Digital hall pass company SmartPass is currently in 21 schools across Oklahoma. Ed tech company Securly said it has contracts with about 70 schools for hall passes, and Minga said it’s in about 24 Oklahoma schools.
The hall passes generally have similar features. If a student wants to go to the bathroom for a nonemergency, they first have to check on the system to see if too many students are already in that bathroom. If it’s full, they’re put on a waiting list.
With SmartPass, certain students are prohibited from being out together at the same time. Shawnee Middle School Principal Keely Tolin said that feature has cut down on vandalism and fighting.
“The issues that we’re having in the middle of class, in the hallways or in the bathrooms, have gone down dramatically,” Tolin said. “Students that don’t really get along, are able to make sure that they’re not out at the same times. And looking at, you know, safety for every kid so that they’re not in the bathrooms when they’re not supposed to be.”
She said in addition to hallway cameras and other interventions, the feature has helped cut down on students vaping in bathrooms in half.
School staff can look at a home screen that shows which students are out of class at any point in time and how long those students have been gone. If students are out longer than their limits, their passes turn red.
Tolin said the feedback from teachers has been overwhelmingly positive.
“They love it,” Tolin said. “It allows them classroom management-wise to keep up with who’s going, how often they’re going. … When they sign out, it’ll start counting up the amount of time, so if a kid is gone for a really long time, they’re able to check in and see what’s going on. And that’s hard to keep track of when you’re in the middle of class.”
Before implementing the digital hall pass system, students would sign in and out on paper — a process often prone to middle schoolers’ unreliability. But now, she said, having a long-term record allows teachers to have evidence-based talks with parents about missed class time.
SmartPass CEO Peter Luba said the student accountability aspect is a big selling point for the technology.
“Students are now truly responsible for, ‘Hey, I’m missing this amount of time of class.’ Students see that, teachers see that,” Luba said. “It leads to just more productive conversations with a counselor or with another school staff member, because when you’re sitting down and looking at your grade report, you can compare that not to just your attendance records, but then also, how much productive time of class were you actually there for?”
Schools can also use the technology to keep track of students during emergencies, like lockdowns.
“If you were to ask certain school admins of, ‘How many students are actually in your hallways right now?’ It’s unfortunately a struggle to actually give an answer to where that is,” Luba said. “And SmartPass provides that data just instantly.”
One concern with any new education technology is student data privacy. At SmartPass, student information is kept only for client schools’ reporting and never sold to third parties. Ivan Casanova, chief marketing officer at Securly, said his company also never sells its data.
“It’s your data. We help you manage that data — if you want to delete that data, we provide mechanisms for doing things like that,” Casanova said. “But at the end of the day, it’s your data and you control it. We take data privacy very, very seriously.”
At Tulsa Union’s 6th and 7th Grade Center, 6th Grade Principal Tammy Ward said she hasn’t received any concerns from parents about data privacy.
She notes if anything, using the digital hall pass system for uniform procedures has helped cut down on parent frustrations when teachers had different bathroom policies. She said the process is more streamlined.
“We were actually doing a lot of whole classroom breaks,” Ward said. “The teacher would take down the whole class, then they’d have to be waiting for each of them to go in and use the restroom. So [SmartPass] has really eliminated that process now that they can just submit their request and go.”
Ward can also check SmartPass for long-term analytics, like logs of how long certain students have been out of class over the school year, “frequent fliers” and the average time most kids are out of class.
Seventh Grade Principal Crystal Pounds said at such a large school, dozens of students could be out of class at any given time.
“One time we figured it up, and if every teacher just had one student out of class, we could have 100 students in the hall legitimately at one time,” Pounds said. “And I think it just helps address that to make sure that we’re down to the bare minimum of students that need to be in the hall.”
A behavior intervention tool
In Shawnee, Assistant Superintendent Teresa Wilkerson said they haven’t received any negative feedback on the new system, even from students. She said students thrive in environments with boundaries and routine.
“I think students, we’re trying to prepare them for life after high school. And when you work, oftentimes you clock in and you clock out and you have some accountability to people,” Wilkerson said. “[Hall passes are] a really good way to say we honor our students’ choices, but we have a responsibility to help them make good choices.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 90% of surveyed U.S. public schools reported a negative impact on student social-emotional development in the aftermath of the pandemic. Respondents reported significant increases in classroom disruptions, rowdiness outside the classroom and disrespect toward teachers and staff.
Middle school principal Tolin said she noticed her students’ ability to regulate their behavior has taken a critical hit. And schools are looking to new programs and technologies to help students return to normal.
“I think behavior in general did definitely spike right after — just again, being able to, ‘Okay, now I have to sit in the classroom and I have to follow directions, and I’m expected to do all these things in a structured environment,’ when they’ve been at home kind of doing what they wanted,” Tolin said. “And so [we’re] having to help them through that by putting these things in place and putting extra supports to ensure that we can be in a safe environment, where we are doing what we’re supposed to here, which is learn.”
While digital hallpasses may seem like a relatively small upgrade, Tolin said they’ve paid dividends. If a student can’t meet up with others to fight or vape in the bathroom, maybe they avoid getting suspended, missing more class time and their grades dropping. She said she’s grateful to have another tool in her toolbox to support students to stay on the right track.
