Rochester Community School Corporation (Rochester) in Indiana faced a critical compliance challenge when the state found the district out of compliance with Indicator 13: Secondary Transition. A review of randomly selected student records revealed inadequate documentation in three key areas:

  • Employment planning
  • Independent living skills
  • Academic skill transition goals

This compliance failure was rooted in a significant educator capacity gap. Upon reviewing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), Director of Special Services Lukas Schoenhals and his team found goals were often non-individualized and lacked explicit data for progress monitoring. This problem was compounded by the fact that many of the district’s special educators and service providers—many of whom were new to the field—lacked comprehensive training in essential special education practices, including:

  • Writing standards-aligned IEP goals
  • Designing and writing high-quality, cohesive, and meaningful IEPs
  • Understanding disability-related needs of specific student populations

Rochester needed a systematic solution to address goal writing and progress monitoring. Recognizing that the root cause was educator support and preparedness, the district partnered with Goalbook to implement a holistic, research-based solution that would support new teachers while allowing veteran educators to hone their skills and improve district-wide collaboration.

Since partnering with Goalbook, Rochester Community School Corporation has seen a significant, measurable impact on instructional practice and educator effectiveness across the special education process.

Rochester Community School Corporation Partners with Goalbook

From the beginning of their partnership in 2021, Rochester implemented the Goalbook Toolkit solution district-wide, ensuring all special educators have access, receive training, and use the job-embedded professional development resources.

Director Lukas Schoenhals and Goalbook Customer Success Manager Tyfany established a true thought partnership. Since the first year, Tyfany has worked with Lukas to design and implement an action plan tailored to Rochester’s specific needs to increase teacher effectiveness in writing standards-aligned IEP goals and collect meaningful data. 

As part of Goalbook’s holistic approach, Tyfany also delivers ongoing comprehensive professional development aligned with Rochester’s priorities. This includes a blend of live instructor-led professional development sessions, live continuing webinar series, and on-demand training videos.

This ongoing, high-touch approach is key to Goalbook’s model, ensuring Rochester is investing in a sustained strategy for building instructional capacity, not just buying software.

The strength of this collaboration has made a difference for Rochester staff. Lukas shared: “Tyfany is more than helpful. If I ever have questions, I’ve had no issues with reaching out to Tyfany and getting the support I need.”

“Lukas’s leadership has created the conditions for authentic collaboration, which has made a huge difference in our partnership,” said Tyfany.

Under the leadership of Lukas Schoenhals, Director of Special Services, Rochester Community Schools Corporation improved compliance with Indicator 13.

The Impact of Implementing Goalbook Toolkit: Improved Effectiveness and Outcomes

As a result of Rochester’s partnership with Goalbook and educators using the Goalbook Toolkit solution, the district has seen a significant, measurable impact on instructional practice and educator effectiveness across the special education process.

Special Educators Report Increased Effectiveness and Efficiency

In a Goalbook-provided annual survey, Rochester teachers reported overwhelming confidence gains in their practice:

Instructional Practice Drives Student Success

The shift in instructional practice and teacher effectiveness has led to significant changes in IEP quality and student outcomes, as reported by Lukas:

  • Educator self-efficacy is up: IEP teams now feel more confident walking into meetings with families. Not only do they feel better prepared and more effective, but now they can clearly explain student progress with accurate, individualized data, helping build trust and improve collaboration with parents.
  • Teachers are receiving effective job-embedded professional development: Educators who have limited experience developing IEPs and designing instruction for students with low-incidence disabilities are receiving effective job-embedded learning through Goalbook Toolkit’s resources. This is helping improve their instructional practice, making educators more effective and giving them more time to focus on delivering specialized instruction.
  • Students are meeting their goals quicker: IEP teams are reconvening more frequently to update IEP goals.
  • IEPs are individualized: IEP goals are now specific to student data-informed present levels and scaffolded based on their unique needs, moving away from template-driven practices.

Lukas said, “Goalbook Toolkit helps streamline everything and keeps the IEP process in place,” noting the clear increase in educator efficiency and effectiveness. “There is a night and day difference between the original way of doing things and now in how we implement Goalbook Toolkit.”

Goalbook Toolkit not only keeps us compliant … it is also helping us do what’s best for kids. It’s now easier for us to gauge and demonstrate whether a student is being successful in meeting their goals.

Major Result: Rochester Improves Compliance with Indicator 13

Implementing the holistic Goalbook Toolkit solution has improved instructional practice, positively impacting educator effectiveness and directly contributing to Rochester Community School Corporation’s compliance with Indicator 13.

This success helped the district avoid the ripple effects of non-compliance, including costly reconvening of IEP teams and the drain of ongoing corrective action. The investment in Goalbook Toolkit provided both compliance and long-term operational stability.

“Goalbook Toolkit not only keeps us compliant,” said Lukas, “it is also helping us do what’s best for kids. It’s now easier for us to gauge and demonstrate whether a student is being successful in meeting their goals.”

Takeaways from Rochester Community School Corporation

“Rochester Community School Corporation’s journey highlights the importance of investing in strong relationships and teacher empowerment,” said Goalbook’s Tyfany.

By integrating Goalbook Toolkit into its special education practices, Rochester achieved the following benefits:

  • Educator Efficacy: Special educators report they are more effective and efficient in their work.
  • Student Outcomes: Student outcomes have improved as students are meeting their goals in less time.
  • Compliance: The district now meets Indicator 13 requirements.

Lukas himself has benefited: He has been able to shift time away from delivering routine training himself to focus on high-priority leadership needs, including district-wide strategy.

Rochester Community School Corporation is proof that when a district invests time and integrates the Goalbook Toolkit solution, it leads to improved instructional practice, teacher effectiveness, compliance, and positive student outcomes.