For 75 years, Harding Academy in East Memphis has been known for an education that stays with a student long after graduation. So, when families begin in the school’s preschool program, affectionately known as “Little Harding,” the hope is for that experience to feel like one continuous journey from infant care all the way through twelfth grade. For a while, though, the software running the childcare program was not well connected to the software running everything else.
The Hidden Cost of Disconnected Systems
Dr. Scott Frizzell, Harding’s Director of Strategy and Campus Life, felt that disconnect everywhere. Staff were entering the same student information into two separate systems, which meant every small change turned into double the work. The reports he counted on to make wise, school-wide decisions were not there when he needed them. Worst of all, keeping families through the transition from Little Harding into kindergarten meant making sure the experience felt seamless, not like switching to a different school altogether.
Harding already trusted FACTS to manage records for its K-12 students, so the next question almost answered itself: what if childcare lived on the same foundation as the rest of the school?
What Changed After the Switch
Attendance that used to be tracked on paper and re-entered later now happens at check-in and flows straight into the system the school already uses. Every family is active in the app, a direct result of tying the app to daily check-in rather than leaving adoption to chance. Billing lines up automatically against attendance, so there are fewer end-of-month surprises and a good deal of more trust on both sides. Put it all together, and the team estimates it has reclaimed more than ten hours every single week.
For Frizzell, though, the best part might not be a feature at all. It is the sense that someone is listening. “FACTS always listens to me,” he says. “When I have a problem, I know that they know about it and it’s getting fixed.” Features his teachers asked for early on have continued to ship throughout the year, which is the mark of a partner that builds alongside its customers instead of simply selling to them.
Want the Whole Story?
There is a lot more to the story than fits here. The full case study digs into how Harding reached 100% parent app adoption in a single school year, what flexible class management will look like as new features roll out, why the conversation about data security matters more than most schools expect, and the complete picture behind those reclaimed hours. It is all there in Frizzell’s own words and shows why the same kind of change is possible in your program.
