NVMUG eNews 9/20/2003
Last updated 9/26/2003
Richard Smith's FileMaker Pro Special Education Program
After a question and answer session, Richard Smith told us how his special education program, SpEdDoc, was developed after others had failed, and described how his program helps special education teachers and reduces their paper work.
1. The Caledonian Report, Solving Dual Platform Problems for Special Education Paperwork
2. SpEdDoc, the FileMaker Pro Special Education Documentation System
1. The Caledonian Report, Solving Dual Platform Problems for Special Education Paperwork
Richard Smith describes the FileMaker Pro program that is solving special education paper work problems in Vermont schools to NVMUG members saturday.
As reported in the Caledonian Record, Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Richard Smith described the combination of software and knowledge needed to develop a solution for the special education paperwork problem in Vermont schools to the Northern Vermont Macintosh User Group in St. Johnsbury Saturday.
It helped that this combination included a Macintosh computer.
People in the Vermont Department of Education recognized the problem. They decided to fund a small firm that was developing a DOS program called Master Track that they hoped would be the solution. One of the problems was that there were many types of computers - some schools used Macintosh. The firm proposed to standardize. In 1998 the state bought an IBM Think Pad computer and a HP printer for every special education teacher in Vermont. The state paid for two days of training for the special education teachers. There were lots of complaints. The firm developed an update. It required 15 floppy disks to install. The state paid for another round of $1,000 a day training in what was mostly data entry. The program was not a success.
A number of others including people working in special education tried to develop solutions using Access, a Microsoft database program, but none of them were successful. The state developed special reporting forms in Microsoft Word, but they also had problems, Smith reported.
One day Richard Smith found a simple FileMaker Pro program for use in his Orleans - Essex North school system. Although he had used a simpler, similar AppleWorks data base program, Smith did not know FileMaker Pro. It took him 90 minutes that first weekend to learn enough to modify the program for use in his school system. Other schools liked and wanted to use this program. So Richard contacted Paul Haskell, a FileMaker Pro expert, and the two worked together to develop SpEdDoc.
FileMaker Pro is a key part in the solution to the special education paper work problem because .it runs on both platforms, IBM compatibles and Macintosh, so all schools can use it. It is simple enough for someone like Smith, who is not a professional programmer, to understand. It is a powerful relational database program in the hands of a professional like Paul Haskell.
A relational database is essential because of the many different parts to special education and many different forms which must be related to each other. Haskell could use FileMaker Pro to develop a clear more attractive interface that makes it easier for users to work with the complex special education data and reports. Many teachers refer to it as the FileMaker program.
Another key part of the success is the combination of Smith and Haskell. Smith, as a working special education supervisor, really understands special education so that he could design and can update a tool that really meets special education needs. He leads half day training sessions for special education teachers, and knows enough about FileMaker Pro to design improvements based upon what he learns during these training sessions.Paul Haskell creates the FileMaker program based upon Smith's specifications and makes improvements based upon his knowledge of FileMaker Pro. They communicate using PDF attachments to their e-mail.
The Macintosh computer is a part of the success because Macintosh developers are aware that there are other computers out there, and design Macintosh systems to work with them. When Smith leads a training session, he uses his Macintosh to show the program on a screen usually in front of two dozen users with PCs. It makes no difference if there are some users with Macintosh computers, or, as sometimes happens, all of the teachers have Macintosh computers.
Smith and Haskell develop on the Macintosh, but they always use a PC to finish their changes because the PC fonts are slightly smaller on a Macintosh screen. They have to be sure that all of the information fits on a PC screen. (There are other minor differences, such as a PC exports to a folder on a C drive, something Macintosh users do not need to bother with.)
SpEdDoc is not a state program. Richard Smith works 210 days a year in special education. He develops and supports this program on his own time. The charge to schools is only $5 per special education student. The school must have a license for at least a user version of FileMaker Pro. The compact disc includes both the Macintosh and the IBM compatible FileMaker Pro versions.
2. SpedDoc, The FileMaker Pro Special Education Documentation System
Richard Smith is a Director for Special Education so he knew the kind of tool that special education teachers needed.
Special education information is confidential. Individual teachers have a password that gives them access to information about their students, and not information they do not need about other students. A school level password provides information for the supervisor who needs information about all the students in the school. A supervisory union password gives special education directors information they need about special education students in their supervisory union. This caused a minor problem in Morristown where each teacher had only one password that they needed to remember for access to all of their information on school computers. The solution was to require them to learn another password for special education information.
Information is on individual computers in some places, and on school level servers in others. The system could be made to work statewide if there was enough communication bandwidth.
Special education is student based, not forms based. When special education people meet they need information to discuss the needs of individual students.
Creating the professional interface was Paul's idea. The screen for each student has a row of tabs across the top for portal such as IEP, Education, Medicaid, and Meeting information. A second row of buttons identifies buttons for fields such as Main Data, Contacts, Tracking, etc. Teachers are never more than two clicks away from where they want to be. All the basic information is under main data and contacts.
When developing or revising an IEP, Individual Education Program, the basic data is already there. The same data never has to be entered twice.
One example of use of the system is determining if a student qualifies for an IEP. There is a list of disabilities that must be present to qualify the student for an IEP. Clicking on one of the disabilities brings up a list of questions that must be answered to determine whether the individual qualifies for that disability. Answering the questions determines whether the individual qualifies, adds data to the database and to complete a necessary record.
Richard contracted with an outside developer to create calendars which they have incorporated into the system. The calendars show two months on one page because some reports cover two months of service. The calendars indicate whether the individual received individual or group service for each day.
The system includes a list of the caseload when the IEP was last updated, and when an update is due by priority.All the forms they have to send out are in the system. For example, all of the billable items are defined to keep tract of hours for Level of Care forms for Medicaid billing.
While default fonts are specified in the system, it is impossible to allow for all of the different computers, printers, and printer drivers out there. Sometimes a printed report will split a line over two pages.
The department of education typically update their reporting requirements in July, requiring an update of the program for he next school year . This year the department was planning to delay a change until October. Richard Smith called them and explained the problem this would cause for half the school systems in Vermont. The next day department called him to say they would make the change in August.
Richard sends the requirements for the needed changes in black. Paul responds with any comments or questions in blue.
When the program is updated, they compress the file and send the ZIP file to a contact person in each school system who sends it to people within their organization to do the update.
Sets of records can be selected and a number of records exported, copied, into a new database folder, for example for a new case manager. The data is still there, so you can make sure the the new person has received it before going to the delete student button.
When importing cases, the system looks for matching field names.
The state had field for testing accommodations for national, district, and schools, but separate for the state. SpEdDoc used one list of accommodations and use a check box to identify the three levels rather than three different lists. The state changed to no longer require the three different levels, but Richard left the check boxes in the system to retain the past information for teachers who want to keep it in. Their system has a bank of accommodations to choose from, and teachers can add their own. An accommodation is a correction, for example "will bowl straight" might be an accommodation for a bowling problem.
FileMaker can provide reports in the student's native language.
700 schools were pre-loaded into the system for Vermont. Modifying the system for another state would require changes for their state requirements an pre-loading for their schools, but there are lots of other possibilities for marketing this out there.
The school has to buy at least a run time FileMaker license, less than $100, for each teacher or whoever will be using it. This is a one time expense unless there is a need to upgrade to a new FileMaker Pro that makes it worth the schools and Richard to change.
They considered providing the system in a web format, but schools did not like it for confidential data.
Section 504's access to education requriment and evaluating whether a student has a disability under 504 law is considered. PDF documents define what their rights are. They develop and document a plan. Richard might develop an accomidatiions pool for this plan session next year.
Educational support systems is another class of students with a school teams developing plans, and might be included in a future application.
Truancy is a problem. One plan was to e-mail truancy reports to the school secretary and have her keep track of 32,000 absences a year and determine when to send letters to parents, and when it should be a 10 day letter or a 20 day letter for example. Put in $5,000 and we will create a FileMaker Pro database to track truancies and send the appropriate letters to parents.
3. Other Meeting Notes
Three new people from Peacham read about the meeting in the Caledonian and showed up fto learn about AppleWorks, They asked if there was any training for new Macintosh users in this area.
Richard showed them how an AppleWorks word processing page could be enlarged to fill the whole screen. Click on the bottom left of the document to magnify it, and click and drag on the lower right to expand its width. There seemed to be agreement that we should have a session on creating a flier or a newsletter using AppleWorks next month. No one has yet volunteered with the time to make the presentation.
Ted asked if the 17 inch screen on an iMac could be replace. He fell on the iMac, resulting in dirt and scratches on the screen. He tried to clean the screen and got water underneath, but it seems to work OK except for the scratches.
4.New Books
Thanks to O'Reilly, Peachpit, and New Riders, we added the following new books to our NVMUG library this month: More information about these books is available at their web site.
The advantage of the NVMUG library is that you can take out a book for a month and learn as much as you can, including whether this is a book you really want to own. If now one else has requested the book, you can keep it longer. And an advantage to being an NVMUG user group user is being able to buy books from the publisher at 20% off or more, and sometimes with free mailing.
New Riders:
The Photoshop Elements Book for Digital Photographers
by Scott Kelby, 258 pages with digital images on the internet - $29.99.
Learn how professional photographers do it.
I read the book and ordered a copy for myself. I plan to write a review as soon as I find the time to practice the techniques. Gordon Alexander looked at the book at the meeting, and decided to order a copy rather than to check it out of the NVMUG library. One of the new members at the meeting has checked the book out now.
For more information, log onto
http//www.newriderst.com
Peachpit
Secrets of the iPod, Third Edition.
by Christopher Breen, 310 pages - $19.99
Expert advice for tapping the power of Apple's portable music player. Completely updated for the iTunes Store, the newest iPods, and the latest Mac and Windows software.
Midge Lubot, our president, immediately checked this one our from our NVMUG library.
For more information log onto
http://www.peachpit.com
O'Reilly
iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual
by David Pogue, 456 pages - $38.95
Essentials of film technique, editiing basics and tricks, ways to show your iMovie to audiences, and mastering DVDs if you have a SuperDrive by one of the best authors.
Ted Birmingham checked this one out at the meeting, and has promised a review.
Amazon Hacks
by Paul Basch, 280 pages - $24.95
Tips and tools for tapping into Amazon's power.
Amazon.com is more than on online book catalog. This is an advanced level book on how to get the most from Amazon.
TiVo Hacks
by Raffi Krikorian, 226 pages - $24.95
High powered tools and tips forgettiing the most out of TiVo. for advanced users. You can think of TiVo as a deskop computer with a television tuner card and powerful software.
eBay Hacks
by David a. karp, 331 pages - $24.95
The tools for advanced users to trade smarter and safer, make more money, and have fun doing it.
For more information log onto:
http://www.oreilly.com
