Fall 2017, MSD of Pike Township in Indiana launched Tardy Kiosks across all their schools. The Tardy Kiosk was developed back in 2015, School Technology was already offering schools a more efficient way to keep track of attendance with Positive Attendance devices. The idea of also tracking tardies using student IDs in a similar way brought forward the Tardy Kiosk. So, with School Technology’s smart keypad, thermal receipt printer, and direct integration to Skyward software, the tardy tracking system for schools was simplified and automated. Previously, Pike Township was using a different product to keep track of their tardies. That product had an annual license as well as fees for each update on the hardware adding up to tens of thousands of dollars for the district each year. Tardy Kiosk on the other hand has a one-time purchase fee with an optional renewable extended warranty on the keypad scanner. Glenn Bobel, a computer technician at Pike Township said “It was difficult to justify (continuing paying for the previous product) when you (School Technology) had something that could be used for a really minimal amount of money. It was a no brainer.”
Another reason for the switch was the Tardy Kiosk’s direct integration to Skyward’s software. “Our tardy information was non-existent… it was never moved from one application to the other. Now that we are using the Tardy Kiosk I can say the tardy information in Skyward is as accurate as the information entered at the kiosk,” Glenn said. The previous product stored its information in a separate database, “we were moving data from one database to the other on a nightly basis and sometimes it would fail, and we wouldn’t know about it until 2 days later… Using Tardy Kiosk is far less work from a technical standpoint… It has increased the attention that administrators need to pay to tardy information because it’s in Skyward now.”
Getting the schools and staff on board was easy. Glenn set up meetings with staff at the various schools to demonstrate how the Tardy Kiosk works. Once in, the students picked up on the process fast. Glenn said there was “nothing simpler than setting up this Tardy Kiosk and getting it up and running.” It also allows parents and guardians to be more aware of their child’s tardies, “now that tardy information is kept in Skyward… Mom can log in to Skyward and look at that student’s attendance.”
Saving the office time and getting students to class quicker, Tardy Kiosk provides an excellent solution by having students simply type in a PIN, scan their ID Badge, or scan their phone with the new Mobile ID app in Skyward. The School Technology printer then prints out a tardy pass, all in less than 6 seconds, no work needed by the office staff.
