Questions to take into admissions and enrollment

Questions about the workflow

Which applicant journey are we improving? Where does work stall or get repeated? What happens with incomplete applications, duplicate identities, changed guardians, rejected documents, waitlist movement, withdrawal, and student handoff?

Ask every supplier to demonstrate the same scenarios with the same definitions. Record observed behavior, manual steps, unknowns, and the school effort required.

Questions about data and control

What is the source of truth for applicant, guardian, document, decision, offer, and enrollment data? Who can view, create, edit, approve, publish, export, correct, archive, and delete each record?

The U.S. Department of Education data governance checklist connects quality, access, security, lifecycle, sharing, disposal, and monitoring. GOV.UK procurement guidance recommends minimum necessary data, access control, security, supplier accountability, and clear end-of-contract handling.

Questions about delivery and cost

Who owns cleanup, migration, validation, configuration, testing, training, family communication, support, incidents, reconciliation, reporting, and review? What must the school provide during the busiest admissions period?

Ask for recurring, one-time, usage-based, integration, payment, training, support, growth, internal-capacity, export, and contract-end costs. Record assumptions, exclusions, dependencies, and variable charges.

Questions about proof

What evidence supports each product, security, privacy, support, and outcome claim? What remains unknown? How will the school measure completion, quality, family experience, support demand, and the intended outcome at 30, 60, and 90 days?

Make the next action clear

Use this guidance to improve one bounded part of questions to take into school admissions software. Name the owner, affected record, evidence needed, and review date. Keep the test small enough for admissions staff to complete and specific enough for a later audit.

Check both an ordinary application and one meaningful exception. If either depends on undocumented knowledge, add the missing definition, training note, permission rule, or support route before calling the next step ready.