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PULSE guide · For the special education director

Getting started with PULSE

From a signed agreement to your first look at your own data: what happens, who does each part, and roughly when. Most districts see their first look within the first two weeks.

Last updated September 28, 2026

Who does what

Four people are usually involved. One person can hold more than one part.

  • You, the director: sign in first, invite your staff, and approve the service plan school by school.
  • Your technology director: pulls the exports from your student information system and HR system and uploads them. There is a guide written for them.
  • Your principals: confirm or correct caseload lists, and later use the coverage page for their school.
  • The PULSE team: sends your data agreement, sets up your workspace with your schools and their school days, and invites you as the first administrator.

Step by step

  1. Sign the data agreementWe send you the PULSE Data Access and Protection Agreement by email. The product itself never sends an agreement. Student names stay hidden in PULSE until a signed privacy agreement is on file.Once it is signed, we record it, or you can record it yourself from Getting started under “Privacy agreement”.
  2. Accept your invitation and sign inPULSE sets up your district with its schools and each school’s day and schedule cycle, then invites you as the first administrator. Open the email, set a password, and you land on Today.
  3. Open Getting startedGetting started is the list of what your district still needs, in order. Each item says what it opens and whether it is yours or ours. Nothing on it blocks you from using any other page.
  4. Send your filesYour technology director uploads the student roster with IEP services, and the staff roster. Today shows a line for each part of PULSE and the one file that lights it up next.
  5. Invite your staffInvite leaders first and providers when you are ready. See “Invite your staff”.
  6. Confirm who delivers each servicePULSE drafts who serves each student from your files. You answer a few questions and approve each school. Nothing is confirmed until you approve it. See “Confirm who delivers each service”.
  7. Read your first lookToday shows what your own files already say: compliance dates coming up and past, which school carries the most service, and which files unlock staffing numbers. The first look itself shows no staffing or workload percentages; it names the files that let PULSE measure them.