Districts · EdTech Audit
You're paying to license, support, and secure
every tool nobody remembered to cancel.
Most districts can name about a third of them.
The stakes
Tools a district provides access to
2,982
LearnPlatform by Instructure · 2024-25
Tools a student actually uses
48
Same study, same school year
Curriculum licenses left unused
67%
Glimpse K12 · 275 schools · 2017-18
How we work
Who's this for?
Districts and charter networks heading into a renewal cycle without a current picture of what they own. The stack was assembled one purchase at a time, by people who have since moved on, against needs that have since changed - and the invoices keep arriving on schedule whether anyone opens the software or not.
Every tool you cancel is one fewer login to protect, one fewer agreement to police, and one fewer place student data can sit.
Pressure point 01
Nobody can price a tool at renewal
Without usage data, the safe answer is always to renew. Canceling something a teacher might be using is a visible risk. Paying for something nobody opens isn't.
Pressure point 02
An unused tool is still a live one
Zero use doesn't mean zero exposure. The accounts still exist, the roster sync still runs, and the data the vendor already holds doesn't leave when the logins stop.
Pressure point 03
Renewals arrive one at a time
Each one looks small against the whole budget, and each lands on a different desk in a different month. Nobody sees the total until it's already committed.
Pressure point 04
Free tools never show up in finance
Nothing was purchased, so nothing appears on a report. A free tier picked up years ago still has a roster, still holds student work, and is still a vendor relationship.
Pressure point 05
The people who chose it have moved on
The teacher who championed it changed schools. The director who approved it retired. What remains is a line item nobody can explain and nobody wants to be the one to cut.
Pressure point 06
Pilots outlive their pilot
A tool brought in for one grade level for one semester is still running four years later, at full price, for everyone.
What it actually is
An EdTech audit is a full accounting of what your district owns and uses.
We break it down by what a tool costs, frequency of use, and alignment to district goals.
We break it down by what a tool costs, frequency of use, and alignment to district goals.
The DPA review asks whether you're covered for the tools you have. This one asks whether you should have them.
01
For the business office
What can come off the budget before the next cycle, the usage evidence to defend each cut, and what it adds up to. The document you take to a board that has been told to find savings.
02
For IT and academics
Which tools are genuinely in use, which overlap with something you already own, and what the consolidation path looks like for each one - including what breaks and who needs telling.
What we look at
Every tool is read against the same five questions.
Two passes over the same stack - one through an operations lens, one through a compliance lens.
01
Adoption
How many of the seats you pay for get used, how often, and by whom.
02
Overlap
What else in the stack already does this job.
03
Cost per active user
The renewal price divided by the people who actually open it.
04
Fit to purpose
Whether the tool is still doing the job it was bought for.
05
Exposure
What the tool holds, who it shares with, and what stays behind if you cancel.
The engagement
Five phases, scoped to your actual stack.
Sized on what you're really running, not on a standard package.
01
Scope
We start from the access data and the finance export. Not the procurement list - what's actually being signed into, and what's actually being paid for.
If you've already run a penetration test or DPA review with us, we'll have the needed materials for scoping and will omit this phase.02
Inventory
Every tool in one place with what it costs, who owns it, how it arrived, and how many people genuinely use it. Licensed reconciled against active, before anyone argues about value.
03
Evaluation
Each tool read against the five questions, twice - once for what it costs and who uses it, once for what it holds and who it shares with.
04
Findings
Consolidation candidates, renewals to let lapse, and the gaps nothing in the stack currently covers, with the evidence attached to each so the decision survives a challenge.
05
Roadmap
A renewal calendar with a decision attached to every date, so the next budget cycle starts from evidence rather than from last year's invoice.
What you receive
A record you can act on, and keep current.
Deliverable 01
Stack Inventory
Every tool in the district: what it costs, who owns it, how it arrived, and how many people actually open it. One document, current as of the review.
Deliverable 02
Findings Summary
Where you're paying twice, what nobody opens, what nothing covers, and a recommendation for each - written to survive a board meeting.
Deliverable 03
Renewal Calendar
What comes up when, and the decision attached to each date. This is the piece that keeps the stack from growing back the way it grew the first time.Renewals still land whenever each contract says they do. Our Vendor Alignment service moves them onto one date, so the decisions happen in a single administrative window and procurement gets one document instead of a year of reminders. Page coming soon.
Book a call
Start the Conversation →See what your stack is actually costing you.
We'll ask what you're running, what you're paying, and when the next renewals land. You'll leave knowing whether an audit is worth doing before your next budget cycle.
See clearly.
Act strategically.
Protect what matters.
Questions we get
What districts ask before they start.
How is this different from the DPA review?
The DPA review asks whether you're legally covered for the tools you have. This one asks whether you should have them. Same starting data, different question - and districts often run them together, because a tool you cancel is a tool you never have to paper again.
We already know what we bought. What does this add?
Purchasing records tell you what was ordered. They don't tell you who logged in, how often, or whether something else in the stack already does the same job. The gap between those two pictures is where the money is.
What if we don't have usage data?
Most districts don't, at least not in a usable form. We build it from what students and staff actually sign into rather than from vendor dashboards, so the picture doesn't depend on each vendor's willingness to report honestly on its own renewal.
Will you tell us to cancel things teachers rely on?
No. Low use and no use are different findings, and a tool forty teachers depend on is a keep even when the license count looks poor. What you get is the evidence behind each decision, not a list of cuts.
How is pricing structured?
Priced per engagement and scoped to the size of your stack, quoted in writing after the scoping conversation. The sizing happens before the work starts, so the number doesn't move underneath you.
Who does the work?
Claire Smizer-Muldoon and Jessica Maddry both read the stack, through different lenses - one operational, one compliance. The findings that show up in only one pass are usually the ones worth acting on.
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