The digital revolution is not just changing daily life; it’s reshaping the education landscape, particularly in private school operations and student safety.

With the advent of the global pandemic, the urgency to adapt and innovate has become paramount. With their unique management structures and independent funding, private schools are navigating their own challenges. According to the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), there are nearly 35,000 private schools in the U.S., serving more than 5.7 million students - each requiring a unique, tailored approach to safety and operations.

How can private schools leverage technology to enhance their operations and ensure student safety? What role does automation play in this transformation?

Welcome to School Safety Today, a podcast presented by Raptor Technologies. Host Michelle Dawn Mooney looks at the issue of private school operations and student safety with her guest Mark Ruiters, Founder of SchoolPass and Chief Strategy Officer at Raptor Technologies. They discuss private schools’ challenges in ensuring student safety and optimizing campus operations and how technology can help overcome these barriers.

During Mooney and Ruiters’ conversation they cover the following:

• The inception of SchoolPass: Mark's journey from being a parent to becoming the founder of SchoolPass.

• The challenges private schools face: The unique operational and safety challenges they encounter and how technology can help address them.

• The impact of automation: How automation can enhance safety, improve efficiency, and increase parent satisfaction.

Mark Ruiters, born and raised in South Africa, has been in enterprise software for over 30 years. His journey with SchoolPass began when the principal at his children’s elementary school in Maryland asked him to help automate notifying teachers when a parent arrived on campus. Leveraging his system architecture experience at IBM, Ruiters designed SchoolPass to automate campus movement, enhancing safety and efficiency. Over the years, SchoolPass has added modules to streamline school operations further.

Ruiters’ vision for the future of private school management involves accelerating the adoption of campus automation. Ruiter believes that the recent acquisition of SchoolPass by Raptor Technologies will help speed up this process, ultimately making K-12 private school campuses safer and more efficient.