Press Releases

Spectrum K12 School Solutions Adds Intervention and 504 Modules

Web-based Software Solutions Also Help with IDEA Requirement to Address Number of Non-Disabled Children That Are Over-Identified and Misidentified

TOWSON, Md. — April 19, 2005 — Spectrum K12 School Solutions (4GL), the leading provider of comprehensive management solutions for special populations in K-12 education, today announces ENCORE!® Intervention and ENCORE!® 504. Part of the ENCORE! suite of software and service solutions for special populations, ENCORE! Intervention and ENCORE! 504 are designed to provide districts with an easy way to manage caseloads, establish consistency in their processes, and reduce the number of unnecessary referrals to special education.

Unlike special education, the intervention process for special populations such as at-risk students is not federally mandated or funded. Yet, these programs require extensive administration, caseload management and paperwork. Practices are often left up to individual school districts, which can result in inconsistencies among schools, inappropriate referrals to special education, and increased costs.

Indeed, a key requirement of the recent Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization is that K-12 school districts address the critical issue of students who are over-identified or misidentified in terms of special education requirements.

Building on the immense success of ENCORE!’s dynamic business process solution for special education, ENCORE! Intervention helps school districts establish a consistent pre-referral intervention process to ensure interventions are developed, implemented and reviewed before initiating a formal, special education evaluation. For those students who do ultimately require special education referral and services, a complete history will ensure their special education program builds on successful strategies.

ENCORE! Intervention records intervention plans to address each student’s learning or behavioral difficulties, including the strategies to be executed, persons responsible for executing the interventions, start and end dates, and frequency of services. In addition, it gives intervention team members the ability to rate the effectiveness of the interventions during the review process. This allows districts to easily track the effectiveness of specific interventions and determine which have proven to be most effective for a particular area of concern.

ENCORE! 504 allows districts to easily capture and track Section 504 plan information to accommodate any physical disabilities that may hamper a student’s academic progress. It records such information as the student’s impairment, accommodations, persons responsible for carrying out the plan, and start and end dates.

By automating and streamlining caseload management and paperwork, ENCORE! Intervention and ENCORE! 504 allow educators to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time working with students. The Web-based software solutions are fully integrated with 4GL’s ENCORE!® Special Education, the leading comprehensive special education data management system for K-12 schools and districts.

About Spectrum K12 School Solutions

Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc. is the leading provider of comprehensive management solutions for special populations. Building upon its deep expertise in special education, 4GL helps school districts more effectively manage the individualized learning process for all students receiving special services or interventions, including special education, at-risk, Section 504 and Limited English Proficient (LEP) students.

4GL works collaboratively with districts of all sizes to deliver scalable, easy-to-use software solutions that lift the immense burden of paperwork from education professionals so they can focus on the most important part of their work: educating children and improving student achievement. Focused solely on K-12 education, 4GL’s proven, data-driven solutions help districts reduce paperwork, increase efficiency, improve staff morale and retention, increase revenue recovery, eliminate compliance issues, reduce unnecessary referrals to special education, and support successful achievement of individualized education plan (IEP) goals.

Founded in 1996, Spectrum K12 School Solutions is based in Towson, Md. For more information, visit http://www.4glschools.com or call 877-678-8070.