Like any student record, Special Education records need to be kept and maintained in order to comply with state regulations, and to assess the future needs of the student. The real difference is that student files for children with special needs can be hundreds or thousands of pages long, depending on how much attention the child has needed throughout the years. With this being said, it can be very difficult to keep hard copies of records of these lengths. Finding a single piece of paper in a file of thousands is time-consuming, if not impossible, so the best solution is to have these records scanned by Datamation.
Depending on the schools record retention policy, which is based on state regulations, a Special Ed student record has to be kept for at least 5 years. With each year, its likely that more and more special needs students are enrolling, so the volume of the records will become unwieldy and extremely difficult to sort through. When you have your records scanned by Datamation, you can find any record or page with just a few clicks using a keyword search that is as easy as a Google Search. Full text or zonal OCR can even be used to narrow down your search to a certain word or paragraph. You would never again have to spend hours searching through thousands of pages to find what you needed.
Confidentiality and security are also huge musts when it comes to Special Ed records, as these records are both education and health records. Hard copies run the risk of getting lost and/or falling into the wrong hands, which would compromise the safety and security of the student. With Datamations cloud-based storage system, records can only be accessed through several layers of security and passwords. The files are also protected from unexpected natural disasters, like fires and floods, whereas hard copies of the records would be lost.
If a student enrolls in a different school, their records also have to be sent to the new school. Because the records are potentially so long, shipping them can be very expensive. Even if the child is not moving schools, distributing their records or sharing them within different departments can be challenging if there is only one copy. Having files scanned eliminates the need for copying, emailing, or faxing files, taking only a few seconds to sharerather than a few hours, or even days. Your school can also save thousands of dollars per year on paper with Datamation, and it doesnt hurt to reduce your environmental footprint, either.
While scanning all school records is quickly becoming vital, scanning the records for Special Education students is particularly helpful. Having quick access to that one file among thousands could make a huge difference, as would being able to share the file with anyone who needed it within seconds. Scanning your documents with Datamation will save your district time, money, and mistakes.
