About School Dismissal Manager (SDM)
SDM will be live for the new school year on August 8, 2024. Watch for a Welcome Email from School Dismissal Manager (SDM) with your login credentials and setup instructions. If you do not receive the Welcome Email (check SPAM and JUNK folders), please email us so we can resend the email.
** SDM is NOT used with our KindiePrep students for attendance or pickup. Please reach out to your KindiePrep Front Office for assistance with these items. **
American Academy contracts with School Dismissal Manager (SDM) for student dismissal. SDM is a cloud-based system with both a web browser and mobile application that is designed to be managed and updated by parents at home or on the go.
SDM has 3 functions –
- Manage attendance notifications and end-of-school dismissal instructions
- Carpool (afternoon pick-up) 'Check In' feature to facilitate dismissal of students to the carpool line
- Increased security for families during the pickup and dismissal process
Through SDM, parents are able to:
- Establish a daily default dismissal status for students (e.g. Carpool, Walker, Homework Club)
- Report student absences
- Report late student arrivals
- Report early student pick-up before 2:30pm
- Notify the school of changes to default student dismissal status (ECA's, early dismissals for appointments, alternate carpool arrangements, etc.)
- Notify the school of same-day dismissal changes until 2:30 pm (system cut-off)
- Check in on the mobile app upon arrival for afternoon pick-up
Using either the mobile app or browser/website interfaces, parents can easily manage and notify the school of student absences, late arrivals, and dismissal changes. Attendance and dismissal instructions can be managed on a daily or recurring basis. Parents may also schedule them in advance (i.e. dental appointments or recurring instances such as an ECA or Athletic team). Parents can also manage their child's end-of-day dismissal instructions to reflect where they need to go when school ends: Carpool, Walker, Homework Club, Crash Club, or ECA/Athletics.
The carpool Check In feature notifies the school that parents have arrived for afternoon pick-up, who exactly has arrived, and which student is being picked up, all with the click of one very simple Check In button.
Each child is assigned a 'Default Dismissal' option which becomes the dismissal instruction that is automatically assigned to your child every day; it is the dismissal instruction that is used most often during the school year for that child. At the beginning of the school year, we assign all students with a default dismissal of 'Carpool'. You can edit the default dismissal for your child(ren) as often as needed and your changes will be saved for the duration of the school year.
Weekday Default Dismissals can also be assigned. This is a great option for multiple families that have a consistent carpool schedule or regular after school activities. For example, Family A picks up 3 days a week and Family B picks up the other 2 days. Another example is the child dismisses via Carpool 3 days a week and Homework Club 2 days a week.
On day(s) when your child should NOT be dismissed according to their default dismissal instruction (for example, they're normally in carpool but today they will attend Homework Club), parents will need to update their child's dismissal instruction for that specific day via the calendar in SDM. Any change you make to your child's default dismissal option is known as an 'Exception'. Exceptions for your child(ren) can be managed by any parent/guardian with an account in SDM. An email notification will be sent to all parents/guardians listed in SDM when an Exception is created. Exceptions can be made on a daily or recurring basis.
When creating an Exception for the current day, the cut-off time is 2:30 pm. The deadline allows our staff to begin preparing for end-of-school release (knowing which students have a change in their dismissal instructions and whether we need to make arrangements on our side to accommodate the change). After 2:30 pm, you will need to call the Front Office to notify us of any changes for the current day. Please do NOT email the teachers with dismissal instructions as they will not be able to make changes in SDM for your child(ren). Each afternoon, our staff will use a comprehensive dismissal report to facilitate student dismissal at the end of that school day. It is critical that you maintain accurate instructions for your child(ren) in order for AA staff to facilitate a smooth and efficient dismissal.