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App Created by JPS Alum Enables Safe Reopening of Schools
January 13, 2021
To ensure a safe return to school for in-person learners and school staff, Jackson Public Schools will implement the Safr Management App created by Wingfield High School alum Fred Burns.
The Safr Management mobile application synchronizes with a desktop dashboard to track student and staff attendance and supports temperature checks and contact tracing for communicable diseases like COVID-19. The program can also be used to report incidents of the flu, colds, and other more routine illnesses.
The technology will facilitate the safe re-entry of scholars and staff into school buildings by ensuring a more efficient collection of attendance information enabled by integrating with student information data. Besides contact tracing, the data provided will also inform decisions about initiating quarantines and allow targeted communications regarding those decisions.
During a demonstration to District administrators, Burns showed how the app identifies individuals and provides interfaces for school administrators as well as parents and students. In December, the JPS School Board approved the District’s recommendation to implement the Safr Management App as part of its Smart Restart plan.
Jackson Public Schools joins other local institutions in deploying the app. Jackson State University, Tougaloo College and St. Richard Catholic Schools are also using the Safr Management app as part of their strategy to keep their schools and communities safe.
Burns is a 2009 graduate of Wingfield High School and the valedictorian of his class. He is also a graduate of Jackson State University. The concept for the app was inspired by the need to ensure the wellbeing of his own children as they sought to participate in programs last summer.
Our number one priority in Jackson Public Schools is ensuring our scholars are safe and able to learn in a comfortable physical environment. We know that part of this involves making scholars feel safe. The use of the Safr Management app is a significant part of our strategy to return safely. In keeping with Centers for Disease Control guidance, we are combining that with mask requirements, changes to classroom spaces to ensure physical distancing, increased handwashing, more stringent cleaning schedules, and much more.
More Coverage:
- Safr Management App Demonstration, JPS ITV, December 17, 2020