Thanks for the update. Can I ask if you guys are using Powerschool SIS? It's pretty common in the educational sector, and it's designed specifically for medium

Thanks for the update. Can I ask if you guys are using Powerschool SIS? It's pretty common in the educational sector, and it's designed specifically for medium-to-large school districts. I worked with it only briefly a very long time ago (when it was called SASi), as it started to replace the COBOL mainframe system that the school district I worked at had been using. I'd be a little surprised if it has all the problems you describe. At the time, I'm pretty sure it had support for everything you're asking for. Are there any automated import/export options for the system you're currently using? Any way at all to minimize the amount of duplicate data entry you'd have to do? Even if you used something like AutoHotKey (http://ahkscript.org/ http://ahkscript.org/) to do it? I have a recommendation that's probably not going to be real popular with the rest of HN, because it's not 2015 Buzzword Compliant, but: have you considered just using FileMaker Pro? It's cheap, they offer discounts for education, and it's fairly easy to use. You don't need to be a programmer to get going with it. It's really, really common, especially in the small business market, so finding people that can work with it is easy. They even have a pile of ready-made applications for schools (http://solutions.filemaker.com/made-for-filemaker/search.jsp?category=2&task=%&industry=5&language=ENG http://solutions.filemaker.com/made-for-filemaker/search.jsp...), including one that seems to hit your immediate needs (http://solutions.filemaker.com/made-for-filemaker/detail.jsp?id=solution.10000003697 http://solutions.filemaker.com/made-for-filemaker/detail.jsp...) (caveat: looks like that version of their software might not be editable; the vendor wants you to contact them for a customizable version). You could throw a FMP server together for $1,000 or less, software included, and be up and running with your first version in a day or two. Treat it like your minimum viable product, use it for end-user testing and figure out what you do and don't like about it, and then if you decide in one or two years that you still really need a custom system, you'll have a very detailed list of requirements that will help the build process a lot. And FMP is pretty decent about playing nice with other software and allowing you to export data, so you don't have to worry too much about vendor lock-in. FMP server: we just recently did a server upgrade for the Friendship Club, for really cheap. A Mac Mini works just fine as an FMP server for a small number of users, add in an external drive for Time Machine backups, then your FMP license and a license for the pre-made K12 FMP application to get you started. Feel free to drop me a line at the email address in my user profile. I work a lot with clients with constrained budgets. I could bat around some options with you. And if you're looking bigger-picture, pretty much the entire SIS market sucks. Somebody could come along and develop a new product that was modern and robust and it could quickly be better than all of its competitors. But, it would also be really tough to get that exponential growth curve that YC and its kin all want to see because so many school districts would be reluctant to go through the trouble of switching systems, no matter how bad their current system was.