Dr. David BatemanAdvisor, Parallel Learning · Renowned Special Education Consultant & Advisor to Parallel

Illinois Valley School District shares about their partnership with Parallel!

14 May 2024 · 2 min

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2:16

In a testimonial-style interview, Jennifer Freeman (Special Education Director, Illinois Valley School District) and Kelsey Green (Special Education Coordinator, Illinois Valley Central School District) discuss how their district partnered with Parallel to support IEP evaluations. They explain that Parallel supplied two school psychologists, helping fill staffing gaps for psychologists, social workers, and counselors. The district highlights Parallel’s established, quick onboarding and scheduling process, which was crucial at the start of a time‑crunched school year. Both speakers note the platform’s ease of use for older and younger students, with students understanding instructions independently. Parallel’s team is praised for problem‑solving technical and timeline issues and for supporting providers to ensure smooth testing. The psychologists made students comfortable and gathered high‑quality testing data, leading the district to recommend Parallel to other districts.

Chapters

Hi there.
Hi.
Are you ready for this? We've utilized Parallel primarily for our evaluation process. We were able to have 2 school psychologists work with us. They've worked well with us in setting up testing scheduling. I think they've been very supportive and flexible in that process for us. My name is Jennifer Freeman, and I'm the special education director for the Illinois Valley School District.
My name is Kelsey Green. I am the special education coordinator for the Illinois Valley Central School District.
Our goal was just making sure that we had the staffing necessary, you know, to complete our IEP evaluations for the school year. That includes anywhere from school psychologists, social workers, school counselors. Being able to partner with someone that could help fulfill some of those roles, especially for that evaluation process, has been very beneficial to us this year. When Parallel came in, they had a very established process.
First, point to a winking shark.
It's a very easy platform for our older kids to use independently, but it's also pretty seamless for our younger kiddos. And our kids seem to understand the platform and what's being asked of them as they go.
Tell me the number that should be in the empty box.
4. The school year was starting and we were on a time crunch. So being able to work with Parallel fairly quickly and get that rolling for the start of the school year was pretty important. The school psychologists that we have worked with have really made the students feel comfortable and have been able to get the best testing information from them possible. The providers that we have worked with, specifically our 2 school psychologists in the first semester, have done a fantastic job. I feel like they really got us started off on the right foot.
They have jumped right in to help problem solve that with us and problem solve it with them, whether it's just simple technology issues, or timeline issues or whatever it might be, they've been very willing to support us in working with our providers to make sure that we iron out any issues when they come up.
I would be very likely to recommend Parallel to other districts. I would definitely recommend Parallel to other districts. Working with Parallel has been a good experience and would do it moving forward.