Background
The SUN Community Schools program covers 93 different schools across multiple school districts, and consists of seven different organizations specific to schools. SUN Schools work to develop schools as community centers, with programming that serves the needs of the community. The activities provided by SUN include before and after school programs, family involvement and strengthening programs, health and social services, adult education, and community events. SUN also works with outside community institutions in order to build on the existing connections.
Challenges
In order to manage such a wide range of schools, organizations, and programs, a great amount of data collection must be done. At the ground level, students and families were registering for programs by hand, with this information being manually entered by an individual into SUN’s previous database. Each organization also had their own variation on registration documentation, adding another layer of difficulty to the consolidation of data. This method was time consuming and ripe for error - there was a huge opportunity here to streamline the process.
Solution
Grouptrail produced a solution to these challenges: an integrated registration form. With a user-friendly interface, the fillable forms allow parents to enter data that is immediately integrated into SUN’s overall database. Functions for the facilitation of the programs such as attendance taking and integrated texting are included with the platform. This allows for the program to take full advantage of the ease that comes with a centralized and fully integrated database.
Benefits
The integrated form has had a significant impact on the efficiency, clarity, and abilities of the SUN school registration process. The elimination of double data entry has streamlined the process and allowed for individuals to focus on their objectives. It also has decreased the chance for errors during data entry. In addition, with the data integrated into a single platform, parents and students are immediately matched to programs that fit them based on demographics. Each of these features have contributed to the overall streamlining of the whole process.