Delivering a Solution for a Statewide Tutoring Program
Solix Case Study
Situation
A large statewide Department of Education (DOE) needed a trusted partner to deliver a comprehensive tutoring initiative aimed at helping students whose education was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives
- Utilize Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to offer K-12 students up to $1,500 for supplemental literacy and math tutoring to restore proficiencies to pre-pandemic levels.
- Enable parents to find nearby in-person tutors or virtual options.
- Provide a reliable support system for both tutors and parents to address all questions and concerns.
Challenges
- Develop a secure, user-friendly, and easily navigable online portal that confirms eligibility in real-time.
- Implement checks and balances to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse with minimal burden on applicants.
- Allow tutors to submit both individual and bulk reimbursement requests efficiently.
- Ensure stakeholders can easily access critical program information.
Solution
- Created a user-friendly portal allowing parents and tutors to access student eligibility, use a built-in geo-mapping tool to locate tutors, submit invoices, generate reports, and track KPIs efficiently.
- Integrated with the DOE’s student database for automatic eligibility verification.
- Offered email and phone support to help parents and tutors with registration, troubleshooting, reimbursement submissions, and session approval.
- Implemented a review process to ensure disbursements were accurate and compliant.
- Developed self-service reporting and analytics dashboards to monitor program participation and tutor reimbursements.
- Provided the DOE with properly formatted compliant reports to meet federal reporting guidelines.
Results
- Over 19,275 registered students and 290,000+ approved tutoring sessions, with more than $13.2 million disbursed.
- Significant gains on a key national test, with its 4th graders leading the nation in reading progress and the state reaching its highest-ever ranking.