At Richland Elementary, the most important part to the start of our school day is
ensuring that all of our students arrive safely at school.
In looking for a way to increase our efficiency in this process, we are implementing a new student attendance system called SafeArrival. We believe this new system will make it easy for families to report their child’s absence, reduce the time it takes to verify student attendance each day, and enhance the tracking of unverified student absences.
It is important to understand that SafeArrival works in tandem with the School Messenger system. The school-wide emails you receive from our school come to you through the School Messenger system. Both of these systems operate under PowerSchool. Long story short - this attendance process is fully integrated into our school and district-wide systems and will be easy and efficient for you. This app will allow you to report absences AND see and receive all the messages the school sends out through School Messenger. (You will still receive the emails too.)
With SafeArrival, families can report their child’s absence using any of these 3
convenient methods:
1.Using a mobile device; download and install the free SchoolMessenger app from the
Apple App Store or the Google Play Store (or from the links at https://go.schoolmessenger.com). Please note that the first time you use the app,
you will need to select Sign Up to create your account. To enter an absence, select Attendance, then Report an Absence.
- In addition to attendance information, in the app you will also see all of the School Messenger messages the school has sent throughout the year. This is helpful, and eliminates the need to search through your emails for messages previously sent.
2. Use the SafeArrival website; https://go.schoolmessenger.com. The first time you use
the website, you will need to select Sign Up to create your account. Then, select Attendance and finally, Report an Absence.
3. Call the toll-free number; 1-833-834-4911 and report an absence using the automated phone system. To use this system, you must use or enter the phone number you
provided as your district contact number. Using or entering that phone number will link you to your child(ren).
These options are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Future absences can be reported at any time. We recommend using the app. This is the easiest way to report your child’s absence. We also suggest that you save the toll-free number (1-833-834-4911) as a “SafeArrival” contact in your phone. Doing this serves two purposes - First, you will have the toll free number on hand for you to easily report an absence if you are not using the app. Second, it is helpful to see “SafeArrival” as a contact if the school is calling you to verify an unreported absence. Please answer that call, or you will continue to receive additional calls.
If you do not report your child’s absence, we will use the SchoolMessenger automated notification system (formerly called Connect Ed) to contact parents/guardians whose
child is absent but the absence was not reported in advance. Previously, you received
an attendance phone call from the Richland office. Now, the automated notification
system will contact parents by both phone call and email until a reason is submitted
for the absence. If our system is unable to reach the designated contacts, someone in the Richland office will follow up with an additional phone call.
If you report your child’s absence in advance using the SafeArrival mobile app,
website, or toll-free number, you will NOT receive multiple phone calls from the SchoolMessenger notifications.
SafeArrival is up and running for Richland Elementary. Parents/guardians can use
this program immediately.
