How Grand County achieved equity and compliance with Embrace504®

Before the introduction of the Embrace504® software, Jill described 504 processes management at Grand County as decentralized and mostly reliant on offline resources without any real-time data sync, like the “paper-pencil” way.

“It's like going back in time. It's like, ‘Okay, well, we have this kind of makeshift data that we used as a way to identify the 504 and something that was kind of just made up by somebody…”Another issue was the lack of consistency in the way 504 data was stored, organized, and managed between different schools within the district.

“Nothing was uniform, and there wasn't a way to access equitably what one school was doing versus the other school,” Jill explained. “But now everything is the same across the board, even in our small district. I feel like we've jumped into the 21st century where we weren't there before.”

On top of the goal of improving accessibility and consistency of 504 documentation at Grand County, another goal was to become better at reporting and providing equal access to educational opportunities to all students in the district—both longtimers and those who transferred—protected under Section 504.

This became possible thanks to the introduction of Embrace504®.

“Just being able to access reports that it offers, like which students are on whose caseload… And then you can access that transition from school to school, from the lower grades to the upper grades. Also, having that ability to look back year after year, having information uploaded so that it doesn't go back just a couple of years. You've got all that [historical] data that you can have. So maybe a student's been on a 504 for a long time, or they've adjusted, they came from another state, and it's transferred with them. So, having access to the reports [in Embrace504®] has been huge,” explained Jill.

Flexible web access to all 504 data
Embrace®'s web-based access to all 504 documentation has allowed Grand County to improve staff collaboration and speed up data exchange across the district.

“It is helping teachers to be able to see the students that have it [504]... It dials down the ability to access data. And so we enjoy having the access. The teachers like being able to see what students are doing and being able to just help our students,” said Jill.

“All the administrators have the ability to look at all the kids that have Embrace504®, not just ‘Oh, hey! Here's a paper folder that we could pass along. Maybe it got lost here or there, who knows?,’ so that is something that's been well received.”

Reporting dashboard that ensures compliance
For the admin team at Grand County, being able to access reports on the progress of their 504 program has helped improve compliance and confidence in the district’s adherence to the state’s requirements and best practices.

“Now, we're actually feeling like we're legit… And that along with our IEPs, our 504s meet those state standards and the basics that we need for each student, and that the goals are set, and that anybody can run a report and have that information right then and there, or even print it out. Put it in a file for somebody if they're moving to another state, or even, you know, outside the city. And so that has been a huge factor,” confirmed Jill.

The same system as EmbraceIEP, easier data exchange
Having all IEP and 504 documentation at Grand County unified in one centralized solution was key to improving the workflow of every teacher and administrator. According to Jill, it’s been a huge deciding factor in choosing Embrace504®, as the district was already a long-time EmbraceIEP® customer.

“What's nice is that the 504 and the IEP connect together. So, you have a kind of a one stop shop where all of that data is there, and I don't have to keep switching platforms. I can choose just one location, get my data. So, it makes it easier, because every minute counts during the day. We're all so busy that if I have to choose a separate platform, open up a new [program]... It's five minutes here, five minutes there. It just adds up during the day.”

Ease of use, navigation, and daily workflow
Improving staff experience and ensuring quick adoption of a new platform were key factors in choosing a vendor, and Embrace504® satisfied this requirement for Grand County as well.

“I think it was just the ease, the ability to open up the program. It's simple,” Jill confirmed. “It has all the basic components that you need. It's not difficult. There are some other programs that I use on a regular basis that are difficult to navigate. And I'm, you know, pretty computer savvy. But Embrace® is simple. And those are the types of things that we look for, just the ease of my everyday life.”

Quick staff adoption among multiple user groups
Jill has mentioned that Embrace504® has been favored by all user groups and has been remarkable in how easily it was adopted.

“You have people who are super tech savvy, and then you have people who are not tech savvy. They like it. And so, if you can make it easy for everybody. That is a key component for using a software, because if it's too hard, people won't use it,” Jill explained.