# Inclusion You Can Count On: How A New Data Dashboard Improved Special Education in South Bend August 07, 2025 - [ Blog ](/news-categories/blog) ![Southbend](/sites/g/files/omnuum4446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/2025-08/southbend.jpg?itok=h_kIv9ym) *2025 Strategic Data Excellence Award Winner: South Bend Community School Corporation* In 2021, special education teachers and administrators in the South Bend Community School Corporation (SBCSC) in Indiana were facing a daunting challenge. Under federal law, every student who qualified for special education services had an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP), which is renewed each year. However, the number of South Bend students with out-of-date IEPs had grown 900 strong—nearly one in three districtwide—and the details of each case were buried in overstuffed three-ring binders and a single spreadsheet school officials described as “dusty.” Three years later, in 2024, fewer than 50 IEPs were out of compliance and the district had completely overhauled how it tracks and monitors special education services. Disparate, hard-copy monitoring practices were replaced by a new, centralized special-education data dashboard that could identify challenges in real time and lighten the administrative burden for educators and administrators. The compliance shift amounted to a *92 percent improvement* in ensuring IEPs were up to date, which means a lot more than just paperwork to special education students. In some cases, it can be the difference between a student having a speech therapist and in-class aide at the start of a school year, or waiting for weeks or months for appropriate placement and services to be put in place—an inequitable burden for students who already have a steeper academic hill to climb. This is the sort of critical, yet typically uncelebrated, innovation that inspires the SDP Award for Strategic Data Excellence. Importantly, the work in South Bend immediately connected better data with effective action to advance student success, leading them to be recognized as the [2025 winner of the Strategic Data Excellence Award](https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/news/2025/05/south-bend-community-school-corporation-receive-2025-strategic-data-excellence-award), which aligned with [this year’s SDP Convening theme, “Now What?”, linking data to action](https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/sdp-convening-2025). Joel Boehner, Assistant Director of Exceptional Learners at SBCSC, stressed the real-world immediacy of the data dashboards, which he said represents not merely a technical innovative, but rather an equity-advancing “paradigm shift in how districts and the ed tech industry approach special education compliance.” “This isn’t just about compliance. This is about trust. About making the right decisions for students. About building something better,” said Boehner, who is the parent of two children with disabilities. In the district’s submission for the award, he stressed that South Bend’s innovation can inform similar efforts elsewhere. Some 22 percent of SBCSC students receive special-education services under an IEP; nationwide, about 15 percent of K–12 students have IEPs. Providing necessary services and supports for these students is a persistent challenge. Federal special education law requires regular program monitoring, detailed annual plan reviews, and a student’s menu of specialized services must be based on a child’s needs, and not whether adequate funding or staffing are in place to provide them. Staffing shortages are of constant concern: in a [2024 report by the Government Accountability Office](https://www.gao.gov/assets/880/870315.pdf), every survey entity reported that “personnel shortages were a key obstacle to educating students with disabilities.” Special education students are also overrepresented in disciplinary actions and under-represented in advanced coursework, the agency reported. The new data dashboard in South Bend lightens the administrative load for teachers and administrators alike. It’s an important issue, said SDP’s Senior Director Miriam Greenberg. “Allowing educators to spend more time with students improves outcomes across the board. This work is a gamechanger in a time when districts are having difficulties retaining high-quality teachers,” she said. As the award recipient, South Bend has nominated a team member to join Cohort 17 (Fall 2025-Summer 2027) of the [SDP Data Fellowship](https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/data-fellowship) to deepen the project’s technical infrastructure, refine data models, and develop best practices for implementation and scalability. Look for more in this space about that work, and the potential for data to improve special education services. And in the meantime, check out South Bend’s acceptance speech in this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqTgB5zRw_I). [*Learn more about the SDP Award for Strategic Data Excellence.*](https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/award) See also:- [ SDP Blog ](/tags/sdp-blog) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)