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December 17, 2021 • News
Absence management is tricky business for school districts—especially amid the substitute shortage, which is growing before our very eyes.
More and more school districts are upgrading their absence and substitute management systems to fill absences faster, attract more substitutes, and streamline administrative processes. In fact, hundreds of school districts have made the switch to Red Rover, and Columbus City Schools is one of them.
Find out what prompted Columbus City Schools to make the switch, results the district has achieved since then, and what the future holds for its Red Rover partnership.
Columbus City Schools—located in Columbus, Ohio—is the largest school district in the state of Ohio as of June 2021, with 46,686 students enrolled during the 2020-21 school year. With such a large school district, you can imagine how important absence and substitute management is—but Columbus City Schools was simply ill-equipped.
Like many school districts, Columbus City Schools struggled with plummeting substitute fill rates and empty classrooms that threatened student learning. Outdated technology in the form of a phone-only legacy system just wasn’t meeting the mark any longer, so when its contract was up, district administrators knew it was time to make a change.
Columbus City School administrators evaluated three different absence management solutions before selecting Red Rover and kick-starting the request for proposals process. What stood out about Red Rover’s technology? Here’s why Columbus City Schools chose Red Rover:
Red Rover’s extensive reporting capabilities provide Columbus City Schools administrators with much greater visibility into what’s going on in their district. Plus, all sensitive data is secure, accurate, and available for analysis 24/7.
Manually filling absences is time-consuming and inefficient for time-strapped districts. With Red Rover’s intuitive interface, process automation, and text message notifications, Columbus City Schools can fill absences automatically without ever lifting a finger.
No two school districts have identical needs or handle things the same way. Red Rover’s absence management software is completely flexible, with the ability to be customized to meet each district’s specific needs. For example, Columbus City Schools loves the ability to deploy different rules for those in various collective bargaining units.
In addition to each of these key features, the team at Columbus City Schools appreciated Red Rover’s overall ease of use and how modern and intuitive the software is. The implementation process was also smooth sailing from day one:
“The Red Rover team was great and put in extra time and attention,” Eric Ulus, Manager, Human Resources Administration explained. “Our district has a lot of variables, and they were able to quickly assist or pivot when needed. It was an overall smooth process, and our point of contact did an amazing job with helping us to set the system up.”
So what does the future look like for Red Rover and Columbus City Schools?
The information technology team at Columbus City Schools is currently working closely with Red Rover to not only take full advantage of all of the features available today but also to start to utilize modern webhooks and APIs for more real-time data transfer in the days ahead.
Columbus City Schools is just one of 400+ school districts that have recognized Red Rover as the best of the best in absence management technology. Schedule a demo to learn how Red Rover can help your school district increase fill rates, streamline absence management processes, and more.
