Visitor check-in at Kalispell’s five public elementary schools has gone digital, upping the level of security.

Gone are paper sign-in sheets. Visitors and volunteers now check in at new digital stations that feature touch-screen monitors, card scanners and label printers.

The stations were installed over winter break and started being used in January at a cost of approximately $4,800 from technology funds. Cameras also were installed at each elementary, which administrators can access by cellphone.

To check into the new system, a visitor scans his or her license. Information collected from the license includes first and last name, birthdate and state of residence. If a visitor does not have a license, he or she will be prompted to type in the information.

A photo of the visitor will be then be taken. An adhesive visitor or volunteer badge will print featuring the person’s photo, full name and date and time of checking in. A code also appears in the left corner above the date. When it comes to checking out, the visitor types in the code to complete the process.

“If you’re in here on a regular basis, we can issue a key fob that you can scan. It’s very quick,” Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Mark Flatau said.

The system allows staff to know who is in the building and when.

This is particularly helpful considering how many people come through the buildings on a daily basis.

Edgerton Principal Merissa Murray said the elementary of more than 650 students receives anywhere from 30 to 50 visitors a day. In the smaller schools, the number of daily visitors may range from 15 to 20, Flatau said.

“At any given time in case of emergency, we would know what parents are in the building,” he said.

Murray said people have been receptive to the new system.

“Everybody is really supportive,” Murray said, except for the occasional frustration from someone who has to go back to his or her vehicle to get an ID.

The information is also helpful when an adult checks out a student.

“Again we have the picture of a person, the ID of a person when they check out a student,” Flatau said.

Another safety feature is that the information is run through the national sex-offender registry. The system does not do a full background check as required for employees and volunteers, he emphasized.

Office staff are alerted if a name is flagged in the registry.

“At that point we simply say an item has come up. We need you to have a seat and the principal will speak with you and we have a dialogue,” Flatau said.

Like people, machines aren’t perfect, such as one instance of mistaken identity where a school visitor shared a “fairly common” name and birthdate of someone in the registry.

“Clearly after we investigated it, the individual checking in was not the person whose name popped up,” he said.

It might seem as an invasive process to some people, but Flatau said, “This is an expectation for the safety of everyone.”

On Feb. 9, Edgerton parent Sonya Petersen was signing in. Since she had already scanned her license into Edgerton’s database during an earlier visit, she didn’t have to do it again. Instead she typed in her name, verified her birthdate and her badge was printed.

Although in some schools, such as Edgerton, where a person could bypass the office, she said “it’s a step in the right direction for the safety of our children.”

Flatau said staffers know the expectation is that visitors and volunteers need to have badges.

Kalispell Middle School and Flathead and Glacier high schools will continue to operate with the traditional pen-and-paper method of checking visitors in and out.

“They’re a different beast than an elementary,” Flatau said. “Our primary concern was young kids checking out with adults before school and then the number of volunteers and visitors that our elementaries typically get. We’re sort of piloting it at the K-5 schools to see if there’s merit in placing it at other schools.”

Hilary Matheson is a reporter for The Daily Inter Lake. She may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.