The Union Gap School District in Union Gap, Wash., uses EasyLobby visitor management software to protect students from unwanted guests. One primary reason the Union Gap School District installed EasyLobby was to alert lobby attendants to any visitor on each state’s sex offender database. Upon check in, if a guest is listed as a registered sex offender, a warning will alert the lobby attendant within seconds and an automatic e-mail alert can be sent to other school administrators.

Like many other schools, Union Gap decided to do away with a paper guest book for visitor sign in, replacing it with a professional and secure approach to visitor registration. All guests entering the school must present a photo ID such as a driver’s license. The ID is scanned to capture the information and create a professional visitor badge.

“If it protects one child, it is well worth the money that we spent on it,” says Kurt Hilyard, Union Gap School District superintendent. “Safety in schools has changed over the last 10 to 20 years and now it’s one of the most important things we can do in a facility.”

In addition to sex offender screening, EasyLobby visitor software includes a watch list feature that allows the school to flag known individuals or organizations that they do not want entering the building. Another important feature of the visitor software for K-12 schools is including parental custodial information in the system so that lobby attendants know the proper parent or caretaker that have/do not have rights to pick up children after school.