Summer may feel quieter across a school district, but technology teams know it is anything but slow.
While classrooms are less active, district leaders are preparing devices, reviewing contracts, updating systems, supporting summer programs, and getting ready for the new school year. It is also one of the best opportunities to clean up the district’s EdTech ecosystem.
Over time, technology inventories become outdated. Contracts are scattered across departments. Product owners change roles. Staff adopt tools independently. Applications that are no longer needed remain active—or continue renewing.
A summer EdTech cleanup can help your district begin the new school year with better visibility, stronger accountability, and fewer surprises.
Consider this checklist to get started.
1. Update Your EdTech Inventory
Begin by confirming what technology is actually being used throughout the district.
Your inventory should include instructional applications, administrative platforms, AI tools, browser extensions, mobile apps, free products, pilot programs, and department-specific solutions.
Check whether each product has:
- A current product name and vendor
- An assigned district owner
- A documented purpose
- Identified schools, departments, or user groups
- An accurate approval status
- Current privacy and security information
- Associated contracts and costs
- Renewal and expiration dates
- Support and training resources
Pay particular attention to free applications. A tool does not need a purchase order to create privacy, security, instructional, or operational risk.
2. Identify Duplicate and Overlapping Tools
Districts often pay for multiple products that serve similar purposes.
Look for duplication across categories such as:
- Learning management
- Assessment
- Classroom engagement
- Video creation
- Communication
- Digital content
- Artificial intelligence
- Professional development
- Student intervention
- Administrative operations
Before eliminating a product, consider its instructional purpose, adoption, accessibility, contractual commitments, integrations, and impact on staff and students.
The goal is not simply to reduce the number of tools. It is to ensure every solution has a clear purpose and provides meaningful value.
3. Review Contracts and Upcoming Renewals
Compile a list of contracts that recently renewed or expire during the first semester.
For each agreement, confirm:
- Contract owner
- Vendor contact
- Start and end dates
- Renewal terms
- Cancellation deadlines
- Total annual cost
- Funding source and budget code
- Number of licenses purchased
- Schools or departments covered
- Data privacy agreement status
- Required legal or procurement documentation
Automatic renewals deserve special attention. Missing a cancellation deadline can commit the district to another year before stakeholders have evaluated the product.
4. Verify Product Ownership
Every EdTech product should have someone responsible for its continued use and oversight.
Ownership can become unclear when employees leave the district, transfer departments, or change positions. This can result in missed renewals, outdated records, unresolved support requests, and applications continuing without meaningful oversight.
Confirm both the operational owner and, when appropriate, the instructional or departmental owner for each product.
Ownership should answer questions such as:
- Who evaluates whether the product is still needed?
- Who communicates with the vendor?
- Who monitors the contract and renewal?
- Who coordinates implementation and training?
- Who ensures required reviews remain current?
5. Reassess Privacy, Security, and Compliance
An application that was approved previously may have changed.
Vendors routinely update product features, data practices, integrations, terms of service, and AI functionality. Review whether high-impact or high-risk products still meet district requirements.
Confirm:
- The district has current privacy documentation
- Data privacy agreements remain valid
- Terms of service have not materially changed
- Data collection is appropriate for the product’s purpose
- Integrations and permissions are still necessary
- Age and parental-consent requirements are documented
- Accessibility requirements are being met
- Newly added AI features have been evaluated
- Staff know how to report privacy or security concerns
Prioritize products that handle sensitive student or employee information.
6. Find Unapproved and Unknown Tools
Shadow IT can grow quickly when staff members need immediate solutions and do not know what has already been approved.
Work with instructional, technology, finance, procurement, and school leaders to identify tools that may be missing from the district’s official inventory.
Helpful sources include:
- Single sign-on reports
- Browser extension lists
- Financial and purchasing records
- App-store deployments
- Device-management systems
- Department surveys
- Teacher requests
- Vendor invoices
- Existing spreadsheets and shared drives
Finding an unknown tool should not automatically result in punishment or removal. It can reveal gaps in communication, training, available solutions, or the district’s request process.
7. Retire Products That Are No Longer Needed
Once unused, redundant, outdated, or noncompliant products have been identified, create a documented retirement plan.
Before removing a product:
- Confirm contractual obligations
- Determine whether records must be retained
- Export necessary district data
- Request vendor data deletion when appropriate
- Remove integrations and user access
- Notify affected employees and families
- Provide an approved alternative
- Update catalogs and internal documentation
- Record the reason for the decision
A thoughtful offboarding process reduces disruption and prevents district data from remaining in systems that are no longer being used.
8. Refresh Your Approved-Tools Catalog
An approved-tools catalog is only useful when employees can trust the information it contains.
Review product descriptions and confirm staff can easily find:
- What the product does
- Who may use it
- Whether it is approved
- How to access it
- Who supports it
- Available training
- Privacy or usage restrictions
- Approved alternatives
- How to request another product
A searchable staff catalog can reduce duplicate requests, discourage unapproved adoption, and help employees make better use of tools the district already provides.
Districts should also review any public-facing catalog to ensure families have current, understandable information about technologies used with students.
9. Improve the Product-Request Process
Review the previous school year’s technology requests and identify where delays or confusion occurred.
Ask:
- Were employees able to see whether a product was already available?
- Were requests routed to the correct reviewers?
- Did technology, curriculum, privacy, security, finance, and procurement have appropriate input?
- Could departments review requests simultaneously when appropriate?
- Were requesters able to track progress?
- Were decisions and supporting documentation retained?
- Were approved products added to the district’s catalog?
- Were denied or deferred decisions clearly explained?
A strong workflow should create consistency without making innovation unnecessarily difficult.
10. Create a Back-to-School Governance Plan
Turn cleanup findings into specific actions for the new school year.
Your plan might include:
- Communicating where employees can find approved tools
- Reintroducing the product-request process
- Training school and department leaders
- Assigning missing product owners
- Scheduling contract and product reviews
- Establishing an AI-tool review process
- Creating renewal reminders
- Updating policies and standards
- Reporting major risks and spending trends to leadership
- Setting goals for reducing duplicate or underused products
Governance works best when it becomes an ongoing practice—not a once-a-year cleanup project.
Questions to Ask Before Summer Ends
Before the new school year begins, district leaders should be able to answer:
- Do we know which EdTech and AI tools are being used?
- Can staff easily find approved solutions?
- Does every product have a clear owner and purpose?
- Are contracts, privacy documents, and approvals connected to the correct products?
- Do we know what is renewing and how much it costs?
- Have newly added AI capabilities been reviewed?
- Can we identify redundant, unused, or unapproved applications?
- Do employees understand how to request a new tool?
- Can leadership see the district’s major risks, costs, and upcoming decisions?
If answering these questions requires searching through multiple spreadsheets, inboxes, and shared drives, your district may have an EdTech visibility problem.
Start the School Year with Clarity
A cleaner EdTech ecosystem supports more than operational efficiency. It helps districts protect data, manage spending, reduce unnecessary risk, strengthen instructional alignment, and communicate more clearly with employees and families.
Veracity helps K–12 districts centralize their EdTech ecosystem, manage cross-department requests and approvals, organize contracts and documents, and maintain actionable visibility throughout the complete technology lifecycle.
Ready to replace disconnected spreadsheets with one source of truth? Contact us to learn more.