“They’re heeeerrrre.”
The yearly blitz of back-to-school commercials featuring more backpacks, binders, and (spoiler alert) carabiner hand sanitizers than you can shake a stick at, seems to be the international sign to turn in your flip-flops and start setting your alarm clock again.
Whew!
Ready or not, it’s the beginning of a new school year once again, and let’s face it, it can be chaotic for you and your staff as you prepare to take on that first week of student registration.
Student enrolments (current and new), are going to demand a lot of your time and attention.
If your enrolment management system isn’t providing a streamlined process for student registration...it may be time to simplify things!
Here are some important factors to consider if you are looking to upgrade your enrolment management system this year:
- Flexibility
- Ease of use
- Reliability & accuracy
Is your enrolment management system making the beginning of your school year easier or causing unnecessary stress?
Let’s find out.
Challenges of Student Enrolment
The admissions process has many moving parts.
If those parts are disconnected or clumsily executed, enroling a student can become a laborious task susceptible to errors.
Challenge 1: There is a massive amount of paperwork involved.
Even though you may have the benefit of an online admissions system, the amount of paperwork that must be uploaded is mind-boggling.
Here are a few of the items that a new enrolment requires:
- Proof of age (birth certificate or passport)
- Proof of residency (lease, property tax notice, or utility bill)
- Health records (hearing, vision, dental, and immunization records)
- Proof of legal guardianship
- Other school records (if transferring from another school)
Not to bog you down with too many details, but just think about the time it will take to individually upload each one of those documents and input the necessary information.
And, that’s for each child being enrolled.
And, unfortunately, some processes also include asking the parents to print off additional forms, fill them out, and then return them to the school to be manually inputted into the system.
That’s a lot of unnecessary steps.
Challenge 2: Parents unclear of how to use your admissions system.
The excitement of a new school year can quickly morph into irritation as parents realize just how much paperwork they have to gather and upload in order to get their child registered for school. (We don’t want to make this process any more difficult than it has to be!)
Giving parents the option to upload all of their paperwork themselves at their convenience is great...but that’s irrelevant if they don’t understand how to use your system in the first place.
If a parent doesn’t upload the items properly, they will end up wasting time calling the school, asking questions, and having to redo something they have already invested a lot of time on...which is frustrating.
If your admissions process isn’t user-friendly for the parents, it directly affects the staff as well.
They will end up spending extra time teaching the parents how to upload paperwork, fix the mistakes, and overall do damage control when their time would be better spent enroling students and getting ready for the new year.
Challenge 3: There are other administrative duties that demand time.
As you know, enrolment is just one piece of the pie when it comes to starting a new year.
Other responsibilities include (but certainly aren’t limited to) onboarding new teachers, getting a new professional learning schedule, and making sure the custodial and nutrition staff have what they need to be ready.
Since administrators have a lot of people to keep on track it’s important to assure it all goes smoothly...for each area, and admissions are just one of many.
Enrolment is a big job, but it shouldn't add any extra challenges for your staff or families as you begin the new school year.
If you are experiencing challenges with your complicated admissions system, an all-in-one school management system may be your answer if you want a more effortless enrolment process.
Let’s take a look at how an all-in-one platform could improve the way you enrol students.
Benefits of a Streamlined Student Enrolment Management System
1. Saves Time
When you reduce the amount of paperwork to deal with, you spend less time manually entering information and have more time for face-to-face interaction.
You will also maximize productivity by avoiding the time-stealing ritual of filing mounds of paperwork only to collect dust and take up valuable space.
Administrators that use an all-in-one online platform have easy access to numerous enrolment applications at a time which eliminates digging through cramped filing cabinets every time they need to retrieve one application.
This frees up time for you and your staff to enjoy meeting and greeting families as they sign up for a new year.
2. Easy for Parents to Use
Most online platforms allow parents an option to do online enrolment.
Simplifying the process with a user-friendly platform allows parents to take ownership over part of the enrolment process; it’s nice when parents can enrol students on their own time when it’s convenient for them.
A big benefit of parents inputting their own information is that it takes quite a bit of the load off of the school staff granting them more time to do tasks that really need more of their attention than manual data entry.
When families can effortlessly be included in the enrolment process, they take ownership and as a result, have a better sense of clarity and control.
This improves family engagement!
3. Customizable
Because school districts work independently of one another, it’s important to have a system that can meet the distinct needs of your school’s enrolment process.
Many systems today offer the flexibility of multi-stage workflows. This allows forms to be customized to whoever is in the portal whether it is for a parent, a student, or a staff member.
A customizable system allows you to configure the system for different needs, yet keeps that information being entered all in one area.
Customization also grants you the ability to build custom applications that allow you to gather the exact data you need on each student typically with an easy drag and drop form builder.
When you can simply drag and drop what you need in a form, not only is your set-up process simplified, but it can grow with you as your school makes changes.
4. Reliable
The last area, and probably the most important (since we are talking personal information) is reliability.
Automation not only means eliminating paperwork, but also means better accuracy and easier communication with staff, parents, and students.
The ability for a family to update their personal information in real-time enables the school to have the most accurate, up-to-date contact information. This means frustrations like calling a student’s home only to find the number has been disconnected can be eliminated.
Automation also ensures accurate enrolment numbers. This is crucial for administration when it comes to creating classes and staffing appropriately.
And finally, probably the most important aspect of reliability, is protection from cyberattacks.
All-in-one systems like MySchool provide resources to assure that all of that data remains protected and is therefore safe.
Final Thoughts
Ok, let’s recap.
A good place to start if you want to (ahem) truly enjoy the beginning of your school year, is to use an all-in-one platform that eliminates clunky processes and disconnected procedures.
If you do choose to go with an all-in-one platform, here’s what you can expect for student enrolment:
- User-friendly access for staff, parents, and students
- A customizable system that meets your school’s specific needs and grows with you
- Accurate data you can rely on to make decisions for the school year
So what does all of this goodness equal?
A sure-fire way to experience less chaos at the beginning of the year and enjoy happy unstressed staff, students, and parents who are all excited to begin a new school year.
If you would like more information on how to streamline your enrolment management system, with an all-in-one platform, please book a free demo with MySchool.
