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The Philadelphia school district is making a digital hall pass available at all schools for the upcoming year that allows administrators to closely track students’ whereabouts.
Under the Infinite Campus system, which schools already use for course materials, students ask to leave the classroom through their Chromebooks. Once a teacher approves the request, the student’s journey will be logged on a “hall monitor grid” accessible to the school’s administrators and climate staff.
The system allows school staff to digitally deny students access to areas of campus where there may be a safety risk or staffing issue. Administrators can also automate the system to ensure certain students are not simultaneously approved for hallway access.
The system, which the district isn’t requiring schools to use, is designed to help prevent physical violence between students. Fights are a major concern in the district: Between 2021 and 2025 there was an average of about 550 incidents each year where police responded to an assault on a public school campus, according to data provided by the city police department. But in New York City, students and others have criticized a similar digital hall pass concept due to concerns about over-surveillance. And some worry the new technology will be more distracting than helpful.
Jade McCray, an assistant principal at Abraham Lincoln High School who recently got trained on the new software, said the system will track which students are out of the classroom, where they should be, and what time they left and returned. She said it could also help keep apart students who are in conflict.
“If we know a situation is brewing … it’s probably not the best idea for them to be in the halls to possibly run into each other at the same time,” she said.
But the system could hinder the staff who focus on student safety, said Nicole Hunt, the president of Local 634, the union representing Philadelphia school climate staff.
“It takes a second to start a fight,” Hunt said. “How do we watch out for when a fight’s about to happen when we’re watching the tablet?”
Some individual Philadelphia-area campuses have tried similar technology before, but the 2026-27 school year will be the first that such a system will be available for all schools.
District officials said it will take some time to get teachers and students trained on the new tool.
In other school safety news, the district’s Youth Violence Reduction Initiative will expand to William L. Sayre High School this year.
The program provides a calm space and consistent mentorship to students at highest risk of engaging in violence. At John Bartram High School, which piloted the Youth Violence Reduction Initiative, student-on-student assaults are down 31% since the program launched in 2023.
The initiative will now be in place at three high schools; it launched at Olney High School last year.
The Handle With Care program, in which police officers alert school staff when a child has witnessed trauma in their neighborhood, is expanding districtwide after a pilot run in the 22nd Police District.
The Safe Path program, which places trained adults on school perimeters to deescalate fights, will return to 25 campuses.
In addition, this will mark the first school year that all school safety officers will wear ballistic vests.
Sammy Caiola covers solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Have ideas for her? Get in touch at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.
