This article originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of ImaginED, a publication of Woodland Star International School. Explore the full issue at woodlandstarkenya.com.

Over the past year, one thing has become clear in conversations with school leaders across the country: the tone has changed.

ESSER funding is gone. Budgets that once left room for experimentation are now under scrutiny line by line. At the same time, skepticism around technology in schools is growing. Communities are questioning screen time, phones in classrooms, and whether all this investment has actually improved outcomes for students.

Some of that skepticism is fair. In many cases, it is overdue.

But it is also leading some schools to make a consequential mistake: cutting technology spending broadly, without distinguishing between optional tools and essential infrastructure.

That distinction matters. And no platform is more foundational than the Student Information System.

A different kind of budget year

Schools are now trying to absorb costs that temporary relief funding once covered. Contracts are being reevaluated. Positions are being cut. Every technology purchase is being asked to justify its place.

At the same time, the public conversation around tech in education has grown more complicated. Research on distraction has changed how families and boards think about devices and digital tools. Many leaders feel caught between wanting better systems for staff and not wanting to defend another expensive line item.

So some schools are pulling back across the board.

The problem is that not all technology serves the same purpose.

The SIS is not just another tool

When I visit schools, I pay attention to the friction educators have learned to accept.

A teacher logging into multiple systems to understand one struggling student. An attendance coordinator moving data between platforms. A counselor sensing something is wrong, but unable to quickly see attendance, grades, interventions, and family communication in one place.

Those may look like workflow issues, but they are student outcome issues.

The SIS is the connective tissue of a school. It holds the attendance record, academic history, family information, intervention notes, and the context educators need to make informed decisions. Every other platform a school buys, from analytics to communication tools, relies on that foundation.

When the SIS is outdated, rigid, or difficult to use, it does more than slow down operations. It weakens the visibility schools need to support students well.

The whole child requires a complete picture

Schools talk often about supporting the whole child. But that only works when educators can actually see the whole picture.

That means noticing when a student’s grades have quietly slipped over several weeks, even if attendance still looks fine. It means families receiving communication that is timely, relevant, and connected to what is really happening. It means teachers using systems that help rather than punish them.

When the SIS is frustrating or fragmented, staff do the minimum required to stay compliant. The result is incomplete data, shallow visibility, and missed opportunities to intervene early.

A modern SIS does more than store information. It helps educators see students clearly and act sooner.

The problem with buying outcomes one tool at a time

Many schools have added tools with good intentions: an early warning platform, a family communication app, an MTSS system, an analytics dashboard.

Individually, each may offer value. But too often they do not connect well enough to provide a usable, complete picture of a student.

That is because none of them are the source of truth. The SIS is.

An early warning flag is only useful when it connects to attendance patterns, grade trends, and staff notes. Family outreach is more effective when it reflects full student context. Interventions are more likely to stick when teachers, counselors, and families are working from the same information.

A modern SIS is not one more tool in the stack. It is the platform that makes the rest of the stack work.

Healthy skepticism. Risky cuts.

Schools are right to question technology spending more carefully right now. Not every platform has delivered meaningful value.

But the SIS does not belong in the same category as optional add-ons.

It is the system that holds the student story and determines whether that story is visible, usable, and actionable. When that foundation is strong, educators can respond earlier, work more efficiently, and make better decisions. When it is not, every other investment operates with less clarity and less impact.

A modern SIS is not a replacement for the tools schools believe in. It is what makes those tools work the way schools hoped they would.

Lauren Cybulski is VP of Growth & Revenue Operations at Alma, the modern K-12 Student Information System built to empower educators and improve student outcomes. She has spent more than a decade working directly with schools and districts across the United States and internationally.