DISD had several unique educational opportunities with schools offering programs in Magnet, Transformation & Innovation (OTI), Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), as well as traditional Neighborhood schools. The application process was unnecessarily confusing and repetitive for parents who had to complete redundant information for each school program in which they wished to enroll their child(ren).

Pillar partnered with DISD and selected SchoolMint’s “SmartChoice” application to help consolidate, streamline, and simplify the application process. The end-goal of the district was to enhance the parent experience when applying to a DISD school.

Pillar's Engagement Project Manager led the implementation effort and managed the application and enrollment effort for 230 PreK–12th grade schools and 157,000 students. Activities related to SchoolMint's SchoolFinder and SmartChoice Enrollment Software were coordinated, and Single Sign-On (SSO) was developed and implemented for Central/Campus Administrative Staff. The software dynamically built the application depending on the unique requirements of each school, making the application process much simpler for parents.

In the first year of the implementation, the district rolled out SchoolFinder, which allowed parents a "yelp-like" experience of "shopping" for schools that met their desired curriculum and program choices. The ability to apply for multiple school choice programs and prioritize their selections allowed for a much better parent experience. This process also allowed central and campus administration to view and manage applications across multiple programs. The new system simplified the enrollment process and made it much easier for parents to apply for their children's preferred programs.