How Digital Approvals Save Time for School Secretaries

The school secretary's office is the organizational heart of any educational institution. Between managing documents, handling parent inquiries, coordinating field trips and events, and daily collaboration with staff, the secretary faces an enormous workload. One area that consumes a particularly large amount of time is managing parental consent forms using the traditional paper-based method. Switching to digital approvals can completely transform this reality.

A Day in the Life of a School Secretary: Before and After Digitization

To understand the scope of the time savings, let's compare the workflow before and after the transition to digital approvals.

Before - The Paper-Based Process:

• Preparing the form on the computer and formatting it for printing.
• Printing hundreds of copies based on the number of students.
• Distributing forms to homeroom teachers to hand out to students.
• Waiting days for the forms to come back from parents.
• Collecting forms from teachers and sorting them by class.
• Checking who signed and who didn't, and creating a list of missing forms.
• Manually sending reminders to parents who haven't returned forms.
• Repeating the collection process until all approvals are obtained.
• Filing the signed forms and storing them.

After - The Digital Process:

• Creating the approval in the system and sending it to parents with one click.
• Parents receive a notification and approve from their mobile phone.
• The system sends automatic reminders to those who haven't approved yet.
• Real-time tracking of approval status through a dashboard.
• Everything is documented and organized automatically.

Time Savings: The Numbers Speak for Themselves

In an average school with 500 students, the paper-based approval collection process for an annual field trip can take the secretary between 8 to 12 working hours. With a digital system, the same process is reduced to just 30 minutes: 10 minutes to create and send the approval, and the rest is handled automatically.

When you multiply these savings by the number of approvals a school sends throughout the year, including field trips, activities, health declarations, and photo consent forms, the total adds up to dozens or even hundreds of saved work hours per year.

Automatic Reminders: No Need to Chase Anyone

One of the most exhausting tasks in the paper-based process is chasing parents who haven't returned forms. With Pgishonim's parental consent system, reminders are sent automatically to parents who haven't signed yet. The system takes care of reminding parents at preset intervals, without the secretary needing to deal with it at all.

The result: approval return rates increase significantly, and the secretary is freed from a repetitive and tedious task.

Real-Time Tracking and Reports

Instead of manually counting forms and creating spreadsheets, a digital system displays approval status in real time through a clear dashboard:

• How many parents approved: The number and percentage of approvals received.
• Who hasn't approved yet: A detailed list of parents who still need to sign.
• Ready-made reports: Generate summary reports by class, grade level, or event with a single click.
• Complete history: Access all approvals sent throughout the year, without searching through physical folders.

Digital Archive: No More Overflowing Filing Cabinets

With the paper-based method, signed forms need to be stored for long periods. Cabinets filled with folders, searching for a specific form signed months ago, and the fear of losing important documents. With a digital system, all approvals are stored in the cloud in an organized and secure manner. Finding a specific approval takes just seconds, and the information is available and accessible at all times.

In Summary

Switching to digital approvals is one of the most impactful steps a school can take to streamline its administrative operations. The time savings are dramatic, parents appreciate the convenience, and the information stays organized and accessible. Instead of spending hours on printing, distributing, collecting, and filing, the secretary can dedicate her time to more important tasks that require her personal attention.