Giving underprivileged children a head start in life is more difficult now than ever before. Broken homes, urban violence, poorly-funded school districts, inadequate access to health care and constant increases in the cost of living are making life more and more challenging for these kids every day. That’s why, for the disadvantaged youngsters in Los Angeles County, the Head Start-State Preschool program is so vital to their well-being and future success.

Created in 1965, Head Start is the most successful national school readiness program in the United States. It provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. All told, nearly 25 million preschool-aged children have benefited from the program nationwide.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) operates the largest Head Start-State Preschool program in the country, contracting with 26 agencies that employ a staff of more than 3,000 people and serve more than 25,000 children—and their families—in the greater L.A. area each year alone. Of course, with that many clients comes all kinds of records: attendance tracking, child abuse and accident reporting, growth charts, fiscal reports and more. Organizing and ensuring fast access to them all was becoming a major problem.

Dealing with Data Silos

“Head Start has three units that monitor the services we provide and the agencies we contract with,” says Shirley Lee, an administrative analyst with LACOE. “In order to get a full picture of the agency, you need to be able to review content from all three units at once. Prior to implementing Laserfiche, each unit was its own data silo. It took a lot of time and effort to track down all of the information necessary to gain a 360 degree view of our operations.”

Head Start’s three monitoring units are:

• Program Review and Support (PRS). Manages program-related information from children and their families, health and social services, and personnel.
• Internal and External Affairs (IEA). Manages information related to enrollment and attendance, funding and program goals and objectives.
• Fiscal Operations and Support (FOS). Manages financial information and ensures that costs are necessary, allowable, reasonable and allocable.

According to Lee, centralizing the agency’s approach to data governance was a key driver for implementing an enterprise content management (ECM) solution. Other drivers included:

• Inadequate storage space. LACOE used massive quantities of paper to print out hardcopy records relating to the Head Start program. The file room was constantly overflowing, and employees were always on the lookout for additional storage space.
• Missing files. Inconsistent labeling, the lack of a file index, ineffective check-in/check-out procedures and uncontrolled access to the filing room led to a large number of lost and misplaced files, as well as concerns over information security.
• Decreased productivity. Staff members spent many hours storing, retrieving and searching for documents. Because records could not leave the file room, employees needed to photocopy any document they wished to review at their desks, consuming even more time and paper.

“We were all tired of running around to the various monitoring units looking for documents that were stored all over the place,” explains Lee. “Our old way of doing things made it difficult to get a comprehensive view of the program, ensure compliance with county requirements and guarantee document security.”

Giving Head Start a Leg Up

Laserfiche has helped LACOE’s Head Start-State Preschool program improve efficiency by digitizing student documentation. Using Laserfiche, the Head Start program now scans all paper documents and stores them, along with electronic content, in a central, secure Laserfiche repository.

According to Lee, the specific benefits Head Start has realized as a result of implementing Laserfiche content management include:

1. Centralized, secure records management. Today, all records and content from the agency’s three monitoring units are stored electronically in the Laserfiche repository. With a single click, authorized employees can easily access all of the information they need from PRS, IEA and FOS to gain a complete, 360 degree view of the agency’s operations.
2. Storage savings. Without the need to save thousands of paper records, LACOE has decreased the size of its filing room so that it has more room for what really matters: better serving its students and their families. The old filing room now serves as a large conference room that can comfortably accommodate a greater number of attendees.
3. Fewer missing files. Laserfiche has eliminated many of the causes that led to lost or missing files, including inconsistent file naming, ineffective check-in/check-out procedures and uncontrolled access to the filing room. Drop-down lists ensure standardized file names, Audit Trail functionality enables LACOE employees to ensure that files have been scanned into the system and tracks who has worked with particular documents, and Laserfiche security limits access to authorized users.
4. More efficient employees. With the help of ECS Imaging, the agency’s Laserfiche reseller, LACOE employees use copiers to scan batch jobs into the system, where Quick Fields automatically indexes and files them into the appropriate Laserfiche folders. This has enabled easy scanning and instant search and retrieval from the comfort of each employee’s desk, saving time and effort.

“We thought we were just getting a repository to hold our electronic files, but Laserfiche is so much more,” says Lee. “Laserfiche content management is helping our whole agency become more organized and efficient. You will be amazed at what it can do for you!”

Tags: county office of education, Education, Head Start, preschool, real estate, records management, reporting, security, standardization

Posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 3:47 pm under Customer Stories, Education. You can comment on this post.