WISPC + School Technology Associates – Benefits for Washington State

Since WSIPC partnered with Skyward in 2001, School Technology Associates has been servicing WSIPC customers to provide solutions unique to the needs of Washington. WSIPC provides a centrally deployed hosting solution that offers full backup capabilities and third party integration. They also take care of patches, buying hardware, backups, maintenance, and other aspects of maintaining a data center for Washington state school districts. Currently, School Technology Associates has three approved RFP’s with WSIPC. The RFP’s are approved based on WSIPC’s specific criteria that insures solutions address the software and technology service needs of K-12 education providing the best technology at the lowest cost. School Technology Associate’s awarded RFP’s are 16-5 Security Solutions, 17-06 School Management Peripherals, and 17-08 Identity Access and Management Solutions. This year School Technology Associates launched a WATCH (Washington Access to Criminal History) integration with their Visitor Management system to help streamline the needs of Washington schools even further. With this new integration, staff are able to save time and do not need to log into WATCH in a separate tab and enter the volunteers information to complete the background check.

The Visitor Management system allows a simple link for volunteers to apply on the schools website. With the WATCH integration when the volunteer applies it will automatically run their information in WATCH and complete the check. “It cuts down on running the checks manually and speeds the volunteer application process approval to within minutes.” said Randy Celori of Lake Stevens School District, a current user of the WATCH integration.

Washington state not only has WATCH background check requirements but also the Becca Law, which went into effect on August 1, 2018. This law contains specific requirements for handling student absences from school. School Technology Associate’s Tardy Kiosk and Positive Attendance solutions can help office staff stay on top of student tardies and absences by having the student scan in and the timestamp instantly recorded within Skyward. With the information being automatically logged in Skyward, the disciplines can also be set up, for example after 3 unexcused absence an automatic email notice is sent to parents.

Moving forward, partnered with WSIPC, School Technology Associates will continue to find solutions and create custom products that will meet Washington state school’s specific needs.