Making Special Education Actually Work

As CEO of KPS4Parents, I know there is a fine line between what is regarded as a for-profit venture and a non-profit endeavor. Fundraising is one thing, but selling things is another and there are all kinds of sticky rules and regulations about non-profit organizations getting involved in sales activities that could end up generating a profit.

So, while the idea that I’m proposing herein was first thought of as ?a useful tool for parents of special education students that could double as a fundraising vehicle for KPS4Parents, it makes more sense for me to do this outside of KPS4Parents and then donate proceeds back to the organization than risk the organization getting into hot water over activities that could be perceived as for-profit. I’m sharing it here because this blog has a sizable national following of parents of special education students, which is the target market for this idea.

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Working this project on a freelance basis and donating proceeds to KPS4Parents is exactly what I indicated as my intent in my proposal to the app developer I’m working with on this project. The proposal includes a “Notice of Intent to Donate a Portion of Proceeds” and states:

“As the CEO of KPS4Parents, Inc., I have a duty to do work that promotes parent empowerment in the special education?process by any possible means. However, KPS4Parents is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization that cannot?engage directly in any for-profit ventures without risk of severe penalties and taxation.

“Therefore, I am conducting all business regarding?SpEdTracker^TM?as an individual acting as a sole proprietor. In?accordance with the laws of the United States of America, should?SpEdTracker^TM?become financially successful, I will?donate a portion of all proceeds to KPS4Parents to assist it in meeting the costs of its charitable efforts. I reserve the?right to create a separate business entity for?SpEdTracker^TM?in order to satisfy any regulatory requirements.”

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As you may have guessed, the name of the app (at least for now) is “SpEdTracker^TM.” The idea of this proposed iPad/iPhone app is for parents to be able to:

• Track their communications with school personnel, therapists, etc. involved with their special education students
• Archive PDFs of important documents on a secure cloud server where they will stay forever and can be used to support their advocacy efforts or, if necessary, serve as evidence in compliance complaints or due process
• Keep tabs on upcoming deadlines and track important timelines
• Produce reports of key communications in chronological order
• Produce organized PDF packets of key documents with exhibit dividers for complaints

I described the idea to one of the parents we serve and her response was, “Oh, that would be Heaven! Then I wouldn’t have to go digging through file boxes of old records to photocopy for new assessors, I could just print them out.” I hardly think she’s the only one who would appreciate something like this, but my opinion and the hearsay report of one parent’s feedback doesn’t determine if the app developer is willing to take on a project of this scale. I need to do a market survey.

So, that’s what I’m doing. Please fill out the survey below so I and the app developer can get your feedback.? I’m going to leave the survey open for a couple of months to see what kind of responses we get.?Please share it freely?so we can get as much parent input on this as possible. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say!