Frederick County Public Schools is the 20th largest of 132 school divisions in Virginia and serves about 14,000 students. FCPS manages 23 sites, including 12 elementary schools, four middle schools, three high schools and a career and technical/alternative learning centre.
“Many families are struggling economically during this shutdown, and there are students without access to the internet. If e-learning was the only option, some of our students would be unable to participate, and that’s not acceptable.”
Jim Angelo, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction at Frederick County Public Schools
In March 2020, when all schools in the state closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Frederick County immediately set out to identify issues, establish priorities and timelines, and continue working to fulfil its vision of being an innovative community where caring relationships and authentic learning inspire all students. One of Frederick County’s top priorities was to ensure that no child faced an education deficit during remote learning due to internet accessibility.
Faced with the challenge of delivering remote learning materials to students with limited access, Frederick County turned to Impress Distribute by Quadient, a cloud-based hybrid mail service, to deliver schoolwork to students. Frederick County had already been using Quadient’s mailing equipment for parent and student mailings for three years before they learned of Impress Distribute’s capabilities.
With the Impress Distribute platform, teachers can access an online portal remotely and upload learning packages for students. Teachers andadministrators can virtually print, sort, stuff envelopes, add postage and deliver mail, all from a computer with a simple internet connection. The hybrid mail platform then automatically and securely sends the materials to an outsourced production facility where they are printed and mailed to the homes of students. All requests are put into a batch and processed the next morning, reducing the time required to send out communications to students.
“Many families are struggling economically during this shutdown, and there are students without access to the internet. If e-learning was the only option, some of our students would be unable to participate, and that’s not acceptable,” said Jim Angelo, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction at Frederick County Public Schools. “In addition to making sure all students can participate in remote learning, our teachers are enjoying how easy
and efficient it is to get their classroom assignments distributed.”
Frederick County was able to get the entire system up and running in only three days, and over the next three weeks processed over 200,000 communications to keep their students learning. Impress Distribute resolved concerns over the delivery of remote learning materials to students and equipped teachers during the pandemic. The solution also managed mail delivery and tracked costs in real time within the system. Feedback from educators, students, and parents has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Tools such as Impress Distribute, which is easy to use and accessible from anywhere, enable us to offer greater communications to everyone. Now we use the solution not just for students, but also for correspondence with parents and staff members. Having a team member like Quadient behind us to help achieve our goals and take some of the burden off of us during times of need is a huge relief, so we really appreciate it.”
Kristy Varda, Purchasing Supervisor at Frederick County Public Schools
For information on Quadient Impress Distribute, visit quadient.com/en-gb/customer-communications/impress-platform/distribute
