Response to Intervention for Charlotte County Schools

At the end of April 2009, the Charlotte County Public Schools (CCPS) SIS committee selected Focus to replace SASI for the 2011-2012 school year.

Focus student information management system contains two key pieces of functionality that the CCPS felt was critical to their success:

Data edits built directly into Focus/SIS allow the district to force compliance with state and district rules. All Florida required edits are integrated into the student information system and are automatically updated with changes received from FLDOE.
An exceptions report, part of the standard reports available in Focus/SIS, identifies data that violate Florida reporting rules. The report identifies bad or missing required data in red text and allows the user to correct the errant data directly on the report.

Because the Focus/SIS platform already contained many of the necessary templates for mapping data fields, CCPS was able to accelerate the project timeline by a full year.

CCPS was able to have 99.98% of their data correct in just five days while a testing server allowed the district to conduct training excercises and test new functionality without fear of corrupting production data. Training began in December 2009 and the system went live in May 2010.

CCPS required that their new student management system offer an online IEP authoring tool that would allow special education information to merge with other student information so that it could flow seamlessly between all stakeholders: parents, teachers, psychologists, school-based administrators and central office administrators. They also required a way to evaluate the efficacy of various interventions within the three-tier Response to Intervention (RtI) framework.

Focus' RtI response to intervention module tracks interventions for students in a number of areas with flexibility for users to define their own datasets for areas of concern and response to intervention tiers. The RtI response to interventions system is easy-to-use and helps visually track and compare progress through charts and graphs.

"We predict that we will be able to collapse 3rd party software applications currently used in conjunction with SASI because these features will be part of Focus. The development of an IEP component and the analysis tool that will assist with Response to Intervention strategies meetings will enable our teachers to have 'one stop shopping' that will ease their workload outside of the classroom. Our ICS programmers are looking forward to the opportunity to customize the application to further meet our district's specific needs," remarks John Weant.

When describing Focus to another district, I tell them that it is user-friendly, very intuitive and that the company is always adding functions that meet teachers needs.

Meg Brown - Director of Technology - Flagler County Schools

We are happy to use Focus/SIS. As a new school, we were nervous about choosing a student information system. Focus/SIS has been a great choice. The responsiveness of the Focus team, trainings, troubleshooting and assistance has made using our SIS a breeze.

Malka Borrego - Executive Director - Equitas Academy Charter School

Administrators are able to get information about students in real-time.

Meg Brown - Director of Technology - Flagler County Schools

With Focus we got what we wanted – portal, grades, attendance, etc. - without spending as much...

Adam Lewis - Director of Technology - Elverado Schools

When describing Focus to another district, I tell them that it is user-friendly, very intuitive and that the company is always adding functions that meet teachers needs.

Meg Brown - Director of Technology - Flagler County Schools

The parent portal has been a huge success in getting parents involved in their child/children's education. Parents are very pleased with the ease of the program and ability to view all their children with one logon.

Maria McGovern - Flagler County Public Schools

The program is very user-friendly. If I do run into any problems, I simply pick up the phone or email tech support and I get a response in a timely manner. Everyone at Focus has been very helpful!

Patricia G. Mahaney - Director of Guidance - Kenston Forest School

Personally, I don’t think you need a lot of training with Focus because it is so easy to use.

Adam Lewis - Director of Technology - Elverado Schools

Administration and parents are pleased to have this valuable tool to encourage parent communication. The online gradebook has motivated teachers to be current in posting their grades and their assignments.

Maria McGovern - Flagler County Public Schools

The program is very user-friendly. If I do run into any problems, I simply pick up the phone or email tech support and I get a response in a timely manner. Everyone at Focus has been very helpful!

Patricia G. Mahaney - Director of Guidance - Kenston Forest School

Focus is very good at capturing translating, displaying and communicating information to key stakeholders.

John Just - Assistant Superintendent - Pinellas County Schools