Tag Archives: Special Education

Solving Special Education Challenges with Bright SPED: A Complete and Compliant Solution

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K-12 special education management is about more than just compliance, although that is a very real concern for most school administrators. Special education (SPED) management is also about supporting educators, students, and families with tools that really work. Unfortunately, many schools face ongoing issues with their current SPED systems, including unexpected costs, unwieldy interfaces, poor tech support, and compliance risks.

Lumen Touch’s Bright SPED is designed to solve these challenges head-on, offering an all-in-one special-needs management solution that’s intuitive, compliant, and budget-conscious.

Challenge #1: “We need a complete and cost-effective SPED solution.”

Many SPED systems come with hidden costs, where extra is charged for essential features like translations, SIS integrations, and workflows. Other systems simply don’t include all the tools needed to manage the entire SPED program, forcing schools to piece together multiple systems.

Bright SPED delivers an all-inclusive product with no extra fees. And no surprises!

  • Supports 504, evaluation, IEP, and reporting – all in one system
  • Includes translations in over 100 languages at no cost
  • Offers easy-to-follow workflows and processes
  • Seamlessly integrates with SIS systems and enables SSO through SchoolDay
  • Enables data to be entered once and applied across the entire student plan

Challenge #2: “We’re struggling with state audits, losing time and funding as a result.”

When SPED systems fail to lock down compliance workflows, districts can fall out of alignment with state requirements, putting funding at risk and overwhelming educators with rework.

Bright SPED is built for compliance, with a proven 100% pass rate on state audits.

  • Developed in collaboration with state agencies to meet evolving requirements
  • Includes key workflows, automated alerts, and locked processes to ensure nothing is missed
  • Enables admin oversight, with an easy approval system for reviewing and revising documentation
  • Provides a built-in goal bank to help educators write complete, personalized, and compliant goals

Challenge #3: “Our current system is hard to use and hard to get support for.”

Teachers shouldn’t have to waste time trying to learn confusing technology. And they should not have to wait for hours or days to obtain tech support. Unfortunately, many software solutions fall short, offering poor user experience and outsourced support with added fees.

Bright SPED is simple, intuitive, and supported by a local, dedicated team.

  • Clean, role-based dashboards that guide users through daily tasks
  • Clearly defined processes that help educators stay on track
  • Goal bank and multilingual document translations to make communication with families seamless
  • Supported by Lumen Touch’s in-house team based in Missouri and Kansas – no third-party support required
  • Free monthly webinars and ongoing training to keep your team up to speed

Designed for Real-World Use

Bright SPED isn’t just another software product. It’s a true partner in support of SPED educators and administrators. With seamless SIS integration and widespread use in neighboring districts, student and staff transitions are smoother than ever. Whether a teacher is new to a district or a student is transferring from one school to another, Bright SPED ensures consistency and continuity.

Are You Ready to Simplify Your SPED Program?

Bright SPED from Lumen Touch is built to meet your district’s needs today and grow with you into tomorrow. Say goodbye to patchwork systems, compliance concerns, and hidden costs. Say hello to a better way to manage special education.

 Learn more at lumentouch.com

The Role of Technology in Special Education

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We believe learning should be personalized for all students. Special education, however, plays a critical role in creating equitable learning opportunities for students with disabilities. When teaching these students, many schools face a number of challenges, including managing accommodations set forth in each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP), to ensure that instruction is accessible and tailored to individual learning needs. For educators, administrators, and families, navigating these challenges can be overwhelming without the right support systems in place.

While a school’s committee for special education, which includes parents, parent representatives, educators, counselors, and school psychologists, is instrumental for developing and supporting students with special needs, technology is becoming increasingly essential in the special education sphere, offering solutions that improve accessibility, facilitate individualized instruction, and enable effective data tracking. With the right tools, schools can provide more inclusive and supportive environments for all learners.

How Technology Supports Special Education

Technology empowers special education professionals by introducing tools and platforms that meet the diverse needs of students:

  • Assistive technology tools: Innovations like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and alternative input devices help break down barriers to learning. These tools allow students to access content and communicate in ways that align with their abilities.
  • Digital IEP management: Managing IEPs can be a time-consuming and compliance-heavy process. Digital platforms streamline the development, tracking, and updating of IEPs, ensuring that every student’s unique plan is monitored and updated in real time.
  • Real-time communication and progress monitoring: Technology enhances collaboration among educators, specialists, and families. With digital communication tools and real-time data dashboards, everyone involved in a student’s education stays informed and aligned on progress and interventions.

Bright SPED by Lumen Touch Offers All-Inclusive Special Education Support

Lumen Touch’s Bright SPED system is a powerful, fully integrated special education management solution that supports educators in delivering personalized, compliant, and efficient services to students with special needs.

  • Comprehensive special education management: Bright SPED reinforces the entire IEP process, from referral and evaluation to development and implementation, within a single platform. The system ensures compliance with federal and state mandates while streamlining workflows for special education teams.
  • State-specific customization: Bright SPED is tailored to meet the unique reporting and documentation requirements of each state. This ensures that schools can maintain compliance and reduce the administrative burden often associated with special education reporting.
  • IEP development and tracking: The platform offers intuitive tools for creating, managing, and tracking IEPs. Educators can easily monitor student progress, update goals, and ensure that services are delivered as planned. Built-in validation and error-checking features help prevent mistakes and improve data accuracy.
  • Collaboration and communication tools: Bright SPED promotes collaboration among teachers, specialists, administrators, and parents. Centralized communication tools make it easier to schedule meetings, share documents, and keep all stakeholders informed and engaged.
  • Integration with other systems: As part of the Bright SUITE ecosystem, Bright SPED integrates seamlessly with other Lumen Touch modules, including general education, health, and assessment tools. This allows for a holistic view of students and supports more effective intervention planning.
  • Data security and access control: Lumen Touch ensures that sensitive student data is protected through secure access protocols. Role-based permissions guarantee that only authorized personnel can view or edit specific records, helping schools stay FERPA compliant. We have partnered with SchoolDay (formerly Global Grid for Learning) in order to provide you with a cutting-edge zero-trust ecosystem orchestration platform that will allow vendor integration with greater stability and scalability. 

Bright SPED is more than a software solution; it’s a mission-driven tool designed to reduce administrative obstacles, improve student outcomes, and support the entire special education process from start to finish.

Learn more about how Bright SPED can help your school.

Meeting Special Needs with Bright SPED

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More students than ever before are receiving individual education accommodations through 504s and IEPs. These accommodations are important and necessary, but they can place a tremendous burden on the classroom teacher responsible for implementing and managing the accommodations. How do districts make it easier for educators to deliver the education that students need without overtaxing them? Call Lumen™ Touch.

Equipping Teachers with the Right Tools

Writing goals, reporting student progress, and developing transition plans is often a time-consuming and aggravating process, especially when forced to use archaic evaluation systems. Educators must often focus on filling out forms rather than on accommodating students, putting the emphasis on paperwork completion and reporting compliance rather than on individualized education. It can be dehumanizing for both the teachers and the students.  

Automate the Paperwork

Bright SPED™ by Lumen Touch lifts the burden from educators, as well as others on the special education team, by automating the cumbersome paperwork and reporting processes. Bright SPED is designed to address complexities and changing dynamics in special education planning, development, and reporting. Powered by a data-driven infrastructure that does not rely on forms processing, Bright SPED delivers a comprehensive, timesaving, web-based tool for special education programs that meets federal and state compliance modifications in a timely way.

What Does Bright SPED Mean for Your School?

Bright SPED makes it easier for everyone in the district to provide quality, individualized instruction to students with special needs. IEPs can be reviewed, updated, and printed from the Lumen Touch interface. It’s quick and easy to review accommodations and student goals. It also guides teachers through the entire IEP process, including the time-consuming phase of developing annual goals and building IEPs. The solution is designed to provide support to staff and students as well as simplify communication with parents. Bright SPED also provides the ability to have all documentation (IEP, other special education forms, etc.) fully translated into the parent’s native language.

If meeting special ed mandates has overwhelmed your school and district, let Lumen Touch demonstrate how we can free you to focus on what’s important: educating students and creating the leaders we need for the future.  Email us at sales@lumentouch.com, call us at 816.880.0066, or visit www.lumentouch.com.

The Future of Special Education

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The past few years have proven that being proactive is the best measure against unpredictable and unexpected changes in education. We’ve seen the benefit of proactivity in measurable ways: Districts that already had mobile devices issued to their students faired better during the pandemic than their counterparts; districts that were already using edtech to deliver education in and out of the classroom faired even better.

But to create the inclusive, equitable future in education that we all want, students who are most vulnerable to unexpected and unpredictable changes – students on IEPs and 504s, and other students who require accommodations to their education – need to be prioritized in future planning.

The Complex and Dynamic Challenges of Managing Special Education

Today’s students are a complex and dynamic population, and districts are obligated to provide unique support and student management for everything from medical disorders and allergies to mental health and SEL to special needs accommodations. Facilitating the needs of students who require special learning accommodations through IEPs and 504s has often been quite laborious and paperwork intensive. And if the student’s services aren’t properly documented, the school may have difficulty getting reimbursements from Medicaid, which can be quite costly.

Special Education Management Does Not Have to Be Overwhelming or Costly

Schools that implement a stable, collaborative, and data driven system like Lumen Touch’s Bright SPED, which handles the unique needs of the school’s population, can save money and time while delivering a more comprehensive individualized education to students that lead to better outcomes. With funding riding on a compliant and accurate report of services and students, having a single platform like Bright SPED, in which data monitoring and compliance checks are built into the software, can help districts better manage their entire special education program.

Bright SPED Empowers Districts, Teachers, Students, and Parents

Bright SPED is an integrated IEP, 504 and Medicaid Billing management system designed for students, teachers, parents, and administrators. The Medicaid billing allows you to bring additional money back to the district more easily and effectively. Bright SPED has a customizable goal bank, automated notifications, and personalized dashboards for each user. These tools ensure all areas of IEPS are completed correctly and are fully compliant. Highlights include:

  • Simultaneous collaboration – no worries about overwriting some else’s input!
  • Customizable options to allow districts to track data efficiently and assist departments to increase improvement for state compliance.
  • Embedded progress monitoring tools offers parents understandable visuals to share the progress on IEP goals and objectives for their student.
  • Provides a data-driven infrastructure that does not rely on forms processing, allowing Bright SPED to meet Federal and State compliance modifications in a timelier manner.

Benefits of Bright SPED for Your School

Data Driven – Clear and concise data across all schools in a district.

Unified Platform – Bright SPED provides districts with a unified platform that Is adaptable to goals and efficiently manages Medicaid Billing.

Compliance Focused – Built-in compliance checks throughout the Bright SPED system help ensure success.

Customer Centered – The Lumen Touch team works with schools through implementation and beyond, always willing to make customized adjustments to meet the specific needs of a district.

Learn more about Bright SPED by Lumen Touch: https://www.lumentouch.com/sped

Bright SPED: Addressing ALL Student Needs During Uncertain Times

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We know that many of you are busy making plans to support all students during these uncertain times in our community and want you to know that we are here for you! We have been diligently following both federal and state updates as they are being released and will be making any adjustments to reporting requirements if necessary.

Special Students Still Need Support

Your Bright SPED system will continue to support communication with staff and student teams, progress reports, and IEP forms and documentation. Bright SPED is a multi-user system, allowing your team to work together on an individual record at the same time (but not on the same field).  Lumen Messenger and Case Notes create a space to have constant communication between team members. Since Bright SPED is a true, data driven system, all information is updated in real time. Electronic signatures within the system can be very helpful for the signing of your forms and for your participants meeting virtually.  Access to your site is available on any device, anywhere.

If you would like to know more on how your system can help you during these ‘virtual’ times, please feel free to register for an overview here.

We are also busy making updates to include a Bright SPED Parent Portal for districts to share with their parents.  This will allow for documentation to be shared and signed virtually, to ease virtual meetings and document processing.  Be on the lookout for these features in the next week.

We will be closely monitoring all updates and notifications from both federal and state officials.  If you have any questions or need any assistance, please never hesitate to reach out to us at help@lumentouch.com.