This year, we have switched to Orah as our electronic signout platform. We ran a trial of this platform with a few halls on both campuses last year and it seemed to do a solid job of meeting our staff needs while also simplifying the signout process for students and families.
For students, the signout process is fairly straightforward:
Using the Orah app on your smartphone or via app.orah.com in your web browser, select New and then Pass.
You then choose the appropriate pass type for your trip off-campus:
Day/Local -- if you are returning to campus before check and are not traveling more than 30+ miles from campus. You don’t need to do any additional steps after submitting this pass, you are good to go!
Travel 30+ Miles -- if you are returning to before check and are traveling more than 30+ miles from campus. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once you submit it if they are not the person you are signing out with. You will need to sign out with a CC on duty when it is time for you to leave for this pass.
Missing Curfew -- if you are going to miss curfew but return to campus before in-building curfew. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once your submit it. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once you submit it if they are not the person you are signing out with.
Overnight -- if you will be gone overnight. Your family will get an email notification to approve this request once you submit it if they are not the person you are signing out with.
If someone other than your legal guardians are picking you up for Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight travel, your family will need to approve your pass request before you can sign out with the CC on duty. Please submit those passes 24-48 hours in advance.
When it is time for you to leave for Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight travel, you will sign out at the CC office with the person who was approved to pick you up for that pass or your legal guardians. They will need to show their ID so we can confirm that they are who they say they are.
After your trip, when you get back to campus, you can end a Day/Local pass from the app or website, but the other pass types require you checking in with a CC on duty or by scanning your smartphone along one of the Orah NFC tiles around campus.
For families, your part of the signout process is even easier:
If your student submits a Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight pass, you will receive an email at your NCSSM school account with a link to the pass request and you decide whether to approve or to deny the pass request. Previously, NCSSM required a verbal confirmation from families to confirm these types of signout requests, but we are hoping this change streamlines the signout process for families, students, and staff. With that said, we strongly encourage you not to share your NCSSM account login credentials with your students or allow them access to devices or browsers that have stored those login credentials.
You do not need to install the Orah app to approve or to deny the requests. You’ll get those options right in your inbox.
If you change your mind about approving or denying a pass request after submitting it, please contact the CC on duty.
If you are the person picking up your student for a Travel 30+ Miles, Missing Curfew, or Overnight pass, you shouldn’t receive the email notification. You will still need to bring your ID to check them out with the CC on duty.
We ran an Orah trial this past spring and learned a lot of what settings to tweak to make it work well for our campus and community. We are still making adjustments as we get used to using this platform across both campuses with almost 1,000 students and their families. If you have any issues or questions or feel frustrated by something being clunky or not working well, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jainny Estrada (jainny.estrada@ncssm.edu), Assistant Director of Student Services at NCSSM-Morganton, or Justin Plummer (plummer@ncssm.edu), Associate Director of Student Services at NCSSM-Durham, who are working closely with the team at Orah to keep things running smoothly. You can also check out the electronic signout at NCSSM site that we put together which has additional details, like where students can find the NFC tiles on their campuses and Orah-created resources on getting started with the app for students and families. We’ll update the site with frequently asked questions or common issues and how to solve them as we go!