Background
It is the district’s responsibility to match appropriate software with quality teaching to more effectively achieve academic excellence. With so many software options available, it is imperative that we adopt a process for selection that will not only accommodate individual needs but will also address the need for standardization and uniformity within our district, at the grade level, and/or in the specific content area. Software used in an educational setting should further the curriculum, help expand a student’s knowledge of a subject, and enable students to build higher-order thinking skills. Learning should be “authentic” and teachers should use software that allows for this type of exploration.

Benefits
The benefits of a process for the selection of all district software include:

• Curriculum software is aligned with district standards and addresses student and teacher mobility issues
• Compatibility and Interoperability
• Further standardization of site and district software
• A composite view of all software in the district
• Ease of training and professional development
• Improved planning ability and responsible use of district funds
• Reduce workload on personnel

 When to use this process
This process must be used by all sites when purchasing any instructional software used in the Wichita Public Schools including any software that is piloted at school sites. The Instructional Software Delivery Team will facilitate the process of software evaluation and will maintain a listing of “Approved Software” and a list “Not Approved Software.”

Examples of when this process must be used when the following are purchased using district or outside funding:

• Purchasing site or district wide software licenses
• Purchasing site or district web based software licenses
• Textbook adoption with supporting software
• When Purchasing any curriculum software 

How to use this process:

• Please complete the attached software request form (Appendix A) and once complete please e-mail document to Lisa Lutz, Matt McGuire, and Brad Niessen.
• If the software has been approved, you will receive a Software Adoption Process and Guidelines Purchasing Approval Form that must be attached to your purchase requisition form.

Process Guidelines:
Please read over the following guidelines:

• Please check the following location to see if the software that you are requesting is currently being reviewed or has been approved. [Click Here]
• This process has the following timeline:
  December 1 – All requests must be submitted to software portal
  March- Second week – Final decision will be given
• The timeline for the software adoption review process will be based upon the Software Delivery Teams workload.  
• Three departments will be involved in this process, the Department of Learning Services, Management Informational Service (MIS), and the Instructional Technology Department. All three departments will report their result to the Instructional Software Delivery Team
• Only submit instructional software for curriculum use that would be considered district level quality.
  

Download Software Request Form -
Return this form to Matt McGuire at mcmguire@usd259.net, Lisa Lutz at llutz@usd259.net, and Erin Misegadis at emisegadis@usd259.net with the subject "Software Approval-completed form."

Does software being purchased with a grant need to go through this process?
Yes

Does every piece of software need to go through this process?
This process must be used when the following are purchased using district or outside funding (i.e. PTO)

• Purchasing site or district wide software licenses
• Purchasing site or district web based software licenses
• Textbook adoption with supporting software
• Any curriculum software

Does software being purchased for an individual computer need to go through this process?
No. If a school is purchasing either curriculum software or educational productivity software for an individual computer, they do not need to use this process. But, if the purchase meets any of the following requirements, it will need to go through the process.

• Purchasing site or district wide software licenses
• Purchasing site or district web based software licenses
• Textbook adoption with supporting software
• Any curriculum software 

Will upgrades to currently adopted software need to go through this process?
Full version upgrades need to go through this process.

If my request has been denied, may I resubmit it?
No