ID Shop Streamlines Student IDs for Westwood High School
“We’ve been able to work more closely with teachers and students at the beginning of the year – something we didn’t have time to do before because we were focused on printing and distributing cards.”
– Kathy Carroll
Lead Library Media Specialist
Westwood High School
The Challenge
Students at Westwood High School in Blythewood, South Carolina, rely on student IDs for everything from campus security to checking out books in the library and ordering lunch in the cafeteria.
Before partnering with ID Shop, school staff – along with a large number of student volunteers – produced IDs for all 1,300 students in-house. This required capturing photos for freshmen, many seniors, and all new students, and printing cards for all students, faculty and staff at the beginning of each school year – a very time consuming process.
Staff spent many hours loading cards into printers over the summer, as well as during the first few days of school.
“The printing was very time consuming,” said Kathy Carroll, Westwood High School’s lead library media specialist. “We had to come in over the weekends to print, punch holes and sort – it was very labor intensive.”
The Solution
This school year, Westwood High School took the advice of other schools in South Carolina already using ID Shop and turned to the ID veteran for help. ID Shop worked with Westwood on their design, which includes students’ photos and unique barcodes, as well as a printed bell schedule on the back of each card.
“ID Shop sent a technician to train us on how to use the system, import our files and fine-tune our template,” said Carroll. “Everything went very smoothly.”
ID Shop preprints ID cards for existing students who have a photo already on file, delivering them to the school alphabetized by grade level. With this new streamlined process, school staff is only responsible for the onsite production of IDs for new students upcoming freshmen, and seniors who choose to use a new photo.
“ID Shop printed our cards and got them to us very quickly – we couldn’t believe how fast they got that done,” said Carroll. “They also provided us with a list so we could check off students’ names as the cards were distributed.”
The Results
Today, ID Shop provides all of Westwood High School’s student and faculty ID cards, as well as lanyards and various ID supplies. But perhaps even more valuable than the quality products ID Shop provides is the time it saves school staff, allowing them to focus on what is most important – the students.
“We’ve been able to work more closely with teachers and students at the beginning of the year – something we didn’t have time to do before because we were focused on printing and distributing cards,” said Carroll. “Now we have time to collaborate with teachers and make connections with students for a smoother school opening.”
