Situation
With 21,000 students and nearly 2,000 staff members, South Western City Schools struggled to manage their edtech ecosystem. What tools were used? In which of its 31 buildings? And which of those tools complied with privacy and accessibility requirements? The introduction of Ohio SB 29 added a new layer of urgency. The district couldn’t allow applications that touched student data to stay unvetted any longer.
The technology department knew they were using thousands of applications, but they lacked a centralized way to vet them or connect usage data to their privacy agreements. The South Western City Schools team was tasked with achieving 100% compliance across the district while maintaining the day-to-day operations of the technology department—and the spreadsheets of years past couldn’t get them there.
Challenges:
- A small team oversaw every tech tool across 31 educational buildings.
- Ohio SB29 required an agreement for any application that a student might use or that collects student PII.
- Their previous platform didn’t connect usage to the agreement platform, leaving compliance statuses unknown and their tracking unmanageable.
I will never stop singing the praises of LearnPlatform. The bigger the district, the more it’s needed. When you have over 30 buildings, managing edtech without an automated hub like this is impossible.
Sarah Murton
South Western City Schools
Insights
As the technology team looked at different options, they had specific requirements that the platform must meet. First, they wanted to easily import their existing data to avoid redoing work they’d already done. The platform needed to effectively house all edtech applications and resources. The vetting process should be as automated as possible, and keep track of where every resource stands in the approval process.
Additionally, the district needed a platform that could connect usage data with privacy agreements, so it could maintain and continue improving compliance with Ohio SB 29.
Solution and outcomes
In the spring of 2025, South Western implemented LearnPlatform and spent the summer locking down its digital ecosystem. By the fall, students could only access tools that had been vetted and approved as compliant. The team has successfully audited and organized over 800 resources into a central library, giving leadership a clear view of the tools in use and their compliance status. The LearnPlatform data team executed the initial import, saving the district hundreds of hours of manual labor.
Beyond the administrative wins, the district now knows that students only interact with tools that meet federal and state privacy standards. When teachers need to know which tools are approved for usage, they can search LearnPlatform and easily find alternatives for tools they used to use for things like vocabulary practice or supplemental instructional videos.
LearnPlatform pulls together our inventory, vetting, and usage data, and then automates the emails and lets the requester know once the tool has been approved. The fact that I don’t have to personally send those emails is such a gift.
Sarah Murton
South Western City Schools
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