A Partnership Between K-12 Schools, Parents and Technology
When it comes to schools, there is almost no topic more important than campus security and student safety. Whether you are a parent of one student, or an administrator responsible for hundreds of students, ensuring safety is paramount. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to enhance school safety, but there are important ways technology can be used to address specific security concerns from both schools and parents. Concerns such as – how do we monitor who has access to the campus? Who has the authority to pick students up from school? How do we manage and notify necessary parties to changes in a student’s arrival and dismissal schedule? How can schools quickly account for student’s location and safety during an emergency?
At SchoolPass, we believe providing real-time connected tools can empower parents and schools to proactively reduce risks for students. Our student safety approach is to create a multi-layered solution, moving from the outside in – starting with the campus perimeter and moving to the center of the school, ultimately the student.
- Perimeter Security
Starting with the outermost layer of security, it’s important for schools to know who is driving on and off campus. At SchoolPass, we give schools the ability to automatically screen drivers based on license plate number or RFID/toll tag and determine where and when vehicles enter/exit the campus. With vehicles arriving or leaving, we enable real-time vehicle and driver identification, 24 hours a day, whether or not school is in session. This allows schools to verify all types of drivers including staff, faculty, visitors, vendors, high school drivers and parents, and instantly alert security staff of unwanted vehicles on campus.
- Driver Authorization
Moving in a layer, let’s discuss who is allowed to take a student off campus. Schools using SchoolPass empower parents to manage authorized driver lists, even allowing daily, last minute changes. With our solution, a primary parent is established as an authorized driver. That parent in turn can add or remove other drivers as needed – for example, a nanny, a grandparent, or a friend’s parent to facilitate a scheduled play date.
- Parent-Managed Student Arrival and Dismissal Changes
We now move to the very center of school safety, the student. Students’ schedules constantly change, for example in a typical school there are a hundred changes per day, amounting to over 20,000 schedule related communications a year. These changes don’t have to involve countless calls or written messages passed to the front office and teachers. With SchoolPass, parents set up default arrival and dismissal schedules by day – and then have the power to change these schedules when necessary using an app. Examples of changes include early pick-up or late arrival, or changing a student to or from a bus, carline or after-school activity. Change confirmations are immediately sent to parents, administrators and teachers, giving the front office one master list updated automatically with real-time information. At any time throughout the day, everyone knows where each student is supposed to be.
- Carline Automation, Bus Boarding and After-school Activity Management
SchoolPass enables schools to automate and secure the dismissal process. Instead of a manual chaotic and unsafe end of day dismissal, you can manage an orderly efficient and secure process. Parents/drivers are automatically identified when arriving in carline and the dismissal instructions, including changes, are automatically displayed in the classroom/building which allows the teacher to efficiently and safely dismiss the students to carline. Accurate bus manifests are used to ensure the right students are boarding the right buses, enabling on-time bus departures, with real-time notification to parents. Accurate after-school rosters help staff to check students in and out of after-school activities, with signature capture. These dismissal tools enable schools to deliver full student accountability based on the parent’s dismissal plan. Eliminate “lost students” at the end of day – students on the wrong bus or going home with a friend’s parents. Schools can now provide a fully secure and efficient dismissal that parents can have confidence in.
- Emergency Check-In
Unfortunately, schools do experience emergency situations, whether from natural disasters or other influences. If that occurs, SchoolPass’ emergency check-in module can be triggered to enable key administrators to quickly account for students, staff, faculty and any other visitors on campus. Real-time student attendance data is seamlessly integrated into the emergency check-in module. Administrators don’t waste time looking for students who are absent or went home early that day. And most importantly, during an emergency, administrators get accurate information on student and staff safety status and location, on or off campus, when they need it.
We believe we’ve designed and built solutions that empower parents and schools to deliver student-centered safety. Nothing is more important than this, but there are other benefits to using SchoolPass. Schools see an increase in control and accountability around student safety, thanks to accurate, accessible real-time information on student arrival and dismissal schedules. Staff and teachers spend less time managing student schedules and more time driving student instructional outcomes. Parents gain more confidence in student safety because they are given the tools to control students’ schedule changes in a convenient manner, knowing the right people are automatically receiving change information immediately. Finally, schools and parents now have the technology to deliver REAL student safety and security.
Contact SchoolPass today to learn more about enhancing student safety and campus security.
