TouchMate To Release Visitor Management System

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/11/09

TouchMate Interactive Solutions has announced a visitor registration system for K-12 environments, which will be available in September and will include hardware and software. SchoolDefender uses an interactive touch-screen kiosk to register school visitors, then generates a stick-on badge that shows the name and picture of the visitor, what areas of the school the person may visit, and when the badge expires.

SchoolDefender uses PassagePointEDU, software from STOPware, to perform background checks, including searches in the national Safe Schools Project criminal record database. If the visitor is on one of the school's watch lists, which can also contain information about child custodial orders and other details about restricted access, that information sends an electronic message to administrative and security staff.

Users of the system can schedule and pre-authorize visits for parents and others and record the presence of staff in the event of an emergency to determine who's visiting and where they are and to account for their evacuation or other appropriate action.

SchoolDefender comes in floor, countertop, and wall-mounted touch-screen self-service stations and office monitoring touch-screen stations. The company has also developed options for printing and ID scanning, proximity detection, fingerprint input, and electronic signage display. It can be implemented for one school, selected schools in a district, the entire district, or in a centrally managed configuration for multiple school districts.