SAfeSchool Was the final project that I did in my Prototyping I class at Kennesaw State University. The Prompt was to create a Desktop interface and either fix an existing website or create one that solves a problem. I decided to address the abuse of homeschooled children.
When a child is being homeschooled, there is a higher chance of abuse and neglect from parents/caretakers due to the child not being in regular contact with mandatory reporters. Additionally, in abusive households, when a child comes of age, their parent(s) may not give them the proper documents to let them apply for higher education or move away. Additionally, the documentation that is mandated by the state government (attendance sheets, testing details, etc.) do not have a place to go to be checked.
SafeSchool is a solution to these problems. States can download this application to keep an eye on students no matter what kind of school they attend. All of their documents for the board of education are easy to access and monitor, as well as their personal documents (like birth certificates and transcripts). Their grades and their progress towards graduation are easy to view and access.
While working on this project, I expanded the scope to schools and counties. Viewing these more broad categories can also help identify trends.
If a school's average science grade is low, that could be an indication that the issue is not the students, but how the school/district is choosing to teach the subject. If a lot of the students at one school are absent a lot, why?
Safeschool makes these things easy to monitor and affords the students the opportunity to the quality education they deserve.
My Designing Process:
Total Design Time: 14 Hours
Research Phase: I went to the department of education and child abuse organizations to find the things that need to be screened. Things like:
1. decreased school performance
2. lack of attendence (faked attendance)
3. regressive behavior
4. frequent hospital visits
Then i researched the requirements for homeschooling in the state of Georgia:
1. must have access to the education of the subjects: reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science
2. Subject to national standardized tests every three years
3. must be equivalent of 180 days of at least 4.5 hours of instruction per day
4. Homeschoolers must turn in their paperwork directly to the board of education
Turn in attendance forms once a year to the Department of education.
Sketching Phase: After doing a lot of research with the resources from the department of education, I picked out what elements needed to be implemented. After doing this, I sketched out possible layouts. I used canvas as a model for how to layout this type of data.
How the target audience affected my design:
Target audience: School administrators from all levels and if given more time, an interface for students and their parents as well.
Affect on Design: I wanted to create a program that was easy to access and monitor a lot of information in a second. The main goal was to be able to track and monitor performance from any level (State to individual student) and be able to evaluate the causes for the performance.
Some Facts about Homeschooled kids:
91,000 students are homeschooled in Georgia alone
36% of children removes to be put into homeschool were subject to past child welfare reports
The pandemic contributed a lot to homeschooling
Georgia is #3 in the number of homeschooled students
58% of child abuse reports were made by professionals (teachers, coaches, medical professionals, etc.)
