More schools turn to document management for registration
The ready availability of necessary technology has transformed the school registration process over the past decade-plus, allowing parents to transmit all the necessary documents online to get their kids signed up for classes. However, on the school's end, this requires proper investment in document management software to both ferry information where it needs to go – via workflows – and keep it safe on an ongoing basis.
Part of the effort of having an effective document management platform for the school registration process is ensuring parents know how to use it correctly on their end, and that school or district employees are also utilizing it properly on the other. For registration with the Cherokee County School District, based in Canton, Georgia, parents are given plenty of tips about how to fill out basic information and select the right school, as well as how to upload necessary documents.
What's the outcome?
When parents know what to expect from the online registration process and are made aware of how they can upload the documents they need, the overall steps of getting kids signed up for classes – especially for the first time, such as if they're entering kindergarten – can go a lot more smoothly.
Getting it right
Once kids have been put into the system, schools can begin compiling more information on a years-long basis, and managing other information as well, according to Understood. Keeping vital identifying information on file is, of course, important, but so too is accumulating grades, standardized test scores and so on. This can also be the case with disciplinary records, all of which can be scanned into a document management system.
While many schools may need to undertake backfile scanning as part of an effort to modernize the registration process (that is, getting current students onto a standardized platform with incoming ones), it's vital to get both that process and the initial launch of the new system correct.
If a plan is put into place and all stakeholders are given adequate instruction about how to use the systems properly, the effort should go off without a hitch and provide significant benefits for both students and administrators.
