It’s virtually impossible not to see how a digital hall pass can transform your school for the better. Automating and streamlining the request and approval of hall passes is just the beginning. The visibility into and control of student movement you gain from a digital hall pass is where the real magic happens. But selecting the right digital hall pass may feel like a daunting task. Read on to understand the digital hall pass features that school principals and administrators find most valuable.

1 | Real-time Visibility

To realize the core value of a digital hall pass, you need to be able to quickly validate that students have active hall passes. You’ll also want to know how many students are using at any time and for what locations. Look for a digital hall pass that provides a live dashboard to gain this in-the-moment visibility of student movement.

2 | Intuitive User Interface

A digital hall pass that’s intuitive for both students and teachers to use will make implementation and adoption a quicker, easier process. Look for a user interface that’s clean and straightforward. It should have an easy request process for students, as well as a simple approve/deny process for teachers.

3 | Emergency Response Management

In an emergency, every second counts. A digital hall pass system should make it easy to quickly identify students who are not in their assigned class, as well as know what locations they’re visiting. You should also be able to restrict all hall pass usage during a lockdown. These critical capabilities save vital time, making it possible to quickly muster and account for your students in a crisis situation.

4 | Flexible & Customizable Controls

Each school—and sometimes even each grade or classroom—has its own policies and needs. To accommodate your specific requirements, you want a digital hall pass that provides flexible customization options. At the very least, your digital hall pass system should allow you to:

✅ Let teachers customize pass requirements, such as allowing students with 504 accommodations to take breaks without requiring a pass approval
✅ Set daily pass limits at the school, grade, and individual student level
✅ Limit the number of passes issued for certain locations, such as the bathroom

5 | Meetup Prevention

To prevent unauthorized meetups and reduce behavioral issues, your system should allow you to restrict certain students from receiving passes simultaneously. By limiting the opportunities for known conspirators to meet up, you also limit their opportunities to make poor decisions, and engage in unsafe or undesirable behaviors, such as vaping, bullying, or vandalism.

6 | Reporting Capabilities

When a digital hall pass provides comprehensive reporting tools, you can identify patterns in hall pass usage and their connections to student behavior, academic performance, bullying incidents, bathroom vandalism, and more. These insights also allow administrators to identify frequent pass users and impose pass limits when warranted. The ability to pull reports of individual pass usage is also invaluable should you need to defend disciplinary decisions to a student and their family.

7 | Tardy Management

A digital hall pass that combines hall pass management and tardy management creates a more complete attendance solution. This combination enables schools to record late arrivals consistently, implement automated consequences, and monitor attendance trends. Schools typically see significant improvements in student punctuality when using an integrated approach.

8 | Visitor Management

For the ultimate in campus and student safety, look for a digital hall pass that also provides integrated visitor management. When these two important capabilities are combined in a single tool, you can streamline technology tools, while gaining a complete picture of movement on your campus.

9 | Integration with Classroom Management Software

By now, you’re starting to see how the right digital hall pass can make more than just hall pass management easier. When your digital hall pass integrates with your classroom management software, teachers can manage passes directly within their familiar classroom management interface. Teachers can efficiently review and approve/deny passes alongside their other classroom management tasks to minimize instructional disruptions.

10 | Data Privacy & Security

Given the sensitive nature of student data, it’s imperative that your digital hall pass system meets or exceeds compliance with FERPA, COPPA, CSPA, and other pertinent regulations in your district or state. It should also offer granular role-based data access controls so you can control who has access to data. Be sure to ask a potential digital hall pass provider what measures they take to protect sensitive data. Look for indicators of their commitment beyond the minimal requirements, such as SOC 2 Type 2 certification and proactive breach prevention measures, to ensure they’re prioritizing your data privacy and security.

Make the Right Digital Hall Pass Decision for Your School

A digital hall pass is a game-changer for school leaders, providing visibility and control over student movement that they didn’t know was possible. The right digital hall pass is even more than just a hall pass management tool, though. It’s an essential tool for increasing school safety, building student accountability, and maximizing in-class time.

The best way to know if a digital hall pass is right for your school is to experience it for yourself. A product demonstration will give you the ability to test drive the digital hall pass features and see first-hand how it can transform your school.

To test drive Securly Pass, the digital hall pass trusted by more than 5,000 schools, schedule your personalized, no-obligation demo here.