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There is so much energy and effort put into getting the school ready to start for the fall. Now that we are a couple of weeks into the school year, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some of the areas of collaborative work we are doing alongside district technology staff from around the region. CTA continues to deliver in some of the most critical areas of technology, even in the face of funding shortfalls - we are moving towards the future while providing consistent and predictable support.
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Strengthening Internet Resiliency: Our network team has designed and is currently expanding one of the most resilient and expansive networks connecting K12 school districts in the Pacific Northwest.
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Robust Cybersecurity: Our cybersecurity team continues to help keep school districts ahead of threats with proactive defenses, powerful tools, and rapid response times.
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AI Preparedness: CTA has been an essential partner in the growing usage of AI in schools, assisting with training, resources, and helping drive the annual AI Empowered Edu conference.
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Application Delivery: Our application developers are building tools utilized statewide to support Medicaid billing, MTSS, Homeschool enrollment, and more!
In a time of uncertainty, our priority continues to focus on creating a stable, secure technology foundation that empowers educators and supports every student. By focusing on reliability, security, and usability, we’re making sure your educators have what they need to help.
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Stuart Long
Chief Information Officer
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The Homeschool Notification application serves nine Oregon Education Service Districts (ESD's), including Clackamas
Columbia Gorge, Douglas. High Desert, Lane, Multnomah, Northwest Regional, Southern Oregon, and Willamette, along with their component school districts. Homeschool Notification allows parents and guardians to self-register and notify ESDs and school districts of their intent to homeschool.
Once enrolled, parents and guardians can generate official letters certifying homeschool participation, documentation for colleges, universities, and the Department of Motor Vehicles. School district administrators can access lists of registered students.
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ORMed Medicaid billing software upgrade features provider documentation and Medicaid billing capabilities, including a mobile-friendly interface, customizable service log templates, and imports of IEP goals.
Two ESD's and eleven school districts are included in the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) School-Based Health Services Medicaid two-year pilot program utilizing ORMed. The pilot is designed to build buy-in within school districts, guide participants through Medicaid billing onboarding, and provide timely training and support. School districts will receive onboarding, training, and customer assistance from the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), OHA, and the ORMED team.
Updated features include:
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Modern & Faster: Refreshed, modern, with quicker page load times.
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Streamlined Caseload Management: Save time by adding multiple students to caseloads at one time.
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On-the-go Logging: Access the mobile-friendly platform from a tablet or smart phone to create quick service logs after providing a service.
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Customize Log Templates: Personalize documentation with custom log templates, ensuring providers can track exactly what they need.
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The new Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) software enables educators to quickly identify students who need support, organize targeted interventions, and monitor student growth in real-time. Starting with early literacy and now expanded to K-12 attendance, the platform simplifies data into clear, easy-to-use tools that strengthen school team meetings and highlight what’s working.
Future updates will include Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and High School Success. School districts can use their state ODE - Early Indicator and Intervention Systems allocations or other funding sources to license MTSS for $3.50 per student for the school year.
MTSS - Student graph showing the start of intervention, and subsequent growth
MTSS - School attendance details
ORSped has served as the Special Education Student Information System for the Northwest Regional ESD’s twenty component school districts since Fall 2009. In July 2024, eleven school districts in Clatsop, Tillamook, and Washington counties successfully transitioned to Synergy SE. The remaining nine districts in Columbia and Washington counties, along with ESD programs, completed the transition in July 2025.
CTA staff conducted training sessions to help districts prepare for the change. ORSped is accessible in read-only mode while CTA works on setting up a long-term records archive.
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CTA is a champion organization of the National Cybersecurity Alliance's Cybersecurity Awareness Month. October is the perfect opportunity to reinforce cybersecurity best practices across your school district and teams.
This year’s theme is “Stay Safe Online” with 4 key easy steps:
As AI-driven tools continue to evolve, phishing emails are becoming increasingly convincing. We encourage you to remind staff to stay alert—especially with messages that convey urgency or request sensitive information. Always double-check the sender’s email address and ensure domains match official sources (e.g., microsoft.com vs. microsofft.org (repeated or missing letters) or microsoft.xanadu.com (not Microsoft’s website but actually Xanadu’s)).
Your leadership plays a critical role in fostering a culture of cybersecurity!
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STEM Like a Girl workshops are coming to Northwest Regional ESD on November 2nd and Multnomah ESD on December 7th. These hands-on workshops are designed for girls and female-identifying youth in grades 3rd–5th, accompanied by a parent or adult caregiver.
The cost is $30 per parent-child pair and $20 for each additional girl from the same family. Full financial assistance is available upon request. Sign up to volunteer
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CTA has been working to increase network resiliency for schools in Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, and Washington counties. The goal is to replicate a meshed regional K-12 network across the metro area.
Over the summer, CTA completed dark fiber networks to Astoria, Forest Grove, Gaston Neah-Kah-Nie, and Yamhill-Carlton. This expansion moves us closer to our goal of creating a resilient network through collaboration and interconnection.
We are currently building additional interconnections, with an expected go-live date in the summer of 2026. This includes interconnecting Astoria, Clatskanie, Knappa, Mist, Neah-Kah-Nie, Rainier, Seaside, Scappoose, St. Helens, Vernonia, and Tillamook school districts.
CTA is now working on the next set of requests for proposals to improve connectivity options in Banks, Jewell, and Scappoose, and to enhance the network by interconnecting Forest Grove and Sherwood with Hillsboro.
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