Leveraging shared technology between DataHouse and TeamPraxis creates major win for the Hawaii Department of Education
DataHouse’s eCSSS is a customized digital information system for Hawaii State DOE teachers, counselors, administrators, and service providers to identify, track, and empower students at-risk, with disciplinary incidents, and special needs.
‘ike Companies Thrive Together as a Team
One of the major benefits for both our clients and staff is that ‘ike (our parent company) is a dynamic family of companies that take advantage of shared methodology, technology, and IP to bring about ground-breaking success for our clients and the greater good of our communities. The story of our eCSSS Team is one of our family of company’s most profound examples of this advantage and what it means to work with the ‘ike group. It also exemplifies many of our Core Values, including working with a “Spirit of Excellence,” which declares that we are “committed to achieving excellence together.”
This is their story.
The Lawsuit That Became a Win For Hawaii
Jeff Masumoto (DataHouse VP of Educational Solutions) who led the team over the last 10 years, shares the innovative history of eCSSS
A 1993 lawsuit on behalf of Jennifer Felix contended the State of Hawaii violated federal law by failing to provide appropriate mental health and educational services for children with disabilities. The following year, the state agreed to a consent decree, putting Hawaii under federal supervision, with a year 2000 deadline for the state departments of Education and Health to dramatically overhaul their special-education services.
After approximately $1 billion was funneled into special education, court oversight ended in 2005. As of 2013, there were 183,251 students in Hawaii’s public-education system (including 9,593 students who attend the state’s 32 charter schools), 19,696 of whom are in special education, almost 11 percent of the student population.
The DOE contracted eWorld to build iSPED, a customized Lotus Domino-based system for teachers to write IEPs and 504 plans; and do their Federal reporting. iSPED eventually grew into the largest Domino database on record and experienced frequent performance issues.
Dan Arita, “Father of Technology in Hawaii,” Founder of DataHouse
In 2006 the DOE issued an RFP to replace iSPED as well as two other Domino-based systems. DataHouse responded to the RFP by proposing an iterative development approach and offering TeamPraxis’ ConnxtMD technology. DH was awarded the contract in 2006. The contract included a zero cost license for the DOE’s use of ConnxtMD to support eCSSS.
eCSSS (electronic Comprehensive Student Support System) launched in 2007 after migrating all the data from the previous three systems (and in 2012, a fourth system’s information was transferred as well). Subsequent to going live, the DataHouse eCSSS Team quickly developed enhancements to eCSSS as the scope of the system grew.
Continued Growth & Innovation for the Department of Education
Bryan Switalski (`ike Digital Marketing Specialist, designer of the poster) & Eddie Ontai (DataHouse President) unveil the eCSSS Milestone Poster
In 2012 DataHouse began enhancements to the Early Warning System to respond to requests from schools and complex areas to visualize more student support and assessment data. DataHouse provided a zero cost license for CQS technology to create a dashboard for teachers and administrators to measure student performance on formative assessments, standardized tests, grades, GLOs, attendance and disciplinary incidents.
Currently, DataHouse is working on additional enhancements to ELL and SVM. The SVM enhancements will include support for additional services such as Skilled Nursing, OT/PT, speech, Autism counseling, and transportation which will help the DOE recover millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements.
Innovation & the Keiki of Hawaii
There is no better feeling than knowing your hard work over the years is having a positive impact in the lives of the teachers, administrators, parents, and above all, the students of Hawaii. This is why we do what we do at DataHouse.
And it makes the blood, sweat, and tears of the last 10 years totally worth it.
• • •
DataHouse began over 40 years ago in 1975 by Dan Arita, and is the founding company of the `ike family of companies (which includes TeamPraxis, `Ekahi Health, Sagely, & Pacific Hi-Tech). DataHouse has become Hawaii’s premier technology consultancy firm and has vast experience in multitudes of industries, including Education, Banking, Healthcare, and Government.
You can learn more about DataHouse and what we can do for your company or organization by visiting our website datahouse.com, and following us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
