Supporting Multilingual Learners, Students with Disabilities, and Students in Temporary Housing

Overview

This article is for educators who want to use Overgrad's existing features to better support students with specific access needs. It covers what's available for three student populations — Multilingual Learners (MLL), Students with Disabilities (SWD), and Students in Temporary Housing (STH) — organized around what to prepare before rollout, how to use each feature with students, and how to track outcomes over time.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview
• Multilingual Learners (MLL)
• Students with Disabilities (SWD)
• Students in Temporary Housing (STH)
• What Ties These Together
• Setting Up Before You Roll Out
• Best Practices Checklist

Multilingual Learners (MLL)

Before Rollout

Know what's available before you introduce the platform. Translation is available to all students and families, with coverage for NYCPS priority languages. Check your current language coverage so you know which families are supported, and plan how you'll reach any whose language isn't covered yet.

Using Overgrad with Students

The Language Selector in the student and family header sets the platform to the family's language, on by default and no setup required; the choice persists across every visit. Translation may not cover some user-generated content, for example Milestone or Survey text an educator writes, so preview those in the student view and be ready to walk through them live. Use Tasks to hand over one language-heavy step at a time rather than the whole application.

Tracking Over Time

Use a custom field to flag ELL/MLL status, then filter the Milestones Dashboard by that flag to track completion trends for that specific group over time, not just a static roster.

Students with Disabilities (SWD)

Before Rollout

Identify which students need processing time or extended-time accommodations and log it via a custom field before rollout. Because IEP transition planning requires documented postsecondary goals starting at age 15/16, plan to use the career survey and college list as part of that documentation trail.

Using Overgrad with Students

The self-paced, mobile-friendly career survey doesn't require a fixed class period, giving students room to work at their own pace. Use Tasks to break a big milestone ("build your college list") into small, concrete steps, and walk through the Common App's multi-step sequence one step at a time. The Document Locker centralizes transcripts, financial aid paperwork, and anything needed to request college accommodations, so a case manager or new counselor doesn't reconstruct history from scratch.

Tracking Over Time

Flag IEP/504 status via a custom field and filter the Milestones Dashboard by it to see completion trends for that caseload. Log accommodations provided at each check-in in Interactions so support stays consistent across staff. Scholarship tagging already includes "504 or IEP" and "Individuals with Disabilities," surfacing relevant aid directly in the platform.

Students in Temporary Housing (STH)

Before Rollout

Identify high-mobility or STH students and flag them via a custom field before rollout. Decide who should be added as an outside advisor: a McKinney-Vento liaison or shelter-based education staff member can be added to a student's account (using the same parent/guardian contact type), giving them visibility into progress even without being the parent or school-based staff.

Using Overgrad with Students

A student's profile and Document Locker are cloud-based and travel with them across school changes — career survey progress, notes, and college list don't reset on transfer. The same self-paced, mobile-friendly career survey works from a phone in a free moment, which is more realistic than a fixed in-class window for students with inconsistent attendance due to shelter placements, long commutes, or disrupted schedules.

Tracking Over Time

Filter the Milestones Dashboard by your STH flag to catch a student quietly falling behind mid-transition. Log every outreach attempt in Interactions, even the unanswered ones — it's your evidence trail and it preserves context across counselor handoffs. Overgrad also tracks FAFSA dependency status (dependent, independent, provisionally independent) at the student level.

What Ties These Together

• Records that follow the student. Document Locker and Interaction notes mean progress and context survive transfers, IEP team changes, and counselor turnover instead of getting lost on paper.
• Custom fields are your student groups. The same flagging mechanism (IEP/504, STH, MLL) drives caseload filtering, advisor setup, and Milestones Dashboard reporting.
• Work without a fixed class period. The self-paced career survey and other activities support inconsistent attendance (STH), extended-time needs (SWD), and independent pacing (MLLs) alike.
• Aid that matches the student. Scholarship tagging covers "504 or IEP," "Individuals with Disabilities," and "Currently or Formerly Experiencing Homelessness."

Setting Up Before You Roll Out

• Assigned Counselor & access. Confirm every student has an Assigned Counselor and that supporting staff (APs, social workers) can see the record. Unassigned or unseen students fall through the cracks.
• SIS roster import. Map the Assigned Counselor column. Decide whether to send welcome emails right away or hold them for students without stable contact info.
• Milestone plan. Review the assigned plan, due dates, and grade-level windows. Default timelines may not fit every student's pacing.
• Student contacts. Register a mentor, caseworker, or community partner on the parent contact type when a parent isn't reachable. Any trusted adult can be designated by the educator.
• Career interest survey. Preview it before assigning and frame it as low-stakes self-exploration, not a test.
• Common App email. Confirm your Overgrad account email is correct. A mismatch stalls a recommender invite with no visible warning.

Best Practices Checklist

• Preview every feature in the student view before assigning, so you catch confusing steps first.
• Break big milestones into Tasks whenever a step feels overwhelming.
• Message through Overgrad, not personal email or phone, so outreach joins a shared, dated record.
• Set up custom fields for IEP/504, STH, and ELL flags before rollout.
• Log every contact attempt in Interactions, not just the ones that succeed.
• Roll out in phases: rosters and counselors first, then milestones and tasks, then Common App.