Back to School: How BadgePass is Assisting K-12 Schools with Increased Security Measures

By BadgePass  |  June 23, 2020

Categories

Access Control, ID Badging, Tracking, Visitor Management

As school districts across the country have been working on their reopening plans, we have been working closely with our customers to implement new technology solutions to meet the constantly evolving security and safety requirements that have been a result of COVID-19. Almost every school we’ve spoken with has been developing plans and strategies for better identification and tracking of all employees, students and visitors on campus. Outlined below are a few of the most common recommendations that we have found.

Visitor Management
Many school districts are considering ways to better track and maintain secure electronic records of on-campus presence of all people including visitors, volunteers and contractors. As people return to campuses, persons exposed to COVID-19 will inevitably arrive, resulting in the need for easy access to visitor records and visit details. Electronic visitor management systems allow for easy electronic reporting of all visitor activity and eliminates the cumbersome use of handwritten paper logs.

We recommend that schools implement contactless driver’s license scanning options to minimize visitor contact with the system operator. Schools can also consider screening every person entering the building with a set of COVID-19-specific health-related terms and conditions. These should be customized according to the local state, city or school district protocol; however, below are some common terms we’ve seen implemented for screening.

• • I have not been diagnosed with COVID-19.
• • I have not been exposed to anyone who has been positively diagnosed with COVID-19.
• • I am not currently experiencing any of the following symptoms: fever, cough, shortness of breath, a recent lost of taste or smell, etc.
• • have not traveled out of the country within the last 30 days.

BadgePass Visitor Manager software allows guests and visitors to agree to the terms and conditions designed by the school and sign their name before proceeding with the check in process, giving each school electronic verification of all screening that took place.

Physical and Electronic Door Access
For security purposes, it has always been recommended that schools restrict points of entry to just one or two doors at each building. This helps to minimize unwanted visitors, but also keeps traffic restricted to just main entry areas. Electronic door access can provide records of all employees that enter the facility each day, along with a log of each door they accessed. These access privileges can also be assigned to students, contractors and even visitors, providing more accurate details should the need for contact tracing arise on campus.

Photo ID Accessories
Many schools are mandating that all students and employees visibly display their IDs to provide much needed visual security and giving people the ability to identify whether or not someone belongs on campus. We’ve also heard campuses consider providing a colored wristband each day after scanning temperatures, making it easy to identify if someone’s temperature had already been taken. The customer service team at BadgePass specializes in ID supplies and accessories and can assist with securing those solutions including badge reels, lanyards (customized for your school or generic) as well as colored wristbands.

Temperature Measurement
There are a variety of temperature measurement solutions available on the market ranging from high end thermal imaging cameras designed to capture temperatures of multiple people at the same time to stand-alone temperature measurement devices that are easy to deploy but only scan one person at a time.

Some of the main questions to consider when evaluating a temperature measurement solution are:

• • How easy is it to deploy? (What is required to go live with the solution?)
• • How accurate is the temperature scan?
• • Is the solution contactless to minimize exposure?
• • Are audible alerts or alarms available for indicating when someone’s temperature is above the threshold?

Temperature Tracking
Some customers not only want to take a temperature, but would like to associate that temperature with the name of the cardholder who was scanned. Our EPIC Track solutions allows for scanning of an employee and/or student ID and associating that cardholder with their temperature at the time it was checked. This doesn’t include the temperature measurement device itself; it’s simply the software for associating temperatures with cardholders and giving you access to that data in electronic reports. In schools, these tracking solutions can also be used for training and certification requirements for employees, field trips for students, equipment check out and more. Best of all, this can be fully integrated with all existing BadgePass Identity Manager systems, making existing ID badges easy to use for tracking purposes.

If any of these items would be helpful to your school district as you plan to reopen, please let us know. Contact us for additional details or to schedule a product demo today.