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Hipi and the Hapara team have been hard at work all summer, getting updates ready for back to school. They’ve been busy talking to educators, visiting schools, and going to professional conferences like ISTE in Orlando to learn more about what educators need most to make a greater impact on learning with technology. We hope it will make your transition back to school a little smoother.  

If you missed any of the updates from last school year, check them out here. Our biggest news of all was the launch of our digital hall pass. Schools started using it in the spring and gave us feedback on must-have features for back to school. Keep reading to learn more.

Hāpara Hall Pass 

Kiosk mode is here

Kiosk mode turns a single shared device into a self-service pass station for students. This was highly requested because students aren’t on their devices 100% of the time. It allows students to ask their teachers for permission verbally and then go to the kiosk and check themselves out of the classroom using their email address. The system is set up to auto-approve once they enter their credentials. It even works for floating teachers that may not have the same room assigned to them all day. They just log in each day and activate kiosk mode on the shared device, and kazam, they’ve got a kiosk to manage student comings and goings.

Pause Passes for school leaders

Sometimes you need to make sure that no one is out of class on a pass. That was so hard to do in the days of paper passes. During schoolwide assemblies, state testing, or emergencies, there are times when schools need to prevent passes from being issued. This feature freezes all active passes instantly, and no new passes can be issued during this time. Teachers will receive a notification that passes have been paused.

Hall Pass favorites

Also new for back to school, teachers can “favorite” passes they use often, so they’ll be able to search for them and find them quickly when they need them. Because nobody has time to search through a dashboard for a pass type when they have an active classroom of 25 kids. 

When teachers create passes, they now have the option to add notes that are visible to staff but not to students. For example, “Student has a sprained ankle, allow extra time to walk to the bathroom.” 

Finally, school leaders can configure Hall Pass for their individual campuses and won’t have to depend on district IT staff to make changes and updates. 

From Hipi and the entire Hapara Team, we wish you the very best for back to school. We hope it’s a season of fresh starts and seamless transitions.