In April, the Santa Clara County Office of Education announced three new tools, supports and grants to help local districts with some of the most challenging, cumbersome and time-consuming tasks and duties on their to-do lists.

One of the tools will help districts in the county catch California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) issues early; another improves student support and intervention tracking; and the final initiative expands a local scholarship program to address the teacher shortage.

“County offices are in a unique position to lead this kind of work because we sit between the state and local school districts. We see where districts are facing the same challenges, and we can help build solutions that work across the county,” explained Santa Clara COE Board President Victoria Chon. “Not every district has the staff or resources to build and run big systems on their own. Rather than every district building and maintaining their own system, we can provide shared tools that take some of that work off their plate and create more consistency across the region. We’re also able to look beyond immediate needs and invest in long-term improvements.”

The new CALPADS Rules Engine (CARE) tool was designed to help districts proactively find and fix CALPADS data issues before data is submitted to the state. The intent is to reduce time-consuming efforts to resolve errors, which can become increasingly difficult once data is submitted.

Built within the COE’s established DataZone platform, CARE works with district data already housed in the system, eliminating the need for duplicative uploads or manual error checks. Results are displayed in digestible terms, making it easier for student services, data, informational technology and program teams to collaborate around data quality.

In addition to saving staff time that might have been spent on data errors, more reliable data leads to more accurate reporting and stronger accountability systems, helping districts make more informed decisions to support students, according to Board Vice President Jessica Speiser.

“We prioritized this because districts have told us how time consuming and complex data reporting can be,” Speiser said. “By helping them find and fix issues sooner, this tool reduces that burden and helps ensure the data they’re reporting is more accurate, which ultimately supports better decisions around funding, accountability and student services.”

The DataZone platform also features a module designed to help school districts effectively track, coordinate and evaluate student supports within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. Districts provide a wide range of academic, behavioral and social-emotional support to students, but “that information is often in different systems, which makes it harder to see the full picture or know when a student needs something different,” said Chon. “This tool brings everything into one place, so staff can more quickly understand what’s happening and respond faster. We prioritized this because districts have told us they spend too much time managing systems instead of focusing on students. By putting that information in one place, it frees staff up to focus on helping students succeed.”

By integrating student information, assessment data, attendance and program participation within the DataZone Data Warehouse, the MTSS Module supports identification of student needs earlier, clearer documentation of supports, and stronger alignment between Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 practices.

Speiser explained that over time, the system will give districts a clearer picture of what’s working and where gaps exist, leading to stronger, more consistent support for students across academic, behavioral and social-emotional needs.

Finally, in an effort to address the state’s teacher shortage in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), special education, bilingual education and transitional kindergarten, a local scholarship program led by Santa Clara COE is expanding its reach to 15 counties across the state to help classified school employees become credentialed teachers.

Through the Classified School Employee Teacher Grant, current and former classified school employees in partnering schools, district or county offices can receive $4,000 per academic year to obtain their bachelor’s degree and/or their first teaching credential. The scholarship money can be used for tuition, fees and books at partnering institutions of higher education. In return, program graduates complete one year of classroom instruction for each year of funding provided.

The current application cycle opened on July 1 with $2 million in available scholarships.

“The goal is to remove some of the financial barriers for people who are already working in schools and ready to step into teaching roles,” Speiser said. “We prioritized this because districts continue to face staffing shortages, especially in key areas. By supporting people who are already connected to their school communities, this approach helps strengthen retention, build a more stable workforce, and grow the number of qualified teachers over time.”

According to Chon, the program has helped districts respond to staffing needs more quickly by supporting people who are already working in schools to move into teaching roles, thereby stabilizing classrooms and reducing reliance on substitutes for hard-to-fill positions.

“Over time, it builds a stronger, more sustainable teacher pipeline,” she said. “By growing talent from within, districts see better retention and a workforce that better reflects the communities they serve, helping address ongoing shortages in high need areas.”