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How iVisitor Management Helps You Handle the Crowds Without Sacrificing School Safety

by | Nov 9, 2019 | School Visitor Management

How Ident-A-Kid Helps You Handle the Crowds Without Sacrificing School Safety

Our schools are not only a place where our children learn, but they are also a place for our communities and families to come together. Whether it’s a school play, a sporting event or a band concert we all come together to support our students.

With events like these you need to be prepared for the large amount of visitors, and that can sometimes be overwhelming. It is important that your school performs the necessary background check and keeps accurate records of everyone who visits. If you don’t, this can pose a security and liability risk for your team. In this article, we want to share with you our best practices for signing-in a large amount of visitors at your school without sacrificing school safety.

We’re going to teach you step-by-step how to:

  • Create a dedicated check-in button for school events
  • Maintain schools safety best practices for event check-ins
  • Prepare multiple check-in stations ahead of time
  • Print badges from multiple stations to one centralized location

Feel free to follow along from the beginning, or select the step that you wish to begin at.

Step 1: Sign in to your Ident-A-Kid Visitor Management School Manager account

To sign in, you’ll need to use your email address and password you created.

Step 2: Create a dedicated check-in button for Events

The buttons used on your Ident-A-Kid Visitor Management System help categorize the different types of check-ins for your school. These categories help you filter down the information in your reports from the School Manager. To add a button dedicated to guests for events, select the settings tab from the left-hand side of the menu.

Select the badge settings option and click “ Add New Badge” at the bottom of the screen.

A new badge will appear at the bottom of the list. It will be named “Title” by default, but we will edit the name. Click on the newly created badge and select the “Display options from the menu.

The title field is where you will rename this new button to “Events” or your event name. Make sure the Web Client Display buttons set to Check In Only, and the Preloaded Category to load is the Pre-Approved Visitors list for returning visitors if you are using this list. You’ll want to make sure to click the save button at the bottom of the page before exiting.

The school has the option to set an Auto Log out time as well. You can set a specific time or relative time if you do not want to scan each visitor out.

Unless you need to collect additional information, this should be complete.

 

Step 3: Enable the new Events button for your school

Now that you’ve created your Events button you will need to enable it for use in your school. Doing this is quick and easy! Click the “Client App” icon on your desktop, the school manager or go to client.ccssvm.com. You will need to log in as an administrator. If this is a kiosk, log out of your Kiosk user and log in as an admin.

In the top left-hand corner of the home screen, click Settings.

Once you are in the Settings menu, click Badge Settings and select your Events button.

The Badge Settings menu has a lot of options for you to customize. We want to make sure your visitors are able to check-in quickly and efficiently while also performing sexual offender background checks for new visitors for safety. We recommend that you enable the license scanner and automatic sexual offender background check options if they are not already. To do this, select “Optical Barcode Scanner” from the scanner dropdown menu under the Check-In Options section. If you will be allowing administrators or visitors the ability to quick look up their name, the manual look up type can be set to User Name with Autocomplete. Require scanning ID should be enabled if the administrator or visitor will not be Autocompleting their name.

Scroll down the page to the Sex Offender Check Options and enable the Sexual Offender Auto-Check option and Add Approved Visitors to Preloaded. If a visitor is approved for entry, they will automatically be preapproved for their next visit. This helps for an even faster check-in.

Lastly, under the Badge Display section, you will want to switch the Display Option from Disable to All Modes. Click Save when finished.

Step 4: Creating multiple stations for your team

You now have a dedicated button to quickly sign-in visitors for your school events without compromising security! For an even faster sign-in process, we recommend having multiple stations ready to go. The great thing about the Ident-A-Kid Visitor Management System is that a sign-in station does not have to be a desktop computer! You have the ability to check visitors in using a desktop, laptop, tablet or even a cell phone! All you need is a device that connects to the internet. 

An important note for Apple devices and performing sexual offender checks. Apple mobile devices do not come equipped with a USB port for a license scanner, nor does the software have the ability to scan the back of a license using the camera on an iPhone or iPad. Android and Windows devices are best equipped for scanning licenses. 

To create new stations with the same settings, you will need to login to your Ident-A-Kid account on the new devices your school will want to use for Events. Once logged in, you will clone your station. For more information on cloning a station, please click here.

Step 5: Connect necessary hardware

If you are going to be using multiple license scanners you will need to connect them to your new stations. We offer both wired and wireless license scanners for you to purchase.

We recommend running a test with the hardware to make sure it is properly connected before your event.

If you need assistance with your station’s hardware, please contact our tech support team and they will be able to set you up correctly. Call 800-890-1000 option 2 or email support@identakid.com.

Step 6: Sign visitors in!

That’s it! If you have followed these steps you should now have a dedicated check-in button for school events, multiple stations ready to sign visitors in at and all the hardware needed to go along with it.

You are able to check-in large crowds with Ident-A-Kid Visitor Management, perform sexual offender background checks for new visitors and keep accurate reports on your events!

We have a few more optional steps/recommendations that will create an even better process for your school.

Step 7: Organize two lines for visitor traffic (optional)

To make it easier for visitors that have checked-in on the Ident-A-Kid Visitor Management System before, we recommend having two separate lines for your visitors. One line dedicated to checking-in new visitors that have never been to your school and the other for visitors that have.

If you are going to use Apple products, we suggest they be used for the returning visitor line. 

For those who are returning, you will begin the check-in process by clicking on the Events button. However, instead of scanning their license you can just type their names and it will prepopulate for you to select. Finish the check-in and that’s it!

Step 8: Print visitor badges to one central location (optional)

You have the option to print badges for your visitors using the new stations you’ve setup for events.To do this, you’ll need to connect these new stations to a printer at your Ident-A-Kid Visitor Management Kiosk or a centralized location. 

When you are cloning your stations, you will be asked if you want to print badges or use other hardware devices. You’ll want to click Yes and install the Client Agent. If you skipped this part during setup you can always activate it from your station Settings. Go to Settings, Client Agent – Setup.

You will select Existing. Then select your school name and select the available Client Agent that displays in the drop down menu. Click Configure and Apply Changes.

You should now be able to select the printer and test print from the devices area of your new station. 

If you need assistance with setting up your client agent or printing badges, please contact our tech support team by calling 800-890-1000 option 2 and leave a voicemail if we are unable to answer your call right away or email support@identakid.com.

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