Dossier School Manual · Dossier School Manual Authored By Chris Walberg Description The Dossier Application is a online, secure, accessible application built to allow immediate sharing

Dossier School Manual

Authored By Chris Walberg

Description

The Dossier Application is a online, secure, accessible application built to allow

immediate sharing of specific or aggregate data to those who need it. The main focus of

the first phase of the project is IPP information recorded for students which is used in

three ways. First is to provide a standard for recording information collected during the

school year for students with Individual Education Plans. Second is to generate IPP

reports that will automatically gather a student’s data and progress based on the

information entered. Finally, reports can be generated on the aggregate data, for a school

or a collection of schools in the forms required by government agencies or for other data

gathering projects.

TRAINING SITE DESCRIPTION AND LOGINS AND ADDRESS

http://demo.dossiersystems.com

login: guest

password: guest

Users

Any user of the application can be given tailored access based on their duties, but default

roles exist to describe generic areas of access within the application.

1. Account Managers

Account Managers are users that have the ability to add and manage other users in the

system. This could be at the RMO (Regional Management Organization), EA

(Educational Authority), or School level. Managing includes altering a user’s rights

within the application, password management, and deactivating access to users that are

no longer affiliated with the system.

2. Administrators

These users are the RMO/EA Directors, School Principals, and other administrative

positions that have control over the general information of their associated location.

Access is granted to enter general or non-aggregate information required for reports, the

reports themselves, control student movement (transfers from school to school, assigning

to staff, etc.) and to modify their personal information.

3. Classroom Teachers

http://demo.dossiersystems.com/

As the title suggests these are the teachers within the school. They are able to view all

pertinent information about the students that they are assigned, and are able to enter some

of the IPP information, and modify personal information.

4. IPP Managers

These are the staff members in charge of the school’s IPP Program in general and/or

Special Education Teachers that work directly with the students. Full access is granted to

enter and view all IPP information, access the individualized student IPP reports, and

modify personal information.

5. Teaching Assistants

These staff members are the classroom, teacher, or education assistants within the school.

Access to view the IPP information of the students assigned to them, enter comments

within goals and objectives, and modify their personal information is granted.

6. Secretary

Staff members that are in charge of generic data entry fall into this category. Adding and

modifying students within the school, entering data into the school profile, and modifying

their personal information are among the access rights granted to these staff members.

Using the Application

A user must first login to be able to access the application. Enter the username

and password given to you and click LOGIN. If your username/password does not

work please contact the Account Manager in your location.

Home Page

After logging in to the system you are given your home page. This shows:

Top - links to HELP (not yet implemented), SUBMIT ISSUES (takes the user to

Intellinet’s Issue Traking and Resolution Page) and CONTACT ADMIN (email to the

system admin)

Top Right – If the user is active at multiple locations a drop down will show the

current location that the user is accessing. The logout button is located here as well. As

with most web applications it is important to use the LOGOUT button when your session

ends so that if someone attempts to use the browser’s history to access the app as you, the

login will be recognized as invalid. If you do not logout, or if you do not take any action

for a certain amount of time, you will be logged out and will need to login again.

Middle Row – Navigation Bar levl 1. This will look different depending on the

rights that you have within the application. Further screenshots will show that (with the

exception of HOME) a second nav bar will show further selections within the selected

Nav 1 category.

Rest of the Page – shows the application content of the navigation selections.

In this case the page is the HOME page, the first destination after logging in.

Here users have access to the calendar and messaging tools. Each of the tools has a

summary detailing events scheduled on the current day and new messages respectively.

Calendar Tool

When the VIEW CALENDAR TOOL button is pressed the following is seen:

You can add events to the calendar by clicking the red ADD NEW EVENT button.

An event consists of an event title which is the text that will be shown on the previous

calendar view, a date selection, a longer description of the event to give details, a

location, and an event type. Event types are

Personal – this event will only be shown to the user that entered the event

RMO, EA, SCHOOL – listed by name. The names listed will be the locations

that the user is a staff member of. The HEIRARCHICAL? Checkbox refers to

these selections. For example if an Educational Authority (with 3 schools) is

selected and the event is not made hierarchical then the even will show on the

calendars of users that are associated with that EA. If the event is made

hierarchical, then the users associated with the schools will see the event as well.

After saving the event:

A date on the main calendar can be selected and on the right hand side you will see the

summaries for events on that day.

Messenger Tool The messenger tool is a scaled down, email like, communication tool.

Sending a new message is accomplished by clicking the Send New Message link.

The Select Recipient drop down includes all users associated with the application. This

is to avoid the need for email addresses to make communications within the application

more efficient.

When a specific message is selected to view the message text is seen and the ability to

mark the message read (will no longer show up in the list by default) , and also to reply to

the message the is currently selected.

School Information

This navigation category includes general school information, defining of classes, school

staff, and other school level information that is used in reports.

School Contact

General contact information for the school; this section is self-explanatory.

If a user have access to edit the information the edit button is accessible.

If the school name or number is edited to be the same as one already in use the user will

be informed and the new information will not be saved.

School Staff

This section is used to add staff to the school, de-activate current staff, select attributes

that the staff member has, as well as to manage the user’s rights and password.

Note: the DELETE button will only perminatly delete a staff member if the user does not

exists at any other location and does not have any other records in the system (even as

simple as a login). This is so any user’s activities and history can be retrieved even if

they have left the system.

Adding Staff

A New Staff Member – this is a staff member that does not already exist in the system.

Existing Staff Member – this is a staff member that already exists in the system, perhaps

as an Account Manager and now needs staff rights, or a transfer from another location,

etc.

Manage User’s Rights

The above screen shows rights the user selected has within the application. The rights

work in a dependant fashion. View – a user can view this information but not anything

else. Modify – a user can edit information that they added in sections they can view.

Create – a user can create a new entry in a section. Delete – a user can delete entries that

they had made in the past.

For some of the categories some of the level can be redundant. For example the very first

entry “Reports” is simply a navigation category and no more than View is needed, but

there are no negative consequences of selecting a higher level for, say, descriptive

purposes. The rule of thumb should be that a user should be given, for each item, the

level that makes the most sense because in the future if options or functionality is added

to the application.

Change a User’s Password

When a user contacts a account manager about changing/forgetting a password, this

interface is used to accomplish this task.

School Profile

Information required that may not be able to be fully created by using aggragates

The populate aggregates button is used to fill in (currently) the general info (school

address, etc) and the enrollment. These values can then be edited to properly represent

actual numbers within the school.

*IMPORTANT: some of these values are used in the School SEP Report, so it is

required that these values be correct (enrollment at least)

SEP

This is where the non-aggregate information for the School Special Education Report is

filled in.

Overview

Section A: The comments typed here will be transferred to the Section A comment on

the School SEP report. Enter comments relevant to the description of the section and

click SAVE if they are correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save the comment.

Section B: Description of the school’s special education policy. Check the boxes that

apply to your school’s policy and enter a comment if necessary. Click SAVE if the

information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

Section C: Staff Qualifications. After selecting the staff member that you wish to record

information for, place checkmarks in the categories that are valid for the staff member.

This needs to be done for each staff member with any of these qualifications. Answers

the questions on the report such as “How many staff are …”. Click SAVE if the


Section D: Professional Development. Check the valid items for your school that were

offered this year. Click SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish

to save.

Section E: Professional Services. Select the services (and the employer) offered at your

school to high cost special needs students. Click SAVE if the information is correct,

CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

Section F: Other Agencies. Select the agencies that assist the school with high cost

special needs students. These can be community organizations or from outside the

community. Click SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to

save.

Section G: Parent/Caregiver Involvement. Check the descriptions that are valid within

your school policy. Click SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not

wish to save.

Section H: Special Education Needs. Estimate and comment about the funding needs to

increase support for special needs students. Click SAVE if the information is correct,

CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

Section I: Success Stories, Best Practices, and Suggestions for Improvement. Comments

made and saved here will show up in the proper area of the SEP report. Click SAVE if

the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

CLASSES

Currently the classes section is used for one purpose. Since to get accurate student

counts, it is preferred if all students are entered in the system even if they do not have an

IEP. For assigning students to classroom teachers this can be a time consuming task. By

creating classes (with a classroom teacher associated with it) and assigning student to the

classes the students are then automatically assigned to that staff member as well.

Editing a class will not change the students assigned to it, but if the staff members are

changed, students will be assigned/unassigned based on the new staff responsibilities.

Click SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

Adding a new class is achieved by entering the required information and clicking SAVE,

or CANCEL if the class is not needed.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

CONTACT

This section hold contact information for the staff member.

If editing is allowed the user can update his/her information as well as be able to change

their password. Name and email will be accessible as long as the user is active within

the system. If the user is inactive the information will still be accessible if the user has

selected “Keep my contact information…”. Also if other information is added in the

future (education/courses are planned) the user can select whether or not this information

will be available for searches, although it may be used in the aggregate for reports. Click

SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

REPORTS

This section allows a user to access reports.

The REPORT HOME section will be used in the future to allow for dynamic reports that

can be created on many different criteria.

The school profile report section allows the user to generate the full report (or a section of

it) for the selected school year. The Report will be accessed as a PDF file, so the user

must have a pdf reader installed on the computer to read the file. On Macs, use

Preview.app as the application to open pdfs.

The special education report section allows the SEP report to be generated for the current

school year. The Report will be accessed as a PDF file, so the user must have a pdf

reader installed on the computer to read the file. On Macs, use Preview.app as the

application to open pdfs.

STUDENTS

Student List – This is a full list of students that are entered for the school. A specific

student can be searched for (by last name), or the list can be narrowed by grade. If a

student has been deactivated (left the school, but has not been transferred), then they will

be shown if the “Include inactive students” checkbox is selected.

When editing a student’s information there are 5 tabs. The first is the student registration

(grade, registration date, active) and personal information. The following 4 tabs are

contact information for the student, emergency contact, and parent/guardian. When any

tab is edited the user is required to click SAVE or the information will not be updated.

Student Promotion

This section is used at the end of the year to update the student registration for the next

year. If the student is “promoted”, then the student registration for the next year will be

for the next numeric grade. All student information (other than grade) will stay the same

and the IPP information will be moved to the new registration record. The user may click

the heading “Promote” to by default select all students, or may select students

individually. Again SAVE must be clicked to save the selections made, students with

neither promote or hold back selected will not be registered in the next school year.

Assigning Students

When students are assigned to a staff member, that student then is displayed on the My

Students list for that user which give access to IPP information.

To a class: Explained above (School Information - Classes). Once selections are made

(Ctrl-Click to make multiple selections of students) and the arrow(s) are pressed to move

the students between the on screen boxes the changes are saved.

To a Staff Member: Similar to assigning to a class, students are assigned and unassigned

simply by pressing the corresponding arrow between the on screen boxes.

Student Transfers

When a student moves from one school to another within the system, it is important to

“transfer” that student so that his/her IPP information is accessible to the new school.

There are two sides to this process.

1. The new school that the student is transferring to. When inputting the student into

your school, you see that the student “already exists”, but is not on your school’s

student list. Select “Request a Transfer” and enter the student’s name and date of

birth. When you click Get Student Info, the page will display the contact

information of the school the student’s record is currently attached to. Click

Request Transfer and the old school will transfer the student’s records.

2. The old school the student was last at. Under Releases Pending a list of Requested

Transfers will be seen. After doing any required due diligence click Approve to release

the student’s information and complete the transfer.

Importing a Student List

Currently the application supports simple excel or comma separated files. Once the files

are created to the template examples given in the links, the user can Upload File. The

application will read the file (displaying an error message if there is an error with the

format)

At this stage you will see a listing of all the students from the import file with the last

column detailing any errors or required information that is missing. Required

information at this time is name, grade, and date of birth (grade MUST be in the form of

K4, K5, K, or G# where # is 1 - 12).

Once any errors in the import file have been straightened out, the records can then be

imported. Each record will either add a student to the application or will update the

information for a student that exists at the school. If the add/update fails a reason will

show in the right hand column (if the student needs to be transferred from another school

for example).

Review Student Documents

This section can be used to keep track of comments about parent meetings, meetings with

other professionals about a student, etc.

My Students

This list shows all students that have been assigned to the user. The user has the ability

to view registration and contact information and access the student’s IPP records

IPP

A user will have VIEW or VIEW and EDIT buttons for each section based on the access

rights they have within the school. If only VIEW is accessable then the EDIT is done by

someone else within the school. If EDIT is visible then you are responsible for entering

and verifying information within this section.

The user can also generate the student’s IPP report. The report will be accessed as a PDF

file, so the user must have a pdf reader installed on the computer to read the file. On

Macs, use Preview.app as the application to open pdfs.

Section 1: Student Educational Information. The information in this section directly

relates to the identification of the student’s special education needs. This section is

important due to the number of questions on the School SEP report that will be defined

based on information in this section. Referred, assessed, qualified, consent, iep, and

special education code are all required to be correct for the SEP report to be valid. Click

SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

Section 2: Student Testing History. This section is to record the formal assessments that

were completed. The assessment data should include reports from specialized assessments. For

example: assessments by medical doctors, psychologists, speech language pathologists, etc.

A user that has edit access can add a new record or edit any record that they themselves

added. A user cannot edit a record added by another user. Click SAVE if the


Section 3: LEPA (Level of Education Performance and Achievement). The level of

performance means “assessed skill development in academic and other areas such as

adaptive functioning, behavior, cognition, communication and physical development.

Levels of performance should be reported annually for each area that has a related IPP

goal. Academic performance in IPPs is most useful when it is reported as grade level

equivalent scores. It may be necessary to break subject areas into different types of skill

areas. This section should also include summaries of classroom assessments (i.e. writing

samples, math skills inventories, reading miscue analysis, behavior and work habit

checklists and other informal assessments that clearly link directly with IPP goals).

A user that has edit access can add a new record or edit any record that they themselves

added. A user cannot edit a record added by another user. Click SAVE if the


Section 4: ASTD (Areas of Strength, Areas to Develop). The learning team may use

information from both specialized assessments and current level of performance to

identify areas of strength and specific needs/areas of growth. If an item is identified as

an area to develop it should be associated with a goal and/or objective.

Click the appropriate column (strength or weakness) for items valid for the student. The

user can also add a comment to communicate the reasons for the selections to other users

responsible for the student. These comments will not show up on any reports and are for

school communication purposes only. A user can also add items to the list that are not

part of the set of items already displayed by filling in the “Other” text box, selecting a

check box and clicking SAVE. Any number of “other” items can be added this way.

Click SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you do not wish to save.

Section 5: CAMR (Classroom Accommodations / Modifications Required). Required

accommodations must be listed on the IPP. An accommodation is a change or alteration

in the regular way a student is expected to learn., complete assignments or participate in

classroom activities. Accommodations include special teaching or assessment strategies,

equipment or other supports that remove, or at least lessen, the impact of student’s special

needs. The goal of accommodations is to give students with special education needs the

same opportunity to succeed as other students. Any accommodations requested on a

provincial achievement test must be reflected in the IPP.

Click the column for items valid for the student. The user can also add a comment to

communicate the reasons for the selections to other users responsible for the student.

These comments will not show up on any reports and are for school communication

purposes only. A user can also add items to the list that are not part of the set of items

already displayed by filling in the “Other” text box, selecting the check box and clicking

SAVE. Any number of “other” items can be added this way. Click SAVE if the


Section 6: SCS (School and Community Services). Required support services should be

identified on the IPP. The IPP should include an ongoing list of what services the student

actually receives, with dates, types of services and names of service providers entered.

This section is also important to the SEP Report so it is important that the information is

valid.

Click the column for items valid for the student and whether the service was required

and/or received. The user can also add a comment to communicate the reasons for the

selections to other users responsible for the student. These comments will not show up

on any reports and are for school communication purposes only. A user can also add

items to the list that are not part of the set of items already displayed by filling in the

“Other” text box, selecting the check box and clicking SAVE. Any number of “other”

items can be added this way. Click SAVE if the information is correct, CANCEL if you

do not wish to save.

Section 7: GO (Goals and Objectives). This section…

The goals and objectives are the heart of the IPP process and provide the framework for

programming decisions. Goals and objectives must be measurable so that students,

teachers, parents and others involved in the IPP process may gauge how well students are

progressing toward achievement of their goals. Without measurability, progress cannot

be monitored. (For more information See the Alberta Education IPP- Chapter 7: Making

Goals Meaningful, Measurable and Manageable.

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A student’s objective achievement is calculated by way of the progress recorded on each

objective that is active for the student. This is achievement is used in the SEP report.

This section also has its own report. The Goals Report will be accessed as a PDF file, so

the user must have a pdf reader installed on the computer to read the file. On Macs, use

Preview.app as the application to open pdfs.

The user can only modify entries that they made. Entries made by others cannot be

edited.

Section 8: YER (Year End Reflection). The year-end reflection describes what goals,

accommodations and strategies were most successful for the student over the past school

year. The summary should also include recommendations for new goals,

accommodations that should be continued and programming considerations for the

upcoming school year.

Entries can be edited by anyone that has edit access for this section. Click SAVE if the


Section 9: STP (Student Transition Plan). Planning for transition begins each September

and is an ongoing process throughout each school year. The IPP must contain

information about upcoming transitions in the student’s learning environment, and plans

for preparing and supporting the student for these new situations and challenges.

Files can also be added to be linked to the transition plan. These files will be available as

links to be accessed at a later time.



Section 10: SBI (Student Background Information). This section includes information

that does not fit in any other section but has an impact on the child’s learning (i.e.

attendance concern).



SPELL CHECKING IN A BROWSER

SAFARI

The Safari browser supports both dynamic (i.e., "as you type") and context-based spell

checking. To activate the browser's native support for dynamic spell checking:

1. Place the cursor in a text entry field.

2. Click Edit on the menu bar and select Spelling -> Check Spelling as You Type.

A small checkmark should appear to the left of the Check Spelling as You Type option,

indicating that spell checking is now active. From this point forward, Safari will check

any text you enter and alert you to possible errors by adding a dashed red underline to

any potentially misspelled words. Press and hold the [CONTROL] key while left-

clicking the indicated word. A context menu (similar to the one illustrated below) will

open and should present one or more possible corrections; highlight the proper word and

Safari will replace it in the text field.

If the word is spelled correctly but still marked as a potential mistake, choose "Ignore

Spelling" to skip the word or "Learn Spelling" to add the word to Safari's dictionary.

Note: The Check Spelling as You Type feature only remains active as long as Safari is

open; it must be reactivated each time the browser starts.

Safari also supports context-based spell checking. To use this feature on a single word or

phrase:

1. Highlight the text to be checked.

2. Press and hold the [CONTROL] key while left-clicking the indicated word(s).

3. Select the correct word from the context menu or choose "Ignore Spelling" or

"Learn Spelling" as necessary.

To use context-based checking on every word in a text area (such as a large text box):

1. Place the cursor in the text area to be checked.

2. Press and hold the [CONTROL] key while left-clicking inside the text area.

3. Choose Spelling -> Check Spelling from the menu.

4. Correct, ignore, or add each potential misspelling by [CONTROL] left-clicking

the marked words in turn.

Both of these context-based methods of spell checking are also available by clicking Edit

on the menu bar and selecting one of the options under Spelling.

FIREFOX 1.5

Firefox users will need to download and install an extension to perform spell checking;

the browser does not support this feature natively.

One such extension is Spellbound 0.7.3, available at the Sourceforge web site. Extensive

installation and usage directions are available on the Spellbound site. Versions for

Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX are available for no charge.

FIREFOX 2.0

Firefox 2.0 has spellchecking built in

Internet Explorer

Like Firefox, Internet Explorer requires additional software to spell check text areas.

ieSpell is a free plugin that can be added to the Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP versions of

Internet Explorer 5.0 and later. Full installation and use instructions are available on the

ieSpell web site.

NOTES FOR THE 2006-2007 VERSION OF THE SEP REPORT

Based on Treaty 6 education guidelines here is a description of how some of the answers

for the report are generated.

1a. Coded students where placement is part or full time (Student Educational

Information section - Placement)

1b. 1a that have IEP checked.

2a. Coded students where placement is in a regular classroom

2b. 2a that have IEP checked

3. Students with codes that are NOT 99

4. Students with code 99

5. Referred is checked and initial assessment date is within the school year (Student

Educational Information section)

6. Currently assessed is checked and assessment date is within the school year (Student

Educational Information section)

7. Items in 6 and Qualified for Special Education is checked and student is NOT code 99

http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/

http://www.iespell.com/

8. Items in 6 and Qualified for Special Education is checked and student IS code 99

9. Count of students where the current goal objective progress average is 50 or more

10. In section b of SCHOOL INFORMATION – SEP section B

11 through 15 SCHOOL INFORMATION – SEP section c

21. SCHOOL INFORMATION – SEP section b – parents/caregivers options