Stoddert Elementary School, built in 1932, is located in the Glover Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington, DC, just north of Georgetown. The school’s Extended Day Program (EDP) offers before- and after-school childcare throughout the school year for a limited number of students in grades pre-K through 5. The program’s objective is to provide a safe, caring, relaxed, and play-based environment, offering a variety of enrichment classes where children can develop and explore their interests.
To enhance student safety and accurately track attendance, Stoddert Elementary School partnered with Technuf LLC to develop a custom application that automates the attendance tracking process, improving efficiency and security.
Supporting their Aftercare program since 2017, Technuf’s Aphelia app services include registration process, Admin app to check-in about 200+ kids on a daily basis, and help to ensure child safety. Parents know exactly where the kids are. At check-out only authorized pick-ups can electronically sign and receive their kids. Parents have a parent app to update authorized pickup person and request for dismissal ahead of time everyday so they do not have to wait.
Challenge
Accurately tracking student attendance and ensuring their safety is critical to the operations of Stoddert Elementary School’s Extended Day Program (EDP). However, managing attendance manually was inefficient, prone to errors, and time-consuming. Additionally, to enhance student safety, a secure and reliable system was needed to verify that only authorized individuals could pick up students.
To address these challenges, Stoddert Elementary School collaborated with Technuf LLC to develop a custom application. Technuf LLC was chosen for its expertise in software development, cybersecurity, and data analytics, making it a trusted technology provider for this solution. The collaboration not only provided Stoddert with a robust and efficient software system, but also allowed Technuf to expand into the school attendance management sector, positioning itself as a key player in this industry.
Approach and Solution
To address the operational challenges faced by Stoddert Elementary School’s Extended Day Program (EDP), Technuf LLC developed a custom mobile application named Aphelia Student Connect under its Aphelia product line. The app, available on both Android and iOS, enables school administrators, instructors, and parents to seamlessly manage attendance, pickups, and program registrations.
With the app, administrators can manage student, programs, staff assignments, and schedules, ensuring smooth daily operations.
Instructors can take attendance, update student records, and verify authorized pickups. When a parent or an authorized guardian arrives for pickup, the instructor can instantly check their name and photo within the app, ensuring safe and secure handovers. In case of emergencies, instructors can also send real-time texts to parents.
For parents, the app provides a user-friendly interface to access their child’s attendance records, update information, manage program enrollments, and even make payments for aftercare services. A pre-arrival pickup request feature allows parents to notify staff before reaching the school, ensuring that their child is ready upon arrival—reducing wait times and improving overall convenience.
Additionally, the application includes an integrated web-based registration system, allowing parents to easily enroll their children in Stoddert’s EDP, eliminating the need for manual paperwork.
Results
This collaboration has significantly improved Stoddert EDP’s operational efficiency by eliminating manual attendance tracking, reducing errors, and enhancing student safety. The partnership has proven beneficial for both entities, streamlining processes while setting new standards for digital solutions in student management.
The customized, integrated Aphelia Student Connect solution allowed Stoddert Elementary School’s Extended Day Program (EDP) to:
- Enhance student safety with real-time attendance tracking and secure pickup verification.
- Streamline administrative tasks by integrating student records, scheduling, and reporting into a single system.
- Reduce wait times for parents with pre-arrival pickup requests, ensuring smoother and faster handovers.
- A paperless registration system, making enrollment and payments hassle-free.
- Enable real-time communication through automated text messaging for updates and emergencies.
The collaboration between Stoddert Elementary School’s Extended Day Program (EDP) and Technuf LLC has been instrumental in enhancing operational efficiency and supporting long-term growth. As new requirements and challenges emerged over time, Stoddert EDP requested additional features and enhancements, and Technuf consistently delivered timely and effective solutions, ensuring the system evolved to meet their evolving needs.
The trust and satisfaction in Technuf’s reliability and expertise led Stoddert EDP to enter into a commission agreement, actively recommending the application to their network and other schools. This collaboration not only optimized EDP’s operations but also enabled Technuf to expand its reach, allowing more schools, programs, and institutions to benefit from the solution.
