Vaping is a growing epidemic among K-12 school students nationwide, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for schools to contain the problem. Students are using unmonitored hallways and bathrooms to vape, which poses a serious health risk to all students.
Vaping is an increasingly popular activity among teenagers due to the ability to purchase and conceal small vape devices. In fact, a 2022 report from the Centers for Disease Control found that 2.55 million U.S. middle and high school students used e-cigarettes. For administrators, this means that students could be using vape devices anywhere on campus—including bathrooms and classrooms—without their knowledge. This not only creates a health risk but can also lead to disciplinary problems if students are not accounted for during class time or passing periods.
SchoolPass helps to solve this issue by providing digital hall passes that allow teachers and administrators to monitor student movement patterns throughout the school day. SchoolPass’ digital hall pass system replaces paper hall passes with an app-based system that allows teachers and administrators to monitor student movement on campus with automated per-period attendance and digital hall passes for students temporarily leaving the classroom. Teachers, front office staff, and administrators get real-time, school-wide insight into who is on campus and where they were last located.
Digital hall pass solutions offer school administrators the desired insight into student movements on campus. Schools can utilize intuitive technologies such as QR codes, barcodes, and RFID tags to monitor students’ whereabouts in real-time from class, restrooms, the guidance office, or anywhere else in the school. This allows for effective management of missed instructional time and discourages any abuse of privileges when temporarily leaving the classroom or campus.
When talking about the benefit of having digital hall passes, Linda Lawrence, Chief Technology Officer at Ransom Everglades shares, “Think about how much more time the Dean of Students saves now that the data is at her fingertips. Time she can then spend thinking about how to creatively resolve the challenge the student is having.”
Automating per-period classroom attendance and using digital hall passes provides several advantages over traditional attendance taking and paper passes. Providing insights and benefits such as:
- Teachers and administrators can easily see how much time students are spending out of class. Missed instruction time is a lead indicator a student may be participating in risky and unsafe behavior.
- Accurate and real-time data on unexcused absences, class tardies, and time out of class are tallied to show patterns of behavior. Helping administrators determine with confidence which students may need an intervention.
- Minimizing the administrative burden of taking attendance and issuing hall passes allows teachers to focus on teaching and learning.
- Having data to demonstrate potential hall pass privilege abuse and time out of class helps administrators have more productive conversations with students as well as parents/guardians.
- Deep integrations ensure your SIS remains the system of record for class schedules, rosters, and attendance reporting.
Vaping is a major issue facing K-12 schools across the country, but digital hall passes from SchoolPass offer an effective solution to this problem. This technology streamlines a process that has been traditionally difficult to manage, making it easier for school administrators to create safe learning environments free from disruptive influences like substance abuse. If your school is struggling with vaping issues, consider implementing digital hall passes from SchoolPass today!
Click here to read more about two schools that transformed their classrooms with Automated Attendance & Digital Hall Passes.
