Press Releases

Northern and Central Indiana School Cooperatives Choose Spectrum K12 School Solutions

Elkhart County Special Education Cooperative and RISE Special Services Cooperative

TOWSON, MD– January 16, 2007 – Two major Indiana school cooperatives have chosen Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc.’s special education management software product ENCORE!® to handle administrative reporting and tracking for students in all of their districts who need special services.

The Elkhart County Special Education Cooperative (ECSEC), which is made up of six districts—Baugo, Concord, Fairfield, Goshen, Middlebury and Wa-Nee Community Schools—is in the northern part of the state. It comprises 34 elementary, secondary and high schools. The other organization is the RISE Special Services Cooperative in central Indiana, serving 41 schools in four districts including Beech Grove City and the townships of Perry, Decatur and Franklin.

Both cooperatives chose Spectrum K12’s ENCORE! to help them more effectively manage the special education process for students receiving special services or interventions so they can focus on the most important part of their work: educating children and improving student achievement. ENCORE! helps schools dramatically improve special education management by eliminating mistakes in IEP compliance, saving training time, eliminating duplicate data entry, providing ease of access to centralized information and – ultimately – saving of hundreds of dollars per student.

“We chose Spectrum K12 for many reasons,” said Mary Beth Hamilton, ECSEC’s director of special education. “Most of all, we found it to be more comprehensive than any of the other programs we looked at. It is also teacher friendly and visually compatible with what we are already using, so it is easier for teachers to learn. The end result will be that we will be able to improve the way in which we serve our students. That is the main value to us.”

Bill Dreibelbis, director of RISE Special Services, said, “We have been using a paper-based IEP data collection process, with some teachers using an older electronic template of the IEP form, where the forms come to the cooperative’s office from our schools and districts. Data must be entered by hand into the state’s CODA reporting system. This dual entry of data has been very frustrating and time consuming to us and is one of the key reasons we selected ENCORE!. Spectrum K12’s web based, centralized software application and database offers improved efficiency and accuracy, while maintaining confidentiality. This will permit teachers, administrators, and central personnel to save time and resources that can be better used in assisting student achievement.”

Dreibelbis said that another factor in RISE’s decision is the tracking ability that ENCORE! provides regarding general education intervention and progress monitoring. Should a referral to special education be required, the data is already logged and available to staff involved. He said, “This will be an advantage for our teachers and providers.”

“A major factor for both cooperatives is that ENCORE! captures student and teacher certification data directly supporting Indiana state CODA reporting requirements,” said Jim Hermens, vice president of product management at Spectrum K12. “This will allow the cooperatives to provision files that provide data necessary for CODA reporting, allowing the districts to in-turn, directly upload data to CODA.” He added, “The choice of Spectrum K12 by both Elkhart and RISE is a strong vote of confidence in our products, support services and our team. We’re excited to work with both organizations.”

About Spectrum K12 School Solutions

Based in Towson, Md., Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc. helps school districts more effectively manage the individualized learning process for all students receiving special services or interventions. Spectrum K12 works collaboratively with districts of all sizes to deliver scalable, easy-to-use software solutions that lift the burden of paperwork from education professionals so they can focus on the most important part of their work: educating children and improving student achievement.