Case Note Management Software for Schools: Features.
Explore the key features and functionalities of our software.
FocusCS is purpose-built to align with the needs of a school-based wellbeing environment.
Our software was developed in direct collaboration with school counsellors and ultimately driven by the needs they identified: a digital student case note management system that lightens the administrative and cognitive load for users, and speaks to the industry specific compliance, reporting and security requirements associated with a working school environment.
Our modern, intuitive software interface demonstrates our teams true understanding of the end user. Through responsive collaboration with our users, we work hard to ensure all ongoing software improvements are carefully considered and curated to speak to the core narrative and purpose for FocusCS.
Student Profiles.
Automatic creation of a digital student profile for each current student, facilitated via a secure, read-only sync with the school Student Information System (SIS).
Search student indexes by name (Legal, Preferred), cohort (House, Year Level), and status (Active, Inactive, Past).
Set a student to ‘Active’ status for case load tracking and reporting purposes.
Set a severity risk level for each student (Low, Moderate, High) for case load tracking and reporting purposes.
Set a primary counsellor for a student for case load tracking efficiency, and transfer students between users with a single click.
View a ‘seen’ summary for each student at a glance - the date last seen, the date of next scheduled appointment (if applicable), and the cumulative number of appointments and unscheduled drop-ins to date.
Build a set of custom fields for your school to store additional data points in each student profile, to enable quick data entry and internal reference by users.
Ongoing, automatic student profile lifecycle maintenance captures data and year level changes, and shifts student profiles to a non-current status, in line with the school SIS.
Student Privacy.
Data collected via secure sync with the school Student Information System (SIS) is read only in nature is and limited to student data only - parent and teacher data is not collected.
Data collected is restricted to a specific set of fields, being only those student data fields that are expressly required by FocusCS in order to perform key functions.
User access to student case note history is restricted to applicable user types only.
View the automatic timestamped audit log for a case note, capturing each action undertaken (created, viewed, edited, saved, template applied, permissions applied), the user responsible, and detailed snapshots of each stage of the case note progression for ease of cross-reference.
Apply optional case note visibility permissions on a per-entry basis, to restrict user access to highly sensitive case notes.
Use our data retention dashboard to easily identify and schedule records (case notes, students) for permanent deletion in compliance with internal school policies and applicable jurisdiction requirements.
Adopt our campus-model school format to effectively and automatically partition students, forms and form submission and reporting data between campuses, with individual user access based on their respective campus allocations.
True data isolation to protect your most sensitive student records.
By keeping a secure repository entirely separate from your school's main SIS, FocusCS gives you ultimate authority over your data. Control exactly what gets stored and who can access it.
Case Notes.
Create and categorise case notes (Appointment, Assessment, Call, Document, Email, Form, Meeting, Note, Unscheduled drop-in).
Upload unlimited external files simultaneously via file drag and drop (PDF, MS Office, Images, Videos, Audio).
Apply unlimited case note #hashtags for reporting purposes - simply preface any keyword(s) with a # to capture.
Apply unlimited case note templates, with each template individually built for and customisable by your school.
Worry less about everyday interruptions with our inbuilt case note progress autosave, so you can pick up where you left off at any time.
Record appointment non-attendance by a student with a single click, for reporting purposes.
Bulk distribute a single case note to multiple student profiles simultaneously, with further case note editing possible on a per-student basis following group case note distribution.
Produce a PDF student case note history export with a single click, with the option to customise date ranges and per-file inclusion of any external file uploads.
Quickly retrieve deleted case notes, with all deleted notes securely archived in lieu of permanent deletion in line with data preservation best practise guidelines.
Actions List.
Leave task tracking to FocusCS, with automatic task prompts geared towards reducing the cognitive load for our users.
Identify incomplete case notes at a glance. A case note draft prompt will display for a user for each incomplete case note, and remain in the list until the case note is completed and saved.
Additionally, be alerted of any potentially overlooked case notes. A case note draft prompt will display for a user to indicate an appointment time has since lapsed and an associated case note is absent.
Forgo the written to-do lists and post-its, and enter your task-based reminders via the calendar instead. A reminder prompt will display for a user upon the day a reminder falls due, and remain in the list until the reminder is marked as completed.
Be alerted of each form submission in real-time, as a team. A form submission prompt will display for all applicable user types at the school as each new submission is received, and remain in the list until the submission is associated to a student profile.
Be alerted of form referrals in real-time. If a form submission is referred to a specific user for follow up, a referral prompt will display for the user and remain in the list until the referral is marked as acknowledged.
Choose your own productivity style - with all prompts compiled in a single list, you decide when to action prompts based on how you personally prefer to prioritize your own workload and tasks.
Utilising an AI medical scribe or conversational AI platform to generate clinical case note outputs?
Upload your output audio file, or insert your output text, directly into a case note in FocusCS.
Real-time Reporting.
Reporting data automatically captured for your school, with case note entries, group note entries and calendar events contributing in varying capacities, based on the entry or event type.
View an exportable breakdown of student appointment activity via our Summary tab, tracking the number of students seen for appointments and unscheduled drop-ins during a specified time period. Filter data by counsellor, student severity (Low, Moderate, High), student status (Active, Inactive) and student cohort (Year Level, House, Gender).
View an exportable breakdown of wellbeing trend data via our Insights dashboard, tracking the number of case notes created by category, number of form submissions received by title, and the number of case note #hashtags applied by reference, on a per-week basis for the specified time period.
Explore our de-identifiable Student Activity dashboard to view an exportable breakdown of student cohorts seen for the specified time period, with individual representations by counsellor, appointment type (Appointment, Unscheduled drop-in), student severity (Low, Moderate, High), and student cohort (Year Level, House, Gender).
Explore our de-identifiable Counsellor Activity dashboard to view an exportable breakdown of events and entry types by counsellor, for the specified time period, with individual representations by counsellor, case note category (Appointment, Assessment, Call, Document, Email, Form, Meeting, Note, Unscheduled drop-in), student appointment outcome (Attendance, Non-Attendance), and time allocations (Appointments, Unscheduled drop-ins, Other events).
Export a high-level compilation of the total number of case notes created, per student, for the selected NCCD census round via our NCCD dashboard, designed to assist a school with the formal NCCD evidence collection process.
Use our sidebar modals to filter data by additional student data points, and to review and update student ‘status’ and ‘severity’ settings from directly within the reporting dashboard.
Digital Forms.
Our team digitise your form templates at onboarding stage for you, ensuring seamless transition to a digital, streamlined form management environment for your school.
Each form template has its own unique form link that points to a fillable version of the form, allowing you to promote form availability where needed to reduce administrative load - paste links into an email, embed links within school portals or intranets (staff, parent, student), display links as QR codes, or bookmark links on school-based devices.
Each form submission is received directly to FocusCS in real-time to ensure data privacy is maintained. A form submission prompt alerts your team of each new submission, and provides a preview of the submission and any attachments.
Associate a form submission to a student to instantly append the form submission and any attachments to the respective student profile.
Refer a form submission to a specific user for follow up, and a referral prompt will display in the users own actions list pending their acknowledgment. Additionally, set a priority and trigger an email alert to the user.
Create unlimited digital form templates to suit any process (Consent, Referral, Developmental History, Educational Assessment, Neurological Assessment, Student Attendance Perspective).
Create duplicate versions of a form template with a single click, allowing per-form customisation to align with a specific audience (Student, HoH, YLC, Staff, Parent or Guardian, External Support), improving data quality and question relevance, and reducing form abandonment.
Set required response fields to ensure each form is always received fully competed upon first submission.
Update form templates as often as needed without any interruption to the process, ensuring recipients are always directed to the latest form version when clicking a link.
An original copy of each form submission and any attachments is automatically logged and preserved in a separate form submissions archive interface, with each submission available for PDF export with a single click.
My Caseload
Your own student allocations consolidated for you and displayed as a convenient, organised index.
Visit our ‘My Students’ tab to review your current student allocations, quick-jump to a student profile, update the status or severity risk level for a student, or transfer a student to another member of your team with a single click.
Your own case history consolidated, with each individual case note entry authored by you automatically chronologised under a unified index.
View our ‘My Notes’ tab to review your case note history, quick-jump to a student profile, search and filter all case notes, view case note #hashtags applied, or click the case note icon to quick-preview your content.
Multifunctional Scheduling.
Create and manage student appointments from within the calendar interface, with the choice to align each appointment to the school period timetable or set your own custom start and end times.
Create appointments via the calendar interface or from directly within each student profile - as each student appointment is created, a draft case note is automatically raised in the respective student profile accordingly, in readiness for the user.
Set task-based reminders for yourself, or apportion blocks of time to indirect or whole-of-school support activities for reporting purposes.
Enable a one-way (read only) sync to overlay a preview of your Microsoft Outlook calendar in FocusCS, or enable a two-way (writeback) sync to also overlay a preview of your FocusCS calendar in Microsoft Outlook.
User Support.
Underpinning our software solution is an Australian-based support team with true dedication to our user base, and we believe this is reflected in the word of mouth recommendations and written testimonials we receive from our schools.
We provide a personal support account to each user to facilitate secure, direct access to our dedicated online user support module hosting instructional articles, video guides, hints and tips, and our user support ticketing desk.
User support is managed personally by our team - you will be assisted by a real person, and not an AI chatbot.
Our independent software design incorporates an intentional, conscious minimisation of the need for school ICT department involvement by encouraging direct communication from our users for all support matters.
Does FocusCS have any AI features?
No, FocusCS currently does not include any AI features, though our users are able to upload AI output audio files and insert AI output text directly into case notes as needed.
AI is on our radar, though to protect sensitive student data we will always prioritize data security over user benefit.
For full transparency, we feel the current Australian AI guardrails exhibit governance gaps and ambiguities regarding liability in the event of a data breach. As the core purpose of FocusCS is the secure storage of PII and sensitive health information pertaining to minors, these aspects are simply non-negotiable for us as data custodians for our schools.
We will continue to re-assess AI feasibility in line with:
Changes in the AI landscape over time (robust governance and clear accountability);
Improvements to AI capabilities (reduced model drift and unpredictable outputs);
Overall cost effectiveness (ability to minimise subscription pricing effects due to higher server costs, potential to develop AI in-house to maximise our data security controls); and
Effects to our ST4S rating (negative effects to our risk rating, or potential removal of our ST4S assessment eligibility altogether).
We will ensure to inform our schools well ahead of time of any planned introduction of AI into FocusCS.
How can we help?
Our comprehensive Software Information Pack is a key resource, outlining software capabilities, subscription pricing, implementation timeframes, SIS integration, and providing ICT due diligence material.
Have a question for our team? Submit an enquiry to our Brisbane-based team.
Would you like a live walkthrough? Book a 45-minute web demonstration.
Would you like to trial FocusCS? Request free 30-day access to a demonstration school environment. No sign up needed.
