High School Student School ID Card

Adapting to New Security Needs

ADVANTIDGE works with schools and districts across the country to instill confidence in school administrators and IT so they can address key areas that keep their students safe and so their institutions can focus on education. Maintaining security on school campuses is critical for any community and is a growing challenge in today’s world.

 

ID Issuance For Staff and Students

For an in-person environment, schools need to start by identifying who is actually authorized to be on campus. Students should be issued ID cards in addition to all staff and administration. This is easily managed with an onsite school ID system that includes ID software with a database that stores images of every person who has access to school grounds. The ID card software manages different templates based on the roles of the adults in addition to each grade for the students. School ID cards typically have a name, photo, identifying number, school logo or mascot, and a barcode which allows for automation with other systems. In some states, student ID cards are required to have phone numbers for suicide prevention which can be printed on the back for dual-sided cards.

With an onsite photo ID system, student, faculty, staff, and visitor IDs can be produced on-demand using photo ID printers, with very little wait time. Students can have their photos taken and receive their printed ID cards within minutes—without involving an outside vendor and the time and cost involved in dealing with one. Plastic ID badges serve to visually identify students, staff, and visitors at a glance. There are countless techniques for adding visual verification and security to your school photo ID cards so they can provide authorized entrance into school activities and use with on-campus snack bars.

 

Visitor Management Benefits and Usage

The next area of security to address at any school is the visitor registration system which should require any visitor to provide sufficient identifying information and notify the appropriate host that they have arrived. This can easily be done with visitor management software that allows for pre-registration of visitors and automated driver’s license scanning to capture the details for the school to keep on hand. This ensures that along with the visitor’s name, date and time of entry, you also have their address, driver’s license number, and basic physical description in your system. With a driver’s license scanner added to your school security system software, you can do just that. Additionally, watch list integration can check each visitor against a national or internal database to make it less likely that known high-risk and dangerous persons gain entry to your facilities.

Schools and districts can easily distinguish visitors from faculty and other staff by incorporating a color-coding system into your ID card design or by using self-expiring visitor badges for on-campus visitors. Temporary ID cards cannot be reused after the day for which they have been issued, and visually show to be expired after their approved allotted time, typically the half day, 1 day, or 1 week.

 

Physical Access Control Updates and Upgrades

School ID Card

Once identification has been addressed for all individuals on campus, schools need to update their physical access control system. The needs for access control vary significantly at each school depending on whether you are in an urban or metropolitan area with a single building or an open campus in a rural area. Regardless of the environment, limiting access to authorized individuals is necessary, and starts by installing electronic locks that can be accessed with an RFID card or a request to exit button managed by the school admin office. By switching to prox or HID iClass Seos for staff and student ID cards your school ID system can provide automation through access control software that manages who gets access from the perimeter in addition to any internal doors throughout the campus.

 

Digital Security with Multi-Factor Authentication

Schools and educational institutions should consider using a single credential to serve a multitude of applications to increase community including secure logon to computers and school resources. Maintaining control of your digital community means shifting away from passwords and incorporating multi-factor authentication. This form of identification can also be used for access to computers and a variety of online SaaS resources including online portals that track student activity for in-person and remote learning. It is imperative that school IT departments are in control of the communication systems for schoolwide emails which can be targeted by hackers, in addition to ensuring the correct student is accessing their content for school learning activities.
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ADVANTIDGE is focused on supporting schools with education security solutions that improve identification and access to authorized users on campus and online so that students and families have confidence in their learning environment. For over 20 years we have worked with school administrators and IT through a consultative approach to understand your priorities and achieve your goals for security and safety in each community. For further questions or inquiries, contact our team here.