Since Klein ISD began transitioning to a contactless system 10 years ago, over 625,000 transactions have processed more than $49 million in school activity funds, and close to 50% of all fees collected are now being protected from fraud.
In 2011, Klein ISD offered our first item for online payment to our school community through our 1:1 Computer to Student Initiative. Our newly launched online payments platform—offered through SchoolCash—gave parents/guardians a safe, fast, and convenient way to pay for school activity fees.
A successful pilot program of the 1:1 Computer to Student Initiative in select high schools led to the program’s expansion to intermediate students. Custom forms created with an online payment system were introduced to collect information when parents/guardians pay fees. This replaced paper forms and reduced data entry errors.
This success inspired our district to survey principals about their interest in adopting online payments for course fees. 85% agreed to participate, validating our District’s desire to expand the program. Required fees were added to the online payment system, which boosted adoption rates by 13% in 2017/18. Over time, this trend continued. In 2020/21, 33,300 parents/guardians were using online payments, resulting in a 71% parent adoption rate.
Adding required district-level fees as online payments was a tipping point in terms of adoption. Our district also noticed a big difference in engagement with our school bookkeepers when we began creating custom forms on-demand.
Also, allowing teachers to post items for online payments has reduced the amount of cash and checks collected in classrooms. In 2020/21, over 45% of fees collected across the District were no longer being managed by teachers.
Since our district began transitioning to a contactless system 10 years ago, over 625,000 transactions have processed more than $49 million in school activity funds, and close to 50% of all fees collected are now being protected from fraud.
To learn more, watch this on-demand webinar in which I participated as a guest panelist with colleagues who have also successfully led the implemented of online payment systems.
