When a parent or guardian requests that a student transfer to another school, a rather lengthy workflow process typically begins.
A school transfer starts with the parents completing an initial request form. This is more often than not a paper form that contains all the basic information about the student, the schools, and the reason for the transfer request. They submit the form to the Student Registration Office of the school to which the student is requesting to transfer. Unfortunately, the process doesn’t end here; additional forms and documentation specific to the student’s reason for requesting a transfer are necessary for the Principal to make a final decision on whether or not the transfer will be approved.
Transfer Requests: Documentation Requirements
The chart below outlines some of the reasons that a student can apply for transfer and the huge amount of documentation that these requests require. Each of these forms needs to be verified and approved as part of the Transfer Request workflow. It is also possible that more than one of the below categories applies to a single student, necessitating multiple supporting documents. When you think about the number of documents circulating around numerous desks, it’s not surprising that a Transfer Request often results in missing documentation or upsetting slowdowns at some point in the process.
| Allowable Reason for Transfer | Documentation Required |
| Child Care Hardship | Parents must provide documentation in the form of an Affidavit proving that attempts have been made to secure childcare within the school boundaries. |
| Medical, Emotional, or Social Adjustment | This requires detailed documentation such as a medical or psychological treatment plan from a licensed medical professional. |
| Parent Employed by School | Parents or guardians must indicate the school location on the application and request for their child or children to attend the school where they have just been hired. |
| Senior Status | Students who are currently attending the requested school who will be moving to a different area, yet wish to complete their studies at that same school, must submit a written request. |
| Siblings | For children who live in the same household, but attend different elementary, middle or high schools, the parent can provide a written request for one or more students transfer so that all can attend the school (assuming grade levels are appropriate for their children). |
Making the Process Easier: The Paperless Solution
A paperless solution enables administrators, parents, and everyone else involved to complete these documents online and automatically transfer them to the correct person at the correct school. An electronic student transfer system can also capture information from a scanned digital document and process it automatically, or it can function entirely electronically using fillable online HTML or PDF documents.
Once the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system verifies that the all the fields are filled out with valid information, it routes the document via workflow and sends email notifications to the various parties when a document requires their attention. The workflow operates like so:
- The secretary at the requesting school ensures all fields are filled out correctly.
- The principal at the requesting school signs the document.
- The principal at the requested school signs the document.
- The two student services departments arrange for the student transfer.
Following their decision, the ECM (Electronic Content Management) system generates an approval (or denial) letter that the school prints out for the parent or guardian. This process could also be made digital. All the signatures, forms, and information are stored securely within the Human Resources’ document management solution.
The Benefits of Paperless Transfers
Using Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technology, all student documents can be saved in a secure location so that staff can easily access them at any time. Providing this documentation online minimizes the risk of human error and streamlines the process for greater efficiency – so that parents and administrative staff can get back to their high value tasks. The right Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system can help public school systems to save time in many of the small, but important, administrative tasks.