JAY — Regional School Unit 73 board of directors were told on Thursday, March 14, that accommodations information is now available on Power School.
At the Feb. 15 meeting, directors were told a change in Power School was being explored so mainstream teachers could have access to accommodation information. Students with disabilities might need extra time testing, someone to read to them, or other aids to help them learn, Jenna Cote, special education assistant director/504 coordinator, said then.
There are about 443 students in the district requiring accommodations, not counting the health plan, she noted then. Administrators have access to accommodations through Power School but mainstream teachers don’t, Cote said. She hoped to add options to Power School so that clicking an icon would allow a student’s accommodations to pop up.
“We now have IEP showing up on our Power School,” Chris Hollingsworth, curriculum coordinator/IT director said Thursday. “I worked a while on trying to get the one we had to work. I found out it was actually a custom page that had been created many, many years ago.”
He was able to work with a company the district had used previously to create plug-ins for Power School. The issue was resolved, training received and now alerts are available for those with IEP or 504 plans, Hollingsworth said.
“We can choose whatever icons we want,” he noted. “It works for teachers as well so they can see all the accommodations for the kids.”
“We are so excited to have the alerts for 504 and IEP accommodations,” Cote said in her report. “I think the beauty here is that the administrators are going to probably branch out and use them for other reasons. We can create many different alerts.”
Cost of the program had been raised in February, Cote noted. “I believe it ended up being $1 per student this year and 50 cents per student next year. I think that is really reasonable for what it will do for us as a district.”
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