(June 2, 2010) - Leader Services, an information processing and Medicaid billing company with offices nationwide, announces that IEPWriter.com^™ has received Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) certification version 1.5 for the sixth year. SIF is a national standard that enables applications to seamlessly operate with and exchange data between other SIF-certified applications. SIF was developed by the international Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA), a non-profit association that develops and implements software and programming standards for educational software and applications.

"Leader’s ongoing commitment to SIF provides a mechanism for schools to exchange data between multiple applications in an effective, accurate fashion," said Senior Programmer Daryl Williams, a member of Leader's SIF team. "Using the SIF specification, there are standards in place which allow for shared data between other SIF-certified applications and IEPWriter, meaning less data entry for our customers."

Software applications must apply for SIF recertification every year; IEPWriter is now certified through June 30, 2011.

Using SIF-certified software can be a huge advantage for local and state education agencies alike. Educational software that is SIF compliant can communicate and share data from a single source, preventing the need to duplicate data entry among complementary computer systems.

Within SIFA, a number of work groups exist to address various aspects of SIF. Leader’s Senior Programmer Greg Blickley, along with the aforementioned Daryl Williams, is a member of the Special Programs Work Group (SPWG), which is responsible for maintaining and developing new data objects for the specification.

About IEPWriter

Leader's IEPWriter.com is a secure, hosted web application for special education professionals used by over 360 local education agencies (LEAs) to create IEPs and related special education documents (evaluation reports, letters, and more) from any computer, using common web browsers over a secure SSL connection. Features include:

• centralized management, allowing multiple users to contribute to an IEP;
• a shared and customizable goals and objectives library;
• documents generated in PDF format;
• school-wide reporting;
• and a comprehensive form and letter-generating capability, from invitation letters to evaluation reports and more.

Its Children Count module captures and tracks student and staff data to prepare statistical reports for state and federal reporting. Other modules available include Section 504 and PIMS.

About Leader Services

Leader Services is a vanguard in special education software and services. Headquartered in West Hazleton, PA, with satellite offices in California, Harrisburg PA, and Seattle WA, Leader Services provides custom web-based software and information management services for school district, consortium, and state-level education clients across the country. Leader's product line includes a number of secure, web-based applications:

• IEPWriter.com, a web-based solution for generating, storing and tracking Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) which automates reporting and expedites compliance with federal and state regulations;
• Children Count, the IDEA Child Count data capture and reporting module of IEPWriter.com which shares IEPWriter's student and staff database and consolidates special education data capture, form generation, and reporting;
• Federal Monitor™, a web-based solution which allows states to monitor LEAs' use of federal grant funding for No Child Left Behind and other initiatives;
• Advanced Compliance Monitoring™, a state-level IDEA compliance monitoring solution designed to assist states in meeting the needs of the Continuous Improvement and Focused Monitoring System (CIFMS), a model developed by the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to ensure school district compliance with the federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA);
• custom systems in multiple states for Medicaid billing for medically necessary IEP health-related services provided to MA-eligible special education students;
• and custom solutions for State Educational Agencies.

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