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South Carolina District Tries Mobile App on Student Pickup Process

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 08/20/13

A district in South Carolina is testing out the use of a technology that structures the pickup of students after school. Fort Mill Elementary School will be the test pilot for the rest of the Fort Mill School District to try out KidGopher from Avionex.

Under the KidGopher system, each guardian is assigned a Gopher ID card that's associated with a list of children that person is allowed to pick up. During pickup times, a teacher scans the card and an Apple iOS app displays the list of students with photos that appears on that person's list. The teacher verifies which students will be picked up, and digital signage in the staging area shows those names. The teacher at the staging area ushers those students to the pickup line, and the person in charge of loading students checks them off in the app as they're placed in the vehicle. As each student is checked off, his or her name is removed from the signage queue. And the school has an electronic record of the pick-up time and person.

"We are excited to be partnering with Fort Mill School District in their endeavor to bring innovative safety measures to their children's day," said Avionex Vice President Michael Whitman.

The service has also been in use by South Carolina's Richland School District Two.