Opportunities for students often mean more homework for parents.
Westwood Collegiate teacher, Dave Shoesmith, hands out hundreds of permission slips each year, asking guardians to approve out-of-class trips.
“There's a permission slip for every time a student leaves the building, more than one km, so there's a lot of paper that comes across my desk and it's a lot of organizing between all the different classes,” he said.
And a lot of chances for forms to slip out of sight and not make it back on time.
So a Winnipeg company designed a new tool to help.
Permission Click helps teachers deal directly with parents online to get the information and field trip funds they need through email.
Chris Johnson is one of the co-creators of the app.
“The teacher's build a digital permission slip that then gets approved by the principal and gets sent home to mom and dad by email and the best thing is, there's no fancy app it just works,” he said.
Creators hope to save people time and headaches in a generation where many educators say they see more forms than ever.
“Parents do get frustrated sometimes saying OK, this is the 15th form I've signed,” said Westwood Collegiate principal Mike Wake.
But Wake said that kind of software would have to meet strict security standards first.
Permission Click developers said they work with worldwide industry leaders to ensure a secure system, and that's already passed the test for several school boards. Developers said several Manitoba schools have signed up and educators in other countries have contacted them.
For now, Dave Shoesmith sticks to paper.
But he expects the idea to click with many in the future.
