Columbia High School and Howard L. Goff Middle School launched a new digital hall pass system at the start of the 2024-25 school year to improve safety and maximize instructional time. The digital hall pass system is called Securly and it allows students to sign out of class on a chromebook to use the bathroom, go to their locker, visit the school nurse, or meet with a school counselor, providing real-time data of where students are in the building.
Securly improves safety by providing teachers and staff with data on how many students are out of class and where they are in the building. It also maximizes instructional time by identifying students who are misusing hall passes by regularly missing class time wandering in the hallways or engaging in other inappropriate activities.
- Improves Safety
- Provides real-time data on how many students are out of class and where they are in the building
- Easily locate students who are not in their assigned class in the event of an emergency
- Limits the number of students who can use a given bathroom at one time
- Alerts are sent to the teacher and administrators if a student has not returned to class in a certain time period
- Prevents bullying or other issues by not allowing specific students to be out of class at the same time (parameters can be set by administrators/teachers)
- Ensures the destination’s staff member is available (e.g., school counselor, teacher)
- Maximizes Instructional Time
- Reduces interruptions to lessons and the time needed for teachers to write passes
- Identifies students who are regularly leaving classes throughout the day
- Calculates the instructional time missed by students while they are out of class
We are committed to school safety in the East Greenbush Central School District and we are already seeing improvements in student behavior at Columbia and Goff because of this new hall pass system.
FAQ: Securly
Q: What is Securly?
A: Securly is a digital hall pass system that allows students to leave class to use the bathroom, go to their locker or meet with a staff member. It provides real-time data to teachers and staff regarding students who are not in class.
Q: How does a student request a pass?
A: A student makes the request on their chromebook at their desk or on the classroom chromebook by the classroom door, and then leaves class.
Q: How long does the process take?
A: It only takes seconds for students to make the request on Securly.
Q: What if my child needs to use the bathroom right away?
A: The student should raise their hand, and ask the teacher if they can use the bathroom right away. The teacher, as has always been the case, will let the student go use the bathroom.
Q: What if my child needs to visit the school nurse and is unable to request a pass through Securly?
A: As has always been the case, a hall pass would not be required and the student can go right to the school nurse. If it is an emergency and the student cannot make it to the nurse, the nurse would come to the classroom to evaluate the child.
Q: Why couldn’t we just stay with the old system of students writing their name on a clipboard in the classroom and getting a pass from the teacher?
A: First, it took away from instructional time for the teacher to stop teaching, go to their desk, get out a pass, fill it out and then hand it to the student.
Second, having a digital hall pass system in place is much more efficient. The teacher, the administrators and the security team all have access to the data so they know who is not in class and how long they have been out of class. In the event of an emergency, school staff know which students are out of their classes and where they are in the building.
Additionally, if there is an issue (e.g., vandalism or an altercation in a bathroom), administrators can quickly identify which students were at that bathroom at a specific timeframe through Securly and then check surveillance video in the hallways and interview those students.
Q: If my child has a medical issue, will they be prevented from visiting the school nurse or the bathroom when needed?
A: No. Students will not be prevented from visiting the school nurse or the bathroom. However, if through the Securly data a student is using the bathroom seven out of nine periods a day every day of school, administrators can see that data and then contact the family to bring it to their attention.
Q: Who has access to see where students are when they are out of class?
A: When a student has a hall pass, the teacher that has them in class, the principals and the security staff have access to the Securly dashboard and know where that student is in the building.
Q: What types of behaviors are decreasing due to Securly?
A: Avoiding class, bullying, fighting, vaping, and other inappropriate student behaviors.