Step-By-Step Guide to Organize Your SLP Caseload Using Notion
I used to use Google Sheets to organize my SLP caseload, and that works totally fine, but there’s something about Notion that feels a little different. A little more organized, easier to sift through.
How does Notion help me organize my caseload? In addition to being able to view my entire caseload on one sheet, Notion allows me to filter down my caseload so it’s easier to see:
Separate caseloads by school
IEPs due in 1 month
Eligibilities due in 3 months
List of students with consult services
Caseload by grade, goal area, etc.
Cool, right?
If you want to learn how to build this exact set up for your caseload, keep reading. I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to create a Notion table, enter in your caseload, and what filters I use to quickly reference important details about my caseload.
Background about Notion
Before we get into the steps, there’s a few things you should know about Notion. It is insanely customizable, but because of that, it’s not quick or simple to get started. That’s why I’ve created this step-by-step guide for how to set up your caseload in Notion, completely free.
If you don’t want to take all the time to set up Notion yourself, and just want to get started entering in your caseload, I’ll post a link to where I sell the exact Notion template I use for my caseload. This template is basically a shortcut for saving time and the convenience of not having to set all of this up in Notion yourself. If you want the template for free, no problem! Just keep reading and follow the steps for how you can build it yourself.
Step 1 – Create a Notion account.
Creating an account for Notion is necessary, but don’t worry it’s free! There are paid subscriptions to access more features, but you won’t need to pay in order to build this caseload management template or access my other Notion templates.
Click on the button in the top right corner that says GET NOTION FREE. (Image shows the Notion webpage with my blue highlighted cursor on the button to create an account.)
Enter the email address you want associated with the account. You can choose your school email address but if you ever lose access to the school email address you’ll also lose access to your Notion account unless you later change it to a personal email, so I suggest using your personal email address. Click the CONTINUE button.
Notion will send a verification code to your email. Go to your email inbox and either click the magic link in the email or copy-and-paste the verification code.
Next you’ll be asked to create a profile. Choose a name and password for the account. If you want to add a photo you can, but it’s not necessary. Remember to uncheck the box consenting to marketing emails if you don’t want to receive them. Click CONTINUE.
Notion will ask how you plan to use it. Select FOR PERSONAL USE. Then click CONTINUE.
Notion will prompt asking topics you’re interested in, feel free to SKIP.
You now have a Notion account. First step complete! Notion will now take you to your homepage. It should look something like this image:
Step 2 – Create a new page for your database.
Click NEW PAGE toward the top underneath your name.
Name the page something that makes sense to you. I named mine CASELOAD 2024-2025.
If you want to add an icon or cover image, feel free. Click ADD ICON or click ADD COVER and choose an icon or cover image that you like. You can skip this step if you’re not interested. I find it more fun to add some color.
At the bottom under get started with, click TABLE. This will turn your page into a database table.
Choose NEW TABLE. You don’t have a pre-existing table to use and need to create a new one.
You now have your first database page. Second step complete! Move to the next step to start setting up the functions of your database.
Step 3 – Set up new database.
Click TABLE at the top of the table underneath the title then click RENAME. Notion allows you to see multiple filtered views of the same table, so we’re going to rename this view something more specific than “table.” I chose to rename mine MASTER – ALL, so I know that I’m seeing the entire contents of the table.
Next you will add columns to your database, which Notion calls Properties. This is where you can start to customize to suit your needs. I’ll share what I used for organizing my caseload. Follow along and decide what is most beneficial for you. Properties I use:
Name (student first name only, for confidentiality)
Service Minutes
IEP Date
Eligibility Date
School
Case Manager
Grade
Goal Area
Goal
Notes
Data Sheet Link
Consult?
Use however few or many properties as you want. Understand that the more properties you use, the more complicated your database will be, but also more it can do. You may need to experiment and find your balance over time.
For confidentiality purposes, I don’t recommend entering in student full names, birthdates, ages, or additional identifying information.
You will always have a name field for every Notion table/database. You cannot delete the name field.
Add the next property you’d like to display. I started with service minutes. I clicked on the column called TAGS and changed it to Minutes. I suggest you start here too.
TAGS is automatically a Multiselect Property, which means selecting from a dropdown menu. This is the property type I use for service minutes (because some students have direct & indirect minutes so I need to select both options).
Click the plus sign to add more columns/properties to your database table. Start by choosing the Property Type and then name the property.
DATE property – use for dates (IEP Date, Eligibility Date)
SELECT property – use for fields where you will select only one option from a dropdown menu (School, Grade, Case Manager)
MULTI-SELECT property – use for fields where you may select one or multiple options from a dropdown menu (Goal Area, Minutes; i.e., if student has direct & indirect services)
TEXT property – use for fields where you want free text (Goal, Notes, Data Sheet Link)
CHECKBOX property – use for fields where you want a yes/no checkbox (Consult? Other possible use cases: SLI? Push-in? Consider reducing minutes?)
FORMULA property – use for fields where you want to complete calculations; (I currently use a formula for noting consult instead of a checkbox)
STATUS property – use for fields where you want to designate a status (e.g., new referral, current, transferred, dismissed; I use the “Notes” field for this, but I don’t get as many evaluations or referrals for older students.)
Note: I recommend using Select/Multi-Select properties where you can (instead of Text or Number properties). When you use Select/Multi-Select properties, it is easier to create filters based on the drop down options, (e.g., filtering your caseload by grade level, by case manager or classroom teacher).
Repeat adding new properties until you’re satisfied with the information your table will be able to display.
Next, organize the columns in the order you’d like to see the information. To move columns around, click on a column and drag it to either side to put in order. I prefer to see Date properties first, so I dragged them to the front.
Resize the columns by clicking on the border of the column and dragging it to make the column smaller or larger. If you want to make the column width as small as it allows, double click on the border.
You now have your first working database set up. Third step complete! Move to the next step to learn about how to enter your caseload information.
Step 4: Enter caseload information into new database.
If you want to manually enter in all of your caseload information, go ahead and enter that in now, but if you’re hoping for a bit of a shortcut, keep reading. There are additional steps that will be unique to whatever IEP program your school uses. So I’m only going to go over the steps that would apply to everyone, and hopefully you can fill in any gaps from there. Google is your friend.
Log in to your school’s IEP program and locate your full caseload information. See if you can figure out how to download your caseload as a .CSV file. Most programs have this option.
Once you’ve downloaded your caseload as a CSV file, you have a few options. If you have a school Google Drive account, I recommend starting there.
Upload the CSV file to Google Drive. It should convert the document to a Google Sheets spreadsheet.
Image below shows uploading an exported CSV file from Goodreads instead of an actual SLP caseload document for privacy purposes. The uploading process will be the same.
Unhide any hidden columns. The columns are in alphabetical order at the top of the screen; if there are any missing letters, click on the arrows surrounding to show the hidden columns.
Delete any columns you don’t want to be transferred to your Notion database. Such as birthdate, age, documents, disability, etc. Edit the student names to the format you’d prefer, such as initials or first names only.
Now for the relevant columns you would like to be shown in your Notion database, edit the column header to match the name as displayed in Notion. For example, if your Google Sheet file calls the IEP Dates by another name, rename the column header to IEP Dates to match your Notion header.
Once you are happy with the remaining columns displayed in the Google Sheet, download the Google Sheet as a .CSV file.
If you’re able to download a CSV file and don’t need to enter all of your data manually, I recommend making a few minor changes to your Notion database table. This will make uploading the CSV file easier and you will need to enter less information manually.
Look over what information that will be transferred with the CSV file. Text and Date properties should easily transfer. For Select and Multi-Select properties, you will need to tweak things slightly to import correctly. You will either need to enter the Select/Multi-Select options into your database before importing, or you will need to change the Select/Multi-Select property to a Text property in Notion.
For example, for student grades, we designated this as a Select property so they will not transfer unless you do one of the following things.
a) You pre-enter the relevant grade levels (e.g., K-5 or 6-12) into your database so that the table will know what option to select.
b) Or you can change the Select property to a Text property or Number property.
Note: You can always change the Text property back to a Select property after your CSV file is imported into Notion. I recommend doing this extra step because Select and Multi-Select properties are easier to filter and sort than Text properties.
Another example, we designated case managers as a Select property.
If your CSV file doesn’t list the Case Managers, you will need to enter them manually and the Select property makes that entry faster.
If your CSV file does list the Case Managers, I recommend changing the Select property to a Text property so that the names will be imported automatically. Then after importing, you can change the Text property back to a Select property if you want to filter your table by Case Manager in the future.
Once you are finished adjusting your CSV file and Notion database columns, you are ready to import the file. On your Notion database page, select the three dots in the upper right corner. Click MERGE CSV and select the CSV file you just downloaded.
Once you’ve merged your Notion database with the CSV file, it should look something like this:
Manually enter any information that isn’t accessible in the CSV file, such as service minutes, goal area, etc. I like to copy-and-paste the entire goal as written in the IEP (minus name) in a text field for reference.
Fourth step complete – you’re just about there! Now the last thing you want to think about is options to view and filter your new database. My favorite part! And the entire reason I like to set up my caseload in Notion.
Step 5 – Create useful filters to organize your caseload.
Now you’re ready to create different views of your caseload to quickly reference information you’re most interested in. Here’s some examples of filters you may be interested in:
Filter by school
Filter by students with indirect/consult services
Filter by students in a certain grade, with a certain teacher or case manager
Filter by specific goal areas
Filter by IEP deadline
Filter by evaluations due this year
The filters you create can be temporary just to view the information you’re looking for – such as students with the same teacher – or recurring saved information you can easily reference in the future, such as IEP deadlines.
Filter by School
To filter your caseload by school, click the plus icon below the name of your full database and to the right of the current view title (mine is called MASTER – ALL). Then select EMPTY VIEW.
Name the new view something that makes sense to you, such as the school’s abbreviated name. Click DONE.
Scroll down the View Options and click FILTER to choose a filter.
Select the desired property you want to filter – in this case you would choose SCHOOL. Then check the desired school you want displayed in the new view of your database.
Click SORT if you’d like your database view to be sorted by a condition. When viewing a caseload per school, I like to sort the database by grade. You can also sort by another condition such as service minutes or IEP date.
Your new view should now be filtered by School and sorted by grade ascending like the image below. Feel free to create filtered views for each school you are assigned to.
After filtering by school, go back to click on the 3 dots to the left of the NEW button to open the View Options. Then select Properties to change what properties are shown or hidden. I like to hide the School property once I have designated a view of the database that only displays one school. Then I don’t need to look at redundant information.
Filter by IEP or Eligibility due date
To filter your caseload by IEP due date, first create a new view by clicking on the plus icon to the right of your current views. Then select EMPTY VIEW.
To see images of this step, refer to the Filter by School section.
Name the new view something that makes sense to you, such as IEPs due in 1 month. Click DONE.
Scroll down the view options and click FILTER to add a filter. Choose filter by IEP DATE.
Click on the new filter created – IEP DATE – to alter the parameters for the filter. If you want to create a filter for IEPs due within 1 month, keep the top line the same – Start date is relative to today. Then select the drop down menu to change the parameter settings from THIS 1 WEEK to NEXT 1 MONTH.
Your new database view should now display the IEPs due in 1 month as shown below. If you want to further sort the view, click on the sort icon. I like to sort by IEP date ascending so the IEPs due the soonest will be shown at the top.
Your new view should now be filtered by IEPs due in 1 month and sorted by IEP date ascending like the image below.
I create filtered views of my database so I can quickly reference the information I’m most interested in. Therefore, I hide the properties I don’t want to see. For the filtered view for IEPs due in 1 month, I hide properties such as Elig Date, Notes, Goal, Goal Area, etc.
To filter your caseload by Eligibilities due in 3 months, repeat the steps above to create a new view and select to filter by ELIG DATE.
Click on the new filter created – ELIG DATE – to alter the parameters for the filter. If you want to create a filter for Eligibilities due within 3 months, keep the top line the same – Start date is relative to today. Then select the drop down menu to change the parameter settings from THIS 1 WEEK to NEXT 3 MONTHS.
Your new database view should now display the Eligibilities due in 3 month as shown below. If you want to sort the view so the soonest due dates will be shown at the top, click on the sort icon and sort by Elig date ascending.
Filter by Consult
You can create a filtered view to display students receiving indirect/consult services by using either a Checkbox property or a Formula property. I am currently using a Formula to denote consult so that’s what I will demonstrate.
Using Formula property
Click the plus sign to the right of your current properties to add more properties to your database table. Start by choosing the Property Type as Formula and then name the property, e.g., Consult?
Click EDIT to the right of FORMULA to add the formula for denoting students on consult.
The Notion formula I use for consult is as follows: contains(Minutes, “indirect”)
This formula means that Notion will search the service minutes column of my database for the word “indirect,” and if a student has service minutes that include the word “indirect,” it will automatically check the box in the formula column.
Note: the formula is contains (), then the name of your service minutes property (mine is called Minutes), then quotations and the word Notion should search for – “indirect”
I use a Multi-select property for noting service minutes. This formula will work for a Multi-select property or a simple Text property. This formula will not work for a Number property (as there is no text to search for).
To filter your caseload by Consult Services, repeat the steps above to create a new view and select to filter by CONSULT (formula property).
Once the Consult filter is created, click on the blue Consult button to change the parameters. Keep the top line the same – Consult is. Then click the drop down arrow and select CHECKED.
Your new database view should now display the Students receiving indirect/consult services as shown below. If you want to sort the view so the highest services minutes are shown at the top, click on the sort icon and sort by Minutes ascending.
Fifth step complete – you did it! Hopefully you now have your caseload fully set up in Notion and have been able to test out some of the cool features you can do.
Notion templates
If you want to get this Notion template instead of building it yourself, you can find them in my TPT store. Let me know what you think about Notion. Do you like it? Hate it? I’m always interested in learning what works and doesn’t work for other people.
Stay tuned for my future Notion templates I’ve created for student session logs and data sheets.
