Almost all of the schools in the United States use photo ID cards for their students, teaching staff, and other faculty members. While some of them outsource the job of printing ID cards to third-party agencies, most schools prefer printing their ID cards in-house. Generally, these school ID cards are used to provide access to the building and facilities, as a proof of identity, or for lunch programs. However, ID cards can be used for much more than that. Below is a quick look at the introduction of multipurpose school ID cards in the US, along with some insights to how they serve a variety of functions.

Multi-Use School ID Cards

The advancements in ID card printing technologies have brought many amazing benefits to the forefront of the industry in recent years. School ID cards can be printed in different color codes, with QR codes, barcodes, magnetic stripes, as well as many other safety and security features. By utilizing this technology to the fullest degree the same photo ID card can be used for a wide range of applications within a school setting. Apart from monitoring and controlling access, with advanced ID card printers and software, schools can effectively expand the use of their ID cards thereby making the most of their investment and resources.

• Access Management – This is the primary use of an ID card in any environment, be it in an office, a hotel, or in schools. Monitoring who is accessing the building and its facilities is very important to ensure maximum security of the property. In schools, this helps to make the environment safer for the children. This can be done by incorporating magnetic stripe, proximity chip, or smart card technologies in the ID cards. When coupled with an automated access control system, this can help to monitor all the personnel going in and out of the school. It can also be used to track the time a person spends inside the school building.
• Permissions Management – School ID cards can be printed in various colors or assigned specific color codes to differentiate the teaching faculty and management staff from students. For instance, the school administration members can have red color ID cards that give them access to special areas of the building where entry is not permitted to others. Color-coding can also be used to create temporary badges to identify and monitor short-term visitors.
• Information Management – ID cards usually contain the photo of the student/staff and other details like the person’s name, grade, school’s name, etc. Reports say that around 60% of schools use only one side of the ID card to print such information. However, with an advanced ID card printer, schools can take advantage of both the sides of the ID cards. This can be used to include other important details of the person in the ID card, such as emergency contacts, blood group, or allergy details, which would be greatly helpful in case of an urgent situation.
• Lunch Program Management – A majority of schools in the United States today use ID cards to manage their lunch programs. This can be easily done with either a barcode or a magnetic stripe embedded on the ID cards. Both the technologies can be integrated with an automated point-of-sale system, which would allow the school administration to manage student accounts more effectively and accurately, while eliminating the need to carry cash for lunch.
• Classroom Attendance Management – Integrating smart software in school ID cards can be very effective in tracking classroom attendance. This can substantially improve how the teachers track late comings and non-attendance, and can help them to notify parents about any attendance shortage, warnings, or detentions. The tracked data can also help the teaching staff to prepare attendance reports at the end of the semester and/or school year.
• Assets Management – School ID cards can be a valuable tool to manage library and technology assets. Incorporating barcodes, QR codes, or magnetic stripes can help to manage and monitor access to the school library, science lab, and technology resources such as computers and/or other devices. Reports say that around 40% of schools in the US have already adopted such modern measures to track the use of their educational assets and protect them from any kind of misuse.
• Transportation Management – Photo ID cards can be of great help to monitor and track school bus ridership. In fact, many of the schools in the country typically use their ID cards for managing student transportation program. Simply printing a bus number on the ID card can improve the student’s safety and security by ensuring that he/she boards the correct bus. Besides, it can also help to avoid unauthorized personnel from accessing the school transportation system.
• Rewards Management – Many schools reward their students for superior academic achievement and/or classroom attendance. This can be done in the form for rewards cards, which the student can redeem at a local shop. While issuing paper reward cards also works, printing coupons on the back of the student’s school ID card would help him/her have a sense of accomplishment, and even motivate others to perform better in class.