MIS2000 has long had pretty flexible support for various approaches to COE Approval. Typically COEs come in from Recruiters and then flow through an approval process. Sometimes there's just one person approving all COEs, but in the larger programs there might be three or four layers of approval. And the COEs from one LEA, region, or program might route through a different group of people than COEs from another. One thing that we haven't done well over the years is deal with changes to the personnel involved in the approval process. People come and go, and that creates a need to tweak the approval routing. But an even more common problem is people just going on vacation or leave or whatever. We've just never had a good solution to this.

But we're getting better. We have a handful of states that our using new functionality that allows COEs to be routed to the next level of approval without anyone in particular "owning" the COE. Then at that level, anyone who is authorized to approve those COEs for that particular LEA or program, can "take ownership" of the COE and work it. Until someone takes ownership, the COE is up for grabs. This makes it much easier for someone to go on vacation while we designate a new person to take over their duties for a while. Here's what the web app user interface looks like for this in Michigan where it was pioneered:

This shows all the COEs that Bruce either currently owns or could own. If he owns it, he can go ahead and approve it or reject it. If he doesn't own it, he can use the menu to say "Take ownership" and then work the COE.

We've got several states easing into this new arrangement, but we think lots of states will eventually want to do things this way. Let us know if you'd like to dip your toe in.