Guilford County Schools (GCS) Case Study

District Facts

Location: Greensboro, NC
K-12 Enrollment: 69,355
Staff: 10,033 total
Certified: 4,766 Teachers
Administrators: 83
Facilities/Buildings: 126

Demographics: 41.69% of students in the district reported being Black, 29.25% White, and 17.15% Hispanic. 66.34% of students reported being economically disadvantaged.

Student Acquisition and Retention Scaled During Pandemic

The Challenge

Guilford County Schools (GCS), one of the nation’s 50 largest school districts, was dealing with a challenging, expensive, and outdated enrollment process to enroll tens of thousands of students into their more than 120 schools each year. District leaders feared the current complex process was pushing families away, to schools outside of GCS, simply because they found the process too daunting. GCS was ready for a change and decided to move all its K-12 enrollment processes online at exactly the right time, just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Results (Data Points):

Increase in Enrollment

With school offices closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, parents were able to access the online platform and complete the K-12 enrollment process from the comfort of their homes.
Avoided costly, frustrating, and error-prone data entry as parents enter their child’s information directly into the system.
Expanded new programs, including virtual schools, to accommodate needs during school closures and used the platform to make these programs accessible to all families.
Significantly reduced the drain on resources (such as hiring temporary staff to manually enter data and purchasing paper, file folders, labels, and copy machines) with all processes running smoothly online.
Maintained open lines of communication with parents and families, through emails and text messages, to ensure all pieces of information were completed and deadlines were met.

The Solution

Identify K-12 enrollment system deficiencies and migrate processes to an online platform.
Adapt the system as needed to meet unexpected and complex circumstances and keep student enrollment processes running smoothly.
Focus more on families by streamlining the process and maintaining up-to-date communications.
Manage student data from anywhere and make enrollment decisions in real-time.

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