First appeared on Class Tech Tips by Monica Burns.
This post is sponsored by Pikmykid. All opinions are my own.
Can educational technology support your school safety goals? Schools and districts can use tech tools and online platforms to make sure everyone has what they need for a safe school year — especially during the dismissal process and when emergencies happen. It might be easier than you think to revamp your school safety routines.
Earlier this year, I featured Pikmykid on the blog in a post, “How a School Dismissal System Can Transform Your Afternoons.” And you might remember my conversation with Saravana Pat Bhava, Founder & CEO of Pikmykid, on my Easy EdTech Podcast. In this bonus episode, we discussed this dynamic communication and school safety platform. Click here to listen to the conversation.
Today on the blog, we’ll look at seven tips that leverage technology to support your school safety goals. These feature Pikmykid, a platform I’ll tell you all about below.
Technology Tips for Your School Safety Goals
Pikmykid is a school safety and dismissal software that helps schools keep students safe from the moment they arrive until they are safely reunited with their families at the end of the day. Pikmykid empowers families to easily schedule and make updates to their transportation plans from their smartphones instead of making office calls or sending notes to a classroom teacher. This removes extra steps and barriers so families can send and receive real-time updates.
For schools that have trouble streamlining the dismissal process each afternoon, Pikmykid can not only help to transform the experience, but also enables staff to quickly respond when emergency situations occur. By equipping staff with a mobile, silent panic button in their pocket, schools can ensure staff have the instructions to follow and everyone stays on the same page to handle the emergency well. It is especially helpful during emergency reunification. Pikmykid can help you address a variety of goals within your school safety plan. Note: If you are working on your school safety plan, this page has tips on how to improve it.
In the list below, I’ve compiled seven technology tips featuring Pikmykid that can help you address your school safety goals this year.
Manage Daily Pickup
With Pikmykid, you can make sure the right person picks up the right kid. The mobile app accounts for each student’s dismissal with a timestamp and helps keep this information organized. Staff can verify, with an approved name and image on the platform, when someone other than the parent or guardian is given permission to pick up a student. That way administrators have a record for each student’s dismissal to ensure their safety.
Get Accurate Attendance
To make sure there aren’t any mix-ups, you can keep track of student attendance with Pikmykid. The app can help you account for student attendance from the start to the finish of the school year for an accurate record.
Update Everyone
Whether it’s a weather event or a situation in your community, sometimes dismissal times and procedures change. Pikmykid can help you easily maintain and communicate early dismissal changes, regardless of the reason.
Communicate Information
If something has happened in your school and district and you need to keep families up-to-date, Pikmykid can certainly help. It allows schools and districts to send instructions and announcements to staff and families, so it appears right away in the mobile app. Since families use the app daily for dismissal, they’re more likely to pay attention to the messages than with other common forms of communication, such as phone calls, voicemails, or emails. And when parents make dismissal changes through the app, they’re not playing a game of telephone with the front office. The information is immediately updated for everyone involved.
Share Protocol
It’s important to have a plan for unexpected events that can pop up over the school year. And it is essential that everyone knows the plan, too. With Pikmykid, you can share staff protocol for over a dozen frequent emergencies. They’ll have continuous access to these resources and also receive instructions straight to their phone the instant it’s needed during an emergency. Parents and staff will know exactly what to do and how to safely reunite kids with parents during emergency reunification.
Call for Help
In the Pikmykid staff mobile app, school staff members can access a silent panic button. This can silently call for help if there is an emergency without alerting those who are right around you. Whether it be for a medical emergency, appearance of wildlife on campus, or any sudden emergency, staff will be equipped to alert first responders and receive instructions with one click of a button when time matters most.
Connect to After School
There may be programs held in your building after official school hours. Schools and districts can use Pikmykid to communicate with after-school staff who may need updates if there is an emergency or unexpected event.
As you can see in the list above, there are lots of ways educational technology can support your school safety goals. From day-to-day safety to emergency moments, there are lots of ways a tool like Pikmykid can help keep your school community safe.
Ready to get started with Pikmykid? Want to learn more about this powerful tool for schools? Use this link to request a demo. When you get to this page, you’ll see a space to fill out your information and learn more about this powerful tool.
