FCPS previews EdPlanMD parent portal, translation and progress-tracking tools

Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) and vendor Public Consulting Group (PCG) gave members of the Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee a demo of EdPlanMD on April 28, showing a parent-facing portal, dynamic translation and a new progress-tracking module intended to replace Maryland’s OIEP system.

PCG demonstrated a Connect Parent Portal that sends parents an email with a hyperlink and one-time access code rather than requiring a username and password; the portal can display translated text in a parent’s preferred language and shows a “to‑do” list of documents that need signatures or review. A vendor video shown by PCG said, “EdPlanMD will guide educators through each task with step by step instruction, customized lists, and rules of completion.”

Why it matters: The district said the system is intended to streamline compliance, reduce duplicate data entry and let families see IEPs, progress reports and service logs from any device. Staff and parents repeatedly raised the product’s ability to show measurable progress: PCG’s progress-report demo plotted goal-monitoring data as quarterly data points and a trend line, which staff said will help parents see whether a student is “on track.”

During the demonstration, PCG staff said parents will receive access codes by phone or email, that access codes and document hyperlinks remain usable for extended periods (PCG indicated documents would not expire after 24 hours and could remain accessible for up to a year), and that documents can be downloaded by parents as PDFs. PCG showed a “completed actions” list, a services summary (eligibility dates, IEP dates, listed services) and a case-manager contact page in the portal.

District staff said the EdPlanMD instance for Frederick County is customized to meet Maryland COMAR requirements and to reflect FCPS workflows. PCG staff described the product as cloud hosted with five releases per year and said systemwide updates and state-driven changes would appear on a shared roadmap and in release notes.

Training and implementation: FCPS staff said they will hold a two‑day professional learning event before the school year for about 800 employees to learn the system and refreshed compliance guidance, and that the district will identify roughly 30 “super users” to act as trainers. Staff also said the district will import existing PDFs and records so families can access historical documentation after go‑live.

Questions raised by committee members and parents focused on three themes: how progress monitoring data will be recorded and surfaced; whether parents can interactively propose or edit goals; and accessibility. PCG and FCPS said the system’s progress‑track module will allow service providers to log data on goals and objectives and that those entries can appear in progress reports, but FCPS leaders said the district is still finalizing expectations about which providers must log progress data in year one. PCG said the product includes translation for portal content; text‑to‑speech and other accessibility features were described as work‑in‑progress or achievable through browser tools in the near term.

What was not decided: Staff said there is not yet a district goal bank; goals continue to be authored by case manager teams. FCPS leaders said the district and vendor will continue to refine what progress logging will be required during the first year of rollout so as not to overburden staff at launch.

Next steps: FCPS will proceed with training sign-ups, create the super‑user cohort and continue the vendor roadmap discussion. Staff said they will solicit parent and stakeholder feedback as the district ramps up usage, and will circulate training and parent‑facing resources, including how‑to videos and instructions for signing into the parent portal.