Spring Insight: How Paper is Holding Schools Back

It’s strange, isn’t it?

We can pull up a photo of a dancing alpaca wearing sunglasses in under two seconds on our phone…but it might take ten minutes to find a signed student form or a board-approved policy.

That’s the everyday frustration of relying on paper files, shared drives, and email attachments to run critical operations. It slows down staff, increases risk, and keeps schools stuck in reactive mode.

Paper-based processes come with serious limitations:

They’re risky. Paper can be lost, damaged, or accessed by the wrong person. There’s no audit trail, no backup, and no easy way to protect sensitive records.

They’re inefficient. Staff often waste time looking for documents, re-keying data, or tracking down approvals that get stuck in someone’s inbox—or worse, on someone’s desk.

They slow everyone down. When forms have to be printed, scanned, emailed, or walked around for signatures, work gets delayed and errors multiply.

That’s why many districts are turning to digitization as a first step—not just to scan old files, but to rethink how information moves in a modern, digital office.

Once records are digital, they’re easier to protect, easier to find, and easier to work with. Staff spend less time on paperwork and more time focusing on what matters.

🎤 Want to learn more about the hidden costs of paper and what your district can do about it?

Join us at NETA by signing up for our session: From Paper to Progress: Unlocking the Power of Digitized Documents