If you’re a parent with young kids, you probably know that social distancing is as important to them as the salad leaf on their pizza. Yet, they will be going back to school soon and you won’t be around to make sure that your kids maintain a proper distance from other children.
Different schools will have different ways of dealing with the new normal. Some schools are planning on a ‘bubble approach’ where kids in one group only mingle with that group. So, if one child in the group gets affected, the bubble can be isolated. Other schools have opted for a part-online, part-offline system. While teachers and schools do their best to cope with the new demands, can technology also help to keep children safe while they are at school?
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, United Safety has been using Real Time Location System (RTLS) to keep track of workers in hazardous industries. As offices around the world started opening up, we adapted our RTLS offering to help office workers maintain social distancing at work and when needed, contact tracing reports could be provided to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace in the event a worker tested positive.
This same technology could now prove to be extremely useful as we prepare to send our kids back to school. School children and teachers will be provided with a tag that gently alerts children through either a vibration or sound when they get too close to each other reminding them constantly to keep their distance. So, teachers can focus on teaching while parents can rest easy knowing that the kids are being constantly reminded to keep their distance from each other.
In the event that a child from the group does test positive for COVID-19, contact tracing reports can be drawn up to see which children have spent the most time with the affected child so parents can be informed and additional tests and precautions can be taken accordingly.
In combination with proper hand hygiene and mask wearing practices, we believe that these measures will go a long way to keeping children safe at schools. Our aim is to build a strong partnership between schools, parents and us so schools can be safe and fun again.