Fort Richmond uses QR codes for contact tracing

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This article was published 23/10/2020 (1810 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An idea from an observant teacher-librarian and technical know-how on the part of a vice-principal have combined to use QR codes to track students’ locations during the pandemic.

Students at Fort Richmond Collegiate have been scanning QR codes when they enter rooms at the school since September. The resulting data of where they were located at any one time during the school day is uploaded to a spreadsheet, allowing staff to identify who might have been in contact with a student who carried the COVID-19 virus.

The idea was embraced by the students immediately, according to principal Janet Gray and vice-principal Jon Manness.

“We were looking for a way to track students’ locations, in the case of a positive case of COVID, back in the summer months before school started,” Manness said. “Chantal Rochon, a teacher-librarian, thought up the idea of QR codes.”

A QR code, for those who haven’t encountered one, stands for “quick response”. Essentially, it’s a barcode that can be scanned by a smart phone, which reads the data in the black-and-white box-like code.

“It’s ideal for students, who scan the code with their phone, and open up the link to a document that asks them to fill in a form stating their name and location and time,” Manness said. “That information is then entered into a spreadsheet, where we can pinpoint their locations down to the second.”

The school has equity in mind when dealing with the students. “If a student doesn’t have a cellphone, staff members will discretely fill out the form for them,” Gray said.

The students at the school have been following the pandemic precautions, like wearing masks, using hand sanitizer and following directional signs on the floors, according to Gray. “The staff at the school have been so flexible and positive about keeping our students safe,” she said, adding that desks are two metres apart, and students enter and exit the building through doors specific to their grade.

The system works thanks to Microsoft 365’s Forms connected to Excel spreadsheets, Manness said. This allows them to keep track of students in high-traffic areas, such as the spaces set aside as lunchrooms, the library and some of the classrooms.

“Some of the teachers are also using Edsby software to set up digital seating plans in their classrooms, and log students in or absent,” Manness.

High school students in the Pembina Trails School Division are attending school two days a week and taking part in virtual learning the other three days.

The idea to use QR codes for contact tracing in the pandemic has been picked up by other schools in the division.

In October, the QR code system was tested when Oak Park High School had a positive case. Public health staff praised the school for having one of the best systems they have seen in place for contact tracing, according to a division release.

“We can very quickly, within a half an hour, do a full contact trace using these forms and find out who was in the building during the times they were not in classes,” said Oak Park High School principal Troy Scott in that release.

Scott credits his students for embracing the task and technology. “They have shown us an unbelievable maturity; they are taking it very seriously. They will QR code when they go in and register that they are in the cafeteria and then do it again when they leave,” he said.

Gray said the idea is spreading. She received a call from a school division in Portage la Prairie recently, and also the City of Winnipeg.