With thousands of school closures in response to COVID-19, The I Love U Guys Foundation a well-known school safety organization that provides research-based best practices to help schools respond to crises realized it could modify its Standard Reunification Method™ (SRM) to meet schools needs for distributing critical resources to students, such as homework, learning devices, and meals.
The SRM is a straightforward, proven process for planning, practicing, and achieving a successful reunification: as parents check in to the reunification site, greeters explain the reunification process to them, ask the parent who he or she is picking up, and then request that the parent complete a reunification card. A runner then brings the student to the reunifier, who then reunifies the student with his or her guardian.
Really what the Standard Reunification Method is . . . is a combination of planning, staging, process, and people, John-Michael Keys, Executive Director of The I Love U GuysFoundation, said during a recent Raptor webinar. And the question is: what if we use some of those same strategies and tactics that we do in reunification to do points of distribution? If you think about it, distribution is a combination of planning, staging, process, and people, and some of those people are going to be doing very similar things [to the roles in the reunification process].
The I Love U GuysFoundation released a beta-version of its new Standard Distribution Method™ (SDM), which was designed specifically to help schools safely and efficiently distribute food and instructional resources during crises and school closures. A Raptor Technologies partner district in Colorado, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, quickly learned the program and put the beta-version to use, helping The I Love U Guys Foundation to continue to refine the process. The district successfully delivered over 14,000 meals in one day.
How One Texas School District Streamlined Its Process with Technology, Delivered 80,000 Resources in One Week
On March 31, 2020, Texas City Independent School District outside Houston, ceased normal district operations, but needed to continue providing student breakfasts and lunches under the federal free and reduced meals program as well as distribute curriculum and other key resources to their students.
Having recently implemented Raptor Emergency Management a preparedness, response, and recovery software solution that combines proven emergency practices with 21st-century mobile technology the district was familiar with both the Raptor system and The I Love U GuysFoundation SRM. One component of the Raptor Emergency Management system, Raptor Reunification, was built to help schools reunify students with approved guardians during a crisis. Already 100% aligned with the SRM, the Raptor Emergency Management system was able to be quickly adapted to align with the SDM and support the districts resource distribution efforts.
With the help of the Raptor system, Texas City ISD distributed and tracked delivery of more than 69,000 meals to students on the first four distribution dates and achieved 100% accountability for curriculum issued to 8,485 registered students in 12 hours over just two days.
Raptor pulls just about everything you need from the student information system, it follows the principles of The I Love U Guys Foundation it’s worth its weight in gold in today’s crisis management environment, says Craig Straw, Texas City ISD Director of Security and Safety.
Learn more by watching our on-demand webinar: Proven Processes for Managing Resource Distribution to Students
