Martin County School District launches ReaXium’s new family reunification center software
There is not a single school or family that hopes to be in this position. When something tragic happens on campus, parents and children need a designated meeting place where they can get together in the midst of the chaos at hand.
Should something happen during school hours, the Martin County School District will have the tools in place to reunite parents with their children as quickly and safely as possible. This is made possible by ReaXium School Reunification’s ability to streamline processes when seconds matter most.
Frank Frangella is the district’s director of safety and security. He asked ReaXium to design a reunification system unique to their needs and based on the technology they already have for tracking student ridership during school transportation. He said the district is leading the way with this new technology to protect students and staff.
According to Frangella, students swipe their student ID cards when they board the bus. This allows the district to find out basic information such as if the student is on the correct bus and heading in the right direction. Additionally, the system assists the district in its contact tracing efforts by providing seating charts and letting bus drivers know how long each student spent on the bus. But in the event of an emergency or mass evacuation, the tablet will now have a new option to choose from.
“As the kids are going on the bus swiping their IDs, their emergency contact is going to be pulled out of our database and we are going to be sending real-time messages to the parents,” Frangella said. “So this way, they know number one that their child is safe. They are going to another location. It’s going to tell you where to go to pick up their child. By having those children get on the bus and that information in real-time is being sent out going there, we’re hoping the messaging is going out and parents will know to go pick up their child at a different location.”
The information will be distributed in real-time to help ease any confusion with parents having the urge to rush to campus to get their child.
“I am a parent, so I get it,” he said.
Once students are at the designated pick-up spot, the software will provide even more crucial information.
“There’s going to be two tabs next to the child’s name. One is that the emergency contact was there and the second, is that they were released. So now we can take attendance from the school, get our report from here and make sure we are not missing anybody.”
Martin County is the first district in our area to have a system like this in place.” He concluded.
They plan to officially launch it in mid-August so right now they’re encouraging all parents to make sure their emergency contact information is accurate and up to date.
