Tracking Paraeducators’ Hours

The Towanda Area School District’s mission is to provide a positive learning environment that uses ongoing assessment data and research-based instructional strategies to help every student achieve academic, occupational, and social success.

A small, rural public school district located in central Bradford County, Pennsylvania, the Towanda Area School District covers the boroughs of Towanda and Monroe, as well as numerous townships encompassing approximately 163 square miles. The district serves a resident population of more than 11,000.

To learn more, please visit www.tsd.k12.pa.us.

The Challenge

The Towanda Area School District’s Special Education Department, like all districts in Pennsylvania, requires paraprofessionals to complete 20 hours of professional development each school year. While some training opportunities are provided within the district, paraeducators frequently attend external sessions and request that those hours be added to their logs.

Managing and recording these hours for a large number of paraeducators has proven to be both time-consuming and inefficient. Traditionally, schools have relied on paper logs, placing the responsibility on each paraeducator to manually track and submit their hours at the end of the year. This method lacks transparency and makes it difficult for supervisors to monitor progress or identify individuals who may be falling short of the requirement.

Another common approach involves paraeducators manually entering their hours into personal spreadsheets. However, this system does not offer supervisors real-time visibility, making it cumbersome to locate and review each individual’s log — especially while balancing the daily responsibilities of a Special Education Director. The process demands significant time and effort, often resulting in delays, missing entries, and inconsistent records.

Overall, both paper logs and spreadsheets have proven to be inefficient and error-prone, complicating reporting and compliance efforts across the district.

The Solution

To improve efficiency and accuracy, the Towanda Area School District began utilizing Paraeducator Reporting through Edulink’s Comply State Mandates and Compliance Tracking platform. This transition has delivered meaningful benefits for all parties involved:

• Staff can now log hours quickly and accurately from any device
• Supervisors gain real-time visibility into submissions and approvals
• Audit and compliance are simplified through centralized, time-stamped records

Comply provides supervisors with a streamlined way to assign training items to paraeducators, whether sessions are held in person or virtually. Paraeducators can submit feedback and upload evidence of completion, if needed — such as certificates — directly within the system.

The platform also supports paraeducators who attend trainings outside of the district. They can report their participation, include relevant details, and submit documentation for supervisor review and approval. Once approved, the hours are automatically recorded in a centralized report.

Paraeducators have access to their individual training history and total hours, while supervisors can view all staff logs in one convenient location. This has significantly improved reporting, simplified auditing, reduced administrative burden, and enhanced overall accountability.

Paraeducator Hours Request

Paraeducator Report

To learn more about Edulink’s Comply State Mandates and Compliance Tracking Software, contact us!