“Two words, GAME CHANGER! The identiMetrics Tardy Plugin manages nearly the entire student tardy process from start to finish at an extremely affordable price. My attendance secretary and assistant principals used to spend hours processing tardy students. Now a student comes in late, scans their finger, it goes right into PowerSchool and prints their pass to class along with the discipline code we have associated with their current total number of tardies."

Robert Woods, Associate Principal, Avon High School, Ohio

The Challenges

I thought that finding a vendor that offered a cost-effective biometric solution for inputting tardy attendance directly into PowerSchool and then printing a pass that included discipline was highly unlikely. Every time I would search for solutions to improve the logistics of student attendance, they were either too expensive or too broad.

As a high school assistant principal, the most valuable thing is time. A typical scenario: five teacher observations scheduled back-to-back, three parent phone calls to return, an SOS from my custodian because bees are swarming in the auditorium, a stack of tardy slips and attendance issues to address, four behavior referrals to investigate, and then just when I think I have it all mapped out, a fight breaks out in the cafeteria.

Unfortunately, attendance and tardy issues were rarely addressed because I’m busy managing a building and trying to be an instructional leader. The other frustrating piece is doing mindless, repetitive discipline instead of spending that valuable time making a difference.

I have been dreaming about a biometric attendance solution for the last eight years since I’ve been dealing with the challenges of student attendance, and in particular tardy attendance. Attendance secretaries in the front office and assistant principals spend an immense amount of time dealing with logistical tasks related to attendance that could totally be automated with the right technology.

What used to take

more than ten minutes manually,

now takes seconds.

There were three basic features I wanted in a solution. First, I wanted to use biometric finger scanning. Many of the products out there use student IDs or student numbers. Those products leave the door open to students forgetting those items or entering incorrect numbers. This slows down a process that is already painfully slow and time-consuming. Biometric technology is easy, fast and accurate.

Second, I wanted a product that would integrate directly into PowerSchool. I wasn’t interested in buying a third party product that would require separate data input into PowerSchool.

Third, I wanted the ability to print tardy slips and include discipline information so the students know how many tardies they have and the consequences. The amount of time the office staff spends everyday handwriting tardy slips is ridiculous. It’s a misuse of their valuable time making it even longer for students to get to class. 

The Solution

I researched vendors that provided biometrics to K12 schools. identiMetrics kept coming up again and again. It seemed that they provide one of the best biometric student identification solutions and they’re used by schools all over the country. They also are a PowerSchool partner so I knew that their system would integrate nicely with PowerSchool.

The pricing model is extremely affordable. I liked how they weren’t pushing a whole attendance and visitor check-in system. Most of the top brands I found really touted their visitor check-in piece or offered pricey whole school solutions which I didn’t need. I simply wanted an economical front office tardy management solution that worked with PowerSchool. identiMetrics gave me exactly what I needed at an affordable price.

I absolutely recommend identiMetrics to anyone dealing with attendance issues – which is everyone in K12 education. The team is amazing, down to earth and awesome to work with. I can’t say enough good things about Tina Dunphy, the Director of Support & Implementation. There were additional features I wanted for the tardy management plugin. She believed in my ideas and made it happen.

I now have a solution

that handles tardies

from start to finish.

Finally, I have a solution that handles tardies from start to finish. The biometric technology that identiMetrics specializes in is easy, fast, and accurate every time. Students come in late, scan their fingers, the attendance is updated in PowerSchool, and a pass is printed for them with their discipline.

What used to take more than 10 minutes manually typing an individual student’s information and eventually calling them down for discipline, now takes seconds. Not to mention this is money well spent since it frees up time for the front office staff and administrators to focus on more important aspects of their jobs.

I recently checked in with our assistant principals to see how our new tardy program was going. They were all quite pleased. “It’s going great, Rob. I haven’t seen a tardy cross my desk and the students are actually going to their detentions!” 

 

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