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Multi Family Carpool
When multiple families elect to share transportation duties this is an example of a true carpool, contrasted with parents individually picking up their own children. We at Silent Dismissal attempt to distinguish between these two differences by referring to the former as Carpool and the latter as Pick Up but you may find in either the documentation or the application where we have lapsed and have referred to Pick Up as carpool, but probably not ever the other way around. If you notice such an error it will be appreciated if you bring it to our attention.
There are many different ways in which to accommodate multiple family carpools, each with different implementation methods. The choice of method is dependent upon several factors which are described in each section below.
Persistent Multi Family Carpool
A persistent multi family carpool is one in which all of the children from one or more households always, except in rare circumstances, travel together in the same vehicle. This is the simplest method to configure but allows the least flexibility so it should be used only in those instances in which the different families may be effectively treated as a single family with regard to transportation.
To implement this method select a Pick Up ID number that is currently assigned to one of the students. In general the recommended choice is the lowest of all of the distinct member numbers but this is not mandatory. Presuming that the appropriate permission has been obtained from the guardians of all of the students to be included, change the assign Pick Up ID for the target students to be the same value. This may be done by going to STUDENTS / LIST, clicking on the first letter of the last name of a student, locating the specific student in the list then clicking on that student's last name.
This will open the student record edit page. Near the top right of the page is the assigned Pick Up ID field. Change this value to match the desired value for all members of the group then press the Save button. Continue this process for all of the individual students.
Carpool Group
Some families may frequently but not always transport together. For those families it is possible to set up a carpool group. This is similar to other groups with the exception that the name of the group must be a number of 5000 or greater and the group number may be entered in the same fashion as a Pick Up ID number. Children who are members of a carpool group will have their own individual or family Pick Up ID number and will also have a Carpool Group Pick Up ID number.
To create a carpool group, as an administrator navigate to GROUPS / NEW. Select the group type as Carpool and enter a group name as a number from 5,000 to 9,999, inclusive. The number (name) of the group must be unique compared to existing Carpool Groups that already exist.
After the group has been created, assign the students to the group on the days of the week on which the group will operate. Alternatively the students may be assigned only optionally, in which case the parents will need to set an override for the dates that the carpool group is in operation using either the mobile app or the web connect, provided the school has enabled parent overrides.
Shared Placards
Depending upon school policy the most expeditious method for parents from different families to ride together is to provide a copy of their Pick Up ID placard to the other family in which case on those days on which someone is picking up members from both families both placards are displayed for dismissal entry.
Alternate Pick Up Override
Parents with an active All Access mobile pass or Web Connect License at schools that have enabled the setting of overrides may implement a carpool arrangement themselves using the Alternate Pick Up ID override.
The parent of the student(s) who will be riding with another family may set their own student(s) to be called for an alternate number. For example, two families with Pick Up IDs of 10 and 20 where the family with Pick Up ID 20 will be transporting all of the students on a given date. The parent of the students with Pick Up ID 10 selects each student for an override to Alternate Pick Up ID 20. When Pick Up ID 20 is entered on that date, all of the students with the normal Pick Up ID of 20 and all students with an override to Pick Up ID 20 will be called.
Mobile Device Student Association with Parent Call for Pick Up
For schools that allow parents to call for students using the mobile app, parents may share their student credentials with another parent so that the other parent may call for the desired students on each specific day.