Principals today need smart technical solutions to help address critical challenges related to school safety, building access and student/teacher attendance. Manual solutions, such as recording students though paper logs, are no longer adequate ways of helping schools manage attendance. With smart card readers, students and staff may record themselves without hassle, providing accountability.
This is one of the main reasons why Principals and other school officials are turning to smart technology.
Smart Cards
One of the most effective ways to manage school safety and attendance is to use smart ID cards to control building access and attendance tracking. Smart card solutions provide identity management, building access management and classroom attendance. This proactive solution has been proven reliable and efficient. They provide for accountability, better time management, and added security for students and staff.
“Educators at all levels are seeking ways to leverage technology to improve the quality of learning, simplify administrative tasks, and protect students,” notes a recent article on the need for technical solutions. “However, leaner budgets, growing numbers of students, and rising per-student costs mean that schools must improve efficiency. Answering the challenge demands innovative solutions that automate facility and class access, improve campus security, and streamline campus services.”
Smart ID cards use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID allows for contactless, proximity-based tracking of users, including students, staff, and visitors.
RFID-based smart ID cards work differently than the ones with magnetic strips, which require each person to swipe a card through a reader. Magnetic stripes could lead to long lines and slow processes with delays. By utilizing RFID smart ID cards, groups of students can move quickly through entries.
Based on the functions and purpose for school officials, smart ID cards can provide:
- Discretionary Access Control. These systems allow administrators to determine who has access to physical locations. These are the least restrictive approaches to access.
- Mandatory Access Control. These systems are usually used in locations with a high degree of confidentiality or restricted access to data. Often a supervisor or security officer manages access based on established security guidelines.
- Role-Based Access Control. In locations where multiple areas require access management, access is assigned based on defined roles and job responsibilities.
Understanding the types of access control needed within a school location helps to inform a buildings broader access strategy.
Defining an Access Strategy
School buildings are complex structures. Staff is not always going to be present to monitor access, so specific buildings within the school grounds.
Poor access management has been a rising issue due to the increase in population.
Smart ID card solutions are a powerful component of a broader building access strategy.
Monitoring Access
Access management means more than controlling doors. It’s also about providing a heightened awareness of who is in your building and where they are allowed to be in the building.
Smart card solutions allow school administrators to know what areas students, teachers, and staff members have access.
There are many advantages to using smart cards as part of your broader strategy, including:
- Improved physical security and location access
- A clearer understanding of where students and staff are and the ability to analyze movement and access patterns
- Controls for secure locations and rooms that require additional or occasional monitoring
- Attendance management for different event types, such as for bus riders, field trips, large events, classrooms
- Integration with student information systems
- Inventory and resource management, such as for copying privileges, checking out library books or borrowing equipment
- Time tracking for staff and teachers
- Preemptive absentee management to reduce chronic absenteeism issues that can cause behavioral and safety issues
- Increased teaching time by providing efficient attendance tracking and reporting
- Notification reporting to parents of the student that is late or absent
The ScholarChip Solution
ScholarChip offers smart card solutions as part of its integrated school safety strategy. With ScholarChip, students can use their smart ID card for multiple actions, including:
- Classroom attendance
- Bus attendance
- Building or large group entry points, such as at a school dance, prom, building attendance or required school event
- Off-site attendance situations such as a field trip, off-campus athletic event, club activities
- Lunch payments using our point-of-sale stations
ScholarChip is an all-in-one, platform solution to help reduce school threats and address the important issues surrounding school building access and attendance. Data from students, faculty, and stakeholders are leveraged to manage school access, attendance, and behavior management through the platform tools to increase safety and promote the campus climate schools are looking for.
If you would like to have a stronger control on monitoring school access and provide modern technology for a better learning environment, feel free to schedule a 1-on-1 walkthrough with one of our specialists today!
