Local man develops app to help speed up carpool lines at school - Edmond, OK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

Frontier Elementary School is the location of this local news story, about an app that supposedly makes after-school dismissal safer and quicker. Frontier Elementary is located on the east side of Pennsylvania Ave., just south of Covell.

Article text:

A new app says that it is using technology to make picking kids up from school safer and more efficient.

"We're now done with dismissal by 4:10 or 4:05 even, which is about a 20 to 25-minute dismissal which is amazing in the first few weeks of school,” Cara Jernigan, principal for Frontier Elementary in Edmond, said.

Frontier Elementary is one of four schools using Car Rider Plus.

The idea for the app came from Oklahoma resident Bart Baker. It works by getting a designated teacher to enter a tag hanging from inside the parent's car and then matching it to the number on a student's backpack.

"When the teacher actually is dismissing students, they're making sure that tag number is matching what's inside that car,” Baker said.

"We don't dismiss without that car tag, so parents can work it out between themselves who has the tag today. That way we can know quickly who's supposed to pick up their child," Jernigan said.

Bart met with several principals to research the most useful process.

For Principal Cara Jernigan, that was making the number correspond to the child's grade level.

"And so if we ever have to use this process for a reunification off-site because of an emergency or something, we would have a quick way of identifying students by grade,” Jernigan said.

It's not his first time Baker has developed software geared toward safety in schools.

Baker and his team also made a visitor kiosk that scans your driver's license before you can make your way in the building. It is being used in 400 schools nationwide.

"In the past three years, we've seen an increase in safety and security of students,” Baker said.

"Parents are always receptive when you talk about the safety of their child and in today's society, we can never be too safe,” Jernigan said.

Baker hopes more schools will pay for the service in the future. He's now working on an app specifically geared to students who ride the school bus.

Type of publication: Television When was the article reported?: 09/02/2019 Publication: Oklahoma's News 4 Article Url: [Web Link] Is Registration Required?: no How widespread was the article reported?: local News Category: Kids/Youth

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