Why we built this

It started at our kitchen table.

My wife, Shannon, is a school social worker. One evening she walked me through what it takes to keep her two credentials current. This is the story of what she showed me, and what we built from it.

Two credentials, two clocksA LARA license card and an MDE certificate card, each with its own progress ring and its own renewal date.LARAMDESocial work licenseSchool certificate29of 45 hrs26of 75 hrsRenews Apr 30Renews Jun 30every 3 yearsevery 5 years

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Two credentials, two clocks

Shannon holds a social work license from LARA and a school social worker certificate from MDE. Each one renews on its own schedule, with its own hours, its own minimums and its own deadline.

One course, counted twiceOne course card sends credit to both the LARA license and the MDE certificate as CE and SCECHs; credit the other way, from SCECH-only courses to the license, rarely happens.MASSW sessionEthics · 3 hrsCESCECHcounts as CE ✓counts as SCECH ✓SCECH-only course → license: rarely

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One course, counted twice

A course she took for her license often counted as SCECHs for her certificate too, but not always, and almost never the other way around. Keeping that straight meant writing every course down twice.

A notebook full of talliesA spiral notebook page listing courses by hand with which credential each counts for, and running totals, one of them crossed out and rewritten.9/12 Ethics workshop3hL ✓ M ✓10/3 District PD6hM ✓11/8 Trauma webinar2hL ✓ M ?1/15 Pain mgmt2hL ✓LARA: 7 of 45 hrsMDE:1113 of 75 hrs?

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A notebook full of tallies

So she kept a notebook: dates, hours, which credential each course counted for, and what was still missing. Every renewal started with adding it all up again by hand and hoping nothing had slipped through.

There had to be somethingA web search for an app that tracks a LARA license and MDE SCECHs together finds tools for one credential or one conference, and nothing that does both.track LARA license + MDE SCECHs togetherTracks your license CETracks SCECHs onlyTracks one conferenceLicense and certificate, side by side0 results

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There had to be something

I went looking for an app that tracked both. I found tools for one credential, or for one conference, but nothing that put a license and a certificate side by side. So I built one.

Built for one, shared with everyoneA laptop with code becomes the Social Work Hours app with its two clocks, built for Shannon; then one person becomes many.</>Built for ShannonOne placefor everyone

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Built for one, shared with everyone

I work at Springthrough, and building software is what I love to do. Social Work Hours started as something I made for Shannon. Now I'm sharing it with every Michigan school social worker who has ever kept a notebook like hers.

If you've ever tracked your hours in a notebook, a spreadsheet or your head, this is for you. I hope it gives you a little of that time back. And if something could work better, we'd love to hear about it.

Eric Spencer, Springthrough

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If you have an idea that could make life easier for social workers, or for anyone working in education, I'd love to hear it. Some of the best tools start as a story at a kitchen table.

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