6 Ways Docusign Can Help K-12 Schools Do More with Less

The technological landscape is changing for K-12 schools. With higher expectations from parents, teachers, and students, and limited time or resources to meet these changing needs, schools are looking for a way to make the most of their technology investments.

Docusign eSignature has helped many learning institutions transition from paper to digital documents, saving time and money. Transforming paper-based processes helps schools offer a better experience for students and families, while making staff more efficient.

Here are 6 ways K-12 schools can accelerate key processes with Docusign.

1. Special education forms 

Dealing with multiple stakeholders inside and outside the school for 504 plans, IEPs, and other critical documentation is time-consuming and painful for all involved and creates regulatory burden and risk. Schools can improve the end-to-end process digitally with electronic signatures, document generation and management, and a complete audit trail.

2. Enrollment forms

Enrolling new students no longer requires families to make back-and-forth trips to fetch and return the necessary paperwork. Docusign eSignature eliminates the need for unnecessary travel by making the signup process easy and paperless. It allows parents to accelerate form completion, and spares school staff time they might have otherwise spent hunting down missing paperwork or signatures.

3. Permission slips 

Students aren’t always the best messengers, and the permission slips they’re tasked with bringing home often wind up lost inside a backpack abyss. Switching to eSignature for digital permission slips can prevent teachers from having to chase down paperwork, while avoiding back-and-forth email exchanges with parents.

4. Hiring and onboarding

Docusign can help make the hiring and onboarding a faster and better experience for schools to quickly bring on new talent. eSignature includes prebuilt templates for common HR forms to make processing employee information faster and easier.

4. Procurement contracts and purchase orders

Finalizing procurement contracts and purchase orders can be a hassle for district employees tasked with chasing down payments and signatures. Digitalizing such paperwork can help schools stay organized with electronic, easy-to-trace files while saving the time and money associated with paper-intensive procurement systems.

Spring Branch Independent School District saved $4 million through digital procurement initiatives, which enabled it to complete 80% of contracts within two days.

5. Student forms

Collecting signed hardcopies of health records, attendance reports, and academic performance records can be difficult when there isn't an easy want to manage and store them. Digitizing these documents makes it fast and easy to get the information, signatures, and store it all in one place. With eSignature, schools will have a central repository to store all documents, making them easier to retrieve and update.

6. Payments 

Without online systems, it can be difficult to keep track of payments made for field trips, school uniforms, lunches, and more. Accepting payment online makes the process a breeze for families, while improving a school’s ability to correct the right amount of money without errors.

Switching to digital processes yields many benefits for both employees and families. Staff can be more efficient when they aren’t spending hours chasing down documents and signatures, while busy parents can experience a streamlined way of interacting with their school for agreements. 

Experience the benefits firsthand by signing up for a free Docusign trial.