Behavior Tracking in K12, and Why it Matters for Edtech Companies

What Is Behavior Tracking in a Student Information System?

Behavior tracking is the process of collecting and organizing records of student conduct, such as incidents, positive behaviors, and disciplinary actions. Today, this data can be tracked through apps or within a student information system (SIS).

Some SIS platforms include behavior tracking tools. For example, PowerSchool Behavior Support helps staff log events, follow up, and look for trends. Other vendors like Infinite Campus and Skyward offer similar tools. An average-sized K12 public district has 514 students enrolled, enough to log thousands of behavior incidents each year. These large data sets are the reason why schools need software to help them make informed decisions for their students.

How SIS Vendors Track Student Behavior

SIS vendors make behavior tracking easier with features like:

Event Logging: Record incidents when they happen.
Categorization: Label incidents by type, severity, and outcome.
Stakeholder Linking: Connect incidents to students, teachers, administrators, and parents.
Time-Based Trends: Track patterns over time.
Access Control: Make sure only the right people see the data.

To continue our example with PowerSchool, their tools can let schools define behavior categories, track resolutions, and run reports. Even though this is relevant information, this data often stays locked inside the SIS, unable for other edtech companies to access and improve their content.

Why Edtech Products Should Care About Behavior Data

Behavior data adds context to academic performance. For edtech companies, it’s a way to better support students and align with how districts define success.

The National Library of Medicine published research that has shown behavior problems, such as repeated disciplinary incidents or chronic absenteeism, can be early indicators of dropout risk or disengagement. Recognizing these early warning signs creates opportunities for action. Once identified, these behavioral signals can help stakeholders provide more tailored support before students fall behind.

That’s where educational frameworks designed to support student well-being come into play, such as Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Response to Intervention (RTI):

SEL - A methodology that helps students to better comprehend their emotions, feel them, and demonstrate empathy for others. These actions then help students make positive decisions, create frameworks to achieve their goals, and build positive relationships.
RTI - An educational framework to identify and support students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. RTI offers teachers a structured prevention method to track progress, adjust their strategies, and enhance overall classroom effectiveness.

When students face a life change or personal challenge, they may react differently to academic content. By anticipating these challenges supported with data, edtech companies could better improve student outcomes. Some examples of how edtech providers can use behavior data:

Activate supportive features when students show signs of stress or disengagement
Align content with SEL or RTI goals
Combine behavior and academic metrics in dashboards
Send smart alerts to teachers, counselors, or administrators

Districts support tools that take the whole student into account.

In a report from Frontline Education, districts that used early warning indicators in younger grades saw lower chronic absenteeism and higher teacher retention rate. This reinforces that supporting student well-being, especially reducing absenteeism, benefits both students and educators.

According to this report, district administrators are prioritizing tools that support a student’s mental health to impact academic outcomes. By this logic, if an edtech provider was able to ingest behavioral data and use it to enhance student outcomes, it could be perceived as more valuable when compared to other edtech providers in the market.

Why Integrations Matter: Syncing Behavior Data at Scale

Specialized edtech tools that need behavior data to drill down on a specific impact they are trying to solve for districts often need to ingest behavior data from the school’s SIS. In our experience, when these tools are first starting out, the most popular way to ingest this data is by manual entry. However, we also see that as the tool’s impact scales to more districts, the manual entry process stops working.

Manual entry can cause:

Delays in getting the latest information
More work for school staff
Messy, inconsistent, and/or inaccurate data

Besides manual entry, another option to access this data is through SIS integrations. An integration with an SIS can sync behavior data to the specialized edtech tool in near real-time for more actionable and accurate impact for students.

Integrations can provide:

More current data, more often
Support to more districts without added human effort
More accurate data and in easy-to-digest formats for edtech providers

For example, the Edlink Unified API gives edtech companies a way to access behavior data across several SIS vendors, like PowerSchool. That way, the edtech provider can support tailored experiences based on student data for even more districts.

Final Thoughts: Behavior Data as a Product Advantage

Some schools are collecting behavior data, but it stays within their internal systems. Edtech products that know how to use this information can deliver more personalized and helpful experiences, flag potential problems early to better support students in need, and align more closely with district priorities such as social-emotional learning (SEL) and student wellbeing.

If your product can connect to behavioral data, and act on it, you’ll be in a stronger position to build tools that truly support schools.

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What is Behavior Tracking in K12, and Why Does it Matter for Edtech Companies?