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CORONAVIRUS TOOLS PROVIDE CRITICAL

INFORMATION THROUGHOUT PANDEMIC

The Design & Development Team of the IT Enterprise Applications Department built two technology tools in 2020 to
allow District staff to gather and provide critical pandemic-related information to District leaders and the public.

The first tool is a public PowerBI dashboard that reports all student and staff COVID-19 cases by school or
department. With the pandemic affecting Palm Beach County, it is important to track infection in every school.
Using Power BI, we created a dashboard that allows parents and staff to see infections throughout our District. This
ensures transparency around the transmission of COVID-19. The dashboard represents students and staff infected
(confirmed) on School District property since campuses re-opened on September 16, 2020. The report is updated
twice daily and users can filter by school, education level, or region.

The second tool is a COVID-19 Reporting/Tracing app using PowerApps technology. Due to the increasing number
of COVID-19 cases in our District, it became apparent that there was a need to efficiently track the cases on District
property. Using Microsoft PowerApps, an app was created to do just that. Instead of principals and directors using
email, they now use the app and keep all the case information in one place. The app provides instructions after a
case is submitted on how to handle that particular type of case. It also tracks information such as estimated time
for employees to return to work and provides messaging capabilities between case managers and end users. This
allows cases to be tracked more effectively and streamlines the process for all parties involved.

CARING FIRST CUSTOM APPLICATION NOW AVAILABLE

The March 2020 TIME Newsletter included an article about the new Caring First public website where students,
parents, staff, and the public can search for mental and/or behavioral health services available to our students.
Since that time, Caring First has expanded to include a custom-built software application where school-based and
community service providers track mental and behavioral health services to students. The app also includes an
electronic ‘Mental Health Services Referral’ where staff can refer a student for a variety of mental or behavioral health
services. The online referral replaces a paper form historically used for that purpose. The Design & Development
Team of the IT Enterprise Applications Department worked very closely with the District’s Behavioral & Mental Health
Department to design and deliver the new application which will be used by School Behavioral Health Professionals,
School Counselors, School Psychologists, Co-located Mental Health Professionals, and Palm Beach County non-
profit agencies with a Behavioral Health Agreement with the School Board.