GCPS needed a way to manage special education plans and track student progress digitally. PCG developed an integrated system called IEP Online for managing plans and STORI for monitoring progress. They also created a dashboard portal for access. This allowed GCPS to develop plans in IEP Online, have the objectives automatically appear in STORI, and track effectiveness of interventions. The dashboard provided compliance information. GCPS could now streamline processes, improve compliance, and use data for decision making to better support students.

1. www.pcgeducation.com
case study:
Special Education Management, Progress
Monitoring Software Development, Dashboard
Portal Page Development
THE PCG APPROACH
PCG Education’s approach embraces the best practice of integrated
solutions. Our national experience affords us firsthand knowledge of how
school districts across the U.S. struggle with data quality issues when their
applications are not integrated. PCG Education offers a fully integrated
set of solutions to provide a more holistic picture of students’ educational
history.
THE CLIENT
The IEP Online™ system provided GCPS with functionality for parent
Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), Suwanee, Georgia signature pages, doctor prescription forms, and other paper documents to
• District type: large urban be converted and stored electronically. Since implementing IEP Online™,
• Total special education students: 17,617 GCPS has enhanced its application with many special customizations,
including its own discipline forms and behavior intervention forms.
• Total student population: 161,000+
Data collected in STORI assists administrators with trend analysis,
THE PROJECT displaying students who are meeting and/or not meeting their objectives
• Design and implementation of district-wide management before their attainment dates within their IEPs. Additionally, using
system for special education STORI data, administrators are able to determine if they need to assist
their teachers by offering alternative methods and/or approaches to
• Design of district-wide progress monitoring data
achieve student success prior to the end of a reporting period. GCPS
collection software application, including Functional,
district administrators are able to analyze their special education student
Academic and Behavioral components
population achievements and areas of concern by district, school, groups
• Design and implementation of a dashboard portal page of students, and by teacher. Teachers can judge their effectiveness in the
classroom and make adjustments to promote student achievement based
on the data gathered to monitor student progress towards objectives in
their IEPs.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Gwinnett County Public Schools is the 12th largest district in the nation. The PCG-designed dashboard portal includes a way to deliver training
In 2003, PCG Education was selected by GCPS to design and implement materials to all users, in video, PDF, and Word document formats. To
our fully integrated, Web-based special education management system, assist in compliance with eligibility and IEP meetings, upon login, case
IEP Online™. The GCPS Special Education and Psychological Services managers have a view of their caseloads, including a clear view of key
department had a goal to make its Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) timeline dates. To support the caseload view compliance, timeline-
paperless. At the time, educators in the district either completed IEP sensitive reports are available on the dashboard for staff members to
documents by hand or through form-based computer software programs. run on demand to maintain compliance with eligibility and IEP meetings
and testing accommodations. A calendar feature allows users to post
In 2010, GCPS expanded its partnership with PCG Education to include a upcoming events and communicate with GCPS support staff members
software application development project called Student Target Objective without leaving the dashboard. The dashboard also gives administrators
Reporting Instrument (STORI). STORI would quantitatively assess and a way to monitor server usage to negate any unexpected performance
monitor achievement on a per student basis of progress made toward issues and gives them instant notification if a server is not performing.
objectives within the student’s IEP. GCPS also requested that PCG Finally, the case managers’ data collection status per student is displayed
Education design and implement a dashboard portal page to give users on the dashboard so these staff members can keep track of student data
one location for access to both IEP Online and STORI. collection.
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2. Case Study: Management, Progress Monitoring Software Development, Dashboard
Portal Page Development
THE RESULT
GCPS educators now use a single integrated platform to support
special education management (IEP Online™) and progress monitoring
(STORI) programs. The integrated functionality enables GCPS to develop
individualized student plans and have the objectives from those IEPs
appear in STORI for data collection to provide progress monitoring for
student achievement. Additional efficiencies include minimized duplicate
data entry, simultaneous access to student records and data collection
by multiple users, and electronic, real-time stakeholder document review.
With IEP Online™, the district was able to streamline its process, improve
compliance levels, and provide access to data in support of student and
program decision-making. The integration of IEP Online™ and STORI has
given GCPS the ability to track effectiveness of interventions and support
in special education, leading to better resource planning and student
outcomes. Additionally, the dashboard portal page provides GCPS with
important compliance information, assisting them with critical timeline
data.
“Please thank your team, a hundred times over, for their
willingness to deliver what GCPS needed. This will have a
dramatic impact on student learning and achievement, in
addition to teacher instruction. I look forward to moving
to Support and Maintenance and future projects with PCG.
This has been a great experience.”
Lori Hall - Instructional Support Center Team Lead
Gwinnett County Public Schools