To enhance safety and security protocols, RISD is implementing student badges this year for all elementary students. The badges will include a photo and bar code, and students will be expected to wear them while at school or on school-sponsored field trips during the school day. RISD secondary students have been required to wear similar ID badges at school for approximately two decades.
- In the event of a safety protocol, building evacuation, or reunification event, the badges allow RISD staff or first responders to quickly verify the identity of students and ensure that all students are accounted for.
- Later this semester, students K-12 who are transported on RISD buses will be required to swipe their student ID in order to ride a bus. This will ensure that RISD transportation staff know which students are on a district bus at a given time in the event of a breakdown or accident, prevent students from accidentally getting on the wrong bus, and prevent anyone who is not enrolled in RISD from getting on an RISD bus.
- In elementary cafeterias, badges will allow students to pay for meals with a swipe instead of having to memorize a PIN.
- Elementary students will also be able to use their badge to check out or return library books.
Badges will be distributed to students in the first weeks of school, and each campus will have the ability to create new or replacement badges as needed. Each campus will determine processes for primary-age students to leave their badge at school upon parent request, and for students who may need special assistance. A student’s ID badge photo will be identical to the photo that a teacher or parent sees when they log into Focus. Like all student directory information, RISD securely maintains student photos for internal use in accordance with parent/guardian privacy choices.
Elementary parents will receive more information from their campus in the first weeks of school about the student ID badge process and expectations at your school.
For more information about the safety & security protocols used in RISD, please visit https://web.risd.org/safetysecurity/.
