Dear Lower and Middle School Families,
As part of ongoing efforts to improve our safety and security protocols, we asked that all families record the individuals who are authorized to pick up their child(ren) from school in Pingry's school information system, Veracross. It is imperative that Pingry families have thoughtfully planned for responses to an emergency scenario where a student requires prompt pickup.
You are no doubt already familiar with verifying and/or updating your contact information in Veracross via the Family Profile Update form, so that you never miss communication from Pingry and so that other families can reach out to you using our continually updated, password-protected, online Family Directory. Now, in time for the start of school, we ask that you enter any individuals—babysitters, nannies, neighbors, grandparents, and the like—who may need to pick up your child during the school day, from a Pingry-run after-school program, such as Aftercare, Enrichment, or Middle School Homework Club, or in the event of a high temperature or any other indication of symptoms which may be brought about by illness. To ensure the safety of our students, these individuals must be entered into Veracross and, therefore, on a pre-approved list, in order for students to be released to their custody.
Please review and update this information in Veracross to ensure that your child’s authorized pick up list is current on the first day of school. You can, of course, update this information throughout the school year but please be aware it does take a day or two for the information to be available to the Lower and Middle School Offices.
To add authorized pick-up individuals to Veracross, please follow the steps below, or watch this video:
- Visit pingry.org/login, or click the purple login button at the top right of any page of pingry.org.
- Once logged in, click on the "Veracross" button.
- On the Veracross portal page, click the blue "Update Family Profile" button on the right side.
- Under “Household Contacts,” click the “Contacts and Relatives for my Children” link.
- If you wish to authorize a person who is not already listed in this section, click the blue “+Add New” button at the top of all of the cards, and enter, at minimum, the individual’s name, relationship to your child, and phone number, and click "Save." If you wish to designate the authorized pick-up individual as an emergency contact, you must indicate so in the drop-down menu. See the end of this letter for more information about emergency contacts.
- To authorize individuals to pick up your child, click on the section labeled “Pick-up Authorization.”
- Select the blue “+Add New” button within Pick-up Authorizations, select a contact from the drop-down menu, select the students that the person is authorized to pick up using the checkbox next to their name, and click “Update Contact.”
Your changes will be approved and implemented by a Pingry Tech Office member within a few business days. Rest assured, individuals outside of parents/guardians who are added through the above process will be viewable only to Pingry staff and will not appear in the Family Directory.
Throughout the school year, if you need to communicate that one of your authorized designees will be picking up your child(ren) during the academic day, or that your child(ren) will be absent, please follow the normal procedure of reaching out to the applicable Division Office by email to let us know. In order to streamline communication, we ask that you email only the applicable Division Office using one of the addresses below. While we will ensure that these messages will be delivered to all pertinent faculty and staff, it is recommended that lower school parents copy your child’s homeroom teacher.
- Lower School early pick-ups or absences: lsattendance@pingry.org
- Middle School early pick-ups or absences: msattendance@pingry.org
When an authorized designee arrives to pick up your child during the academic day, that person must remain in the entryway Vestibule (under the clock tower at the Basking Ridge campus Main Entrance, and outside of the Main Office at the Short Hills Campus Main Entrance) and check-in with the Receptionist using the video doorbell system. The name will then be verified as an authorized pick-up individual in Veracross and the child will be called from their classroom for pickup. Aftercare and Homework Club staff will similarly verify.
Emergency Contacts
Note that there are two different “emergency contact” designations you should be aware of:
1) Veracross emergency contacts, which are different from your authorized pick-up designees, will receive a text through Ruvna at each contact point we have on file, and these notifications may occur at odd hours (for example, snow day calls could occur at 5:00 a.m.). As stated in #5 above, if you wish to designate your authorized pick-up individual as a Veracross emergency contact, you must indicate this in their card in the Update Family Profile form. More information will follow about Pingry’s emergency alert system after the start of school, when annual safety and security trainings are held for students, faculty, and staff. 2) Magnus Health emergency contacts, which must be indicated within the Magnus Health Portal, are for individual health incidents and would be contacted by a nurse or athletic trainer.
If you have any questions about entering your authorized pick-up individuals within the Update Family Profile form, please contact techhelp@pingry.org or 908-647-5555 ext. 1280. And, we welcome you to reach out to us with any additional questions. Thank you in advance for your help with this additional safety measure.
In partnership,
Tamara Schurdak
Middle School Director
Dr. Alyssa Johns
Lower School Director