Pennsylvania District Installs Visitor Tracking System

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/24/09

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The DuBois Area School District in Pennsylvania has installed Raptorware's V-soft, a Web-based software application that aids education facilities in tracking visitors, students, faculty, and volunteers to help control campus safety. The first installation was done at the high school; it will next be deployed at the middle school.

According to coverage in the Courier-Express, a local newspaper, initially, both schools will use the new software to track visitors. Visitors entering the buildings must provide identification in the form on a driver's license or military ID. The ID is then scanned into the system by one of the office people and checked against registered sex offender sites.

Eventually, the system could also be used to check for custody orders, restraining orders, banned individuals, and student tardiness. The district may also eventually install the program in its eight elementary schools.

If a visitor doesn't have a form of identification when entering the building, a school resource officer runs a manual check based on information filled out by the visitor on a form.

Once scanned, an ID badge label is printed, which the visitor must wear. If the system finds that a visitor is a registered sex offender, a message is sent to the school's resource officer and school principals via text message. Once a visitor is scanned in the system, his or her information is saved for future visits. The system can also acknowledge who the visitor is visiting or where the visitor will be in the building.

School resource officer Lanny Prosper had first learned about the system while attending a workshop. At the time of purchase, the district was the third in the state to implement the system. Each installation costs about $1,500, which includes an annual license, an optical scanner, a label printer, visitor badge labels, and database setup.