Digital hall passes are becoming more and more popular for schools, helping students stay safe and on-task. Grand River Preparatory High School is one National Heritage Academies’ partner-school with a digital hall pass system in place, and Dean of High School Mike Ebbert said it has been a helpful tool.
“Our main focus is to make sure students are in class learning,” Ebbert said. “When they’re not in class, they’re not learning, so this gives us a data component to make sure we are maximizing that learning time.”
Here’s how it works: students log in and request a hall pass. The teacher must approve the request, which will trigger a timer to track how long the students’ pass has been active. When the student returns, they end the pass and return to normal class activity.
While the process is simple, digital hall pass software unlocks key metrics for school leadership. Ebbert said these digital interactions create data points they analyze on a weekly basis. The school’s behavior team meets weekly and looks at measures such as duration of time out of class, frequency of hall passes requested, and where students go. With these sets of data, Ebbert and his team can provide interventions if they’re noticing students are not using hall passes appropriately.
School leadership can go in and limit the number of passes a student can use per day, as well as prohibiting two students using hall passes at the same time. This feature helps prevent students from leaving class to see their friends or even keep two students in conflict from roaming the halls together.
“The digital hall pass system dramatically helps limit behaviors that are going on within bathrooms and things like that because students aren’t able to meet up,” Ebbert said.
This commitment to minimize the time away from the classroom is one reason Grand River Prep has outperformed the local district since 2021-22.
Ebbert also mentioned there is an ability to limit passes during a certain time period or at a specific location. He said this helps when the school may be practicing safety like during a fire drill.
“This system brings more of a safety and security aspect,” Ebbert said. “If there is a medical situation, we can block off that area and keep students from using a hall pass in that location.”
While scholars still have to carry a physical hall pass to let staff know they have permission to be away from class, the hall pass has evolved, and school is becoming safer because of it.
Keep up the great work, Mike, and all of Grand River Prep!
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About Grand River Prep
Grand River Preparatory High School is a tuition-free, public charter school in Kentwood, Michigan, serving students in ninth through twelfth grade. It is part of the National Heritage Academies network, which includes more than 100 tuition-free, public charter schools serving more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade across nine states. For more information, visit nhaschools.com.
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