requirements faster so we can spend more time doing what we love to do and were trained to do, is a good thing.” said Steele. “People who are in Special Education are in the field because they are passionate about helping kids, not because they love doing paperwork.”

Michelle has worked in ECSE since 1993 and has been with the Alexandria School District since 2009. SpEd Forms has also contracted with Steele to provide training to teachers on the new program on a scheduled basis. So far Michelle has been to fifteen different districts and educational cooperatives. Below are a few customer testimonials:

“The ECSE Reporting Tool on SpEd Forms has been helpful in our district capturing attendance and membership.  Michelle Steele’s presentation was well received by our staff, and she did an excellent job explaining how the tool works.” Nathan Lutzka, Hibbing Public Schools

“Michelle trained in my district on the SpEd Forms attendance and membership reporting.  Staff was very impressed with the training and walked away with a good understanding for the reporting system as well as the “why’s” to how things are reported.  Her training provided simple explanations of a difficult process and she used many examples and “what if” scenarios to demonstrate the reporting.” Sue Currens, Benton-Stearns Education District

“Michelle is knowledgeable in content and procedure and does a fabulous job communicating with the attendees.  She is approachable before, during and after the trainings she has conducted.  Janell Bullard, Meeker and Wright Special Education Cooperative

Districts can schedule an in-person training. Cost is $595. To schedule your training, contact kelli@spedforms.com and we can get you set up. Thank you!

Email 11/25/14: Free training in December

SpEd Forms is offering another free new teacher training to help get your staff up to speed! This online WebEx training will be conducted by Tonia Czech at SpEd Forms.

The new teacher training is intended for case managers and support staff that are NEW to SpEd Forms. The three hour session allows educators to get started using the program with ease.

Following is the open date for December 2014:

WebEx New Teacher Training – 12/16/14 – 9:00am-12:00pm

*Districts are limited to ONE WebEx sign-in per training to allow space for all of those needing training.

To sign up, please email all contact information to kelli@spedforms.com as soon as possible. This will fill quickly so sign up today!