Students at all 12 Lincoln Public Schools middle schools will now utilize the district’s digital hall pass system, which has been “incredibly positive,” district officials said.
With the system, students are able to request to use the restroom, visit the library or leave class for any reason through an application on their Chromebooks, and teachers are able to approve or deny hall pass requests from the same application. Teachers and staff then have the power to see who is out of the classroom, for what purpose and how long they’ve been gone.
Disruptions in the classroom are down, restrooms are less busy and fewer students are out of the classroom unnecessarily, according to Lindsey Dresden, a seventh grade science teacher at Irving Middle School.
Eighth grade student Arrin Richardson works during study hall at Irving Middle School on Wednesday. Last year, LPS began using digital hall passes in high schools and in January started the program at Irving. This year, all 12 middle schools are using it.
“Total game changer,” she said. “I mean, just the behaviors that we see in class, just how the students respond, it's been amazing. Totally seamless.”
The digital hall pass system was first implemented at all eight high schools at the start of last school year. After seeing a lot of success at that level, the district decided to expand the digital hall pass program to middle schools, too, beginning with a pilot program at Irving and Goodrich middle schools in January.
At the time, district officials had reported previous issues with students at both high schools and middle schools meeting up in bathrooms, wandering halls and missing instructional time. In response, LPS implemented the digital hall pass program alongside new districtwide cell phone policies.
Middle school students are allowed two “student-initiated” passes per day — one fewer than what high school students get. However, teachers and staff have the ability to grant more passes based on their own professional judgment, and passes to visit health offices don’t count towards students’ limit. In addition, students at middle schools are required to have their phones put away and out of sight during the entire school day.
So far, middle school students have responded well to the new methods, and Irving Principal Rachael Kluck-Spann said she's received good feedback from teachers, students and families.
Eighth grade student Arrin Richardson works during study hall at Irving Middle School on Wednesday. Last year, LPS began using digital hall passes in high schools and in January started the program at Irving. This year, all 12 middle schools are using it.
Kluck-Spann said the digital hall pass program has provided schools with comprehensive rules and has helped Irving students, and now those at every middle school, understand exactly what is expected of them. It has also allowed students more privacy and has cut down on disruptions to instruction time.
Going into the first full year with the program, Kluck-Spann said she’s looking forward to continuing the practice of using digital hall passes and ensuring students are receiving the maximum amount of instructional time.
“Now this year, we just feel like the momentum is swinging in a positive direction, so we're just going to keep doing what we're doing,” she said.
Physical hall passes hang by the door of a seventh grade science classroom at Irving Middle School.
After the implementation of both the hall pass system and the phone policies, the district has seen a decrease in negative student behaviors at middle and high schools and an increase in student engagement, Director of Secondary Education Jess Fries said.
At Irving, between the 2022-23 school year — a year prior to the implementation of the policies — and the 2023-24 school year, there were about 360 fewer suspensions, a decrease of 48 percent. The number of students who were marked tardy to class has also dropped by nearly 30 percent.
Additionally, across all LPS high schools, there has been approximately a 16 percent reduction in suspensions from fights between the 2022-23 school year and last year.
This week LPS will welcome back approximately 41,000 students districtwide. On Monday, students in elementary, sixth grade and ninth grade started the school year. See photos from their first day.
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