How Does It Work?
A visitor enters and presents a valid driver license and/or state issued ID.  The ID is then scanned.  An immediate check is made against the national sex offender list and your list (ex-employees, injunctions, court orders, etc...)
of people you DO NOT want on your campus.  If a "HIT" occurs, no visitor ID Badge is printed.  They are STOPPED at the door.  OffenderCheck is FAST, SAFE and SECURE.

 
FAQ's.........
How is offender check performed?
A visitor inserts his/her driver license into the scanner and in approximately 15 seconds, School Check IN searches the SCI National Offender database..  The scanner reads the front of the license (picture side).  Special OCR (optical character recognition) software reads the information on the license.  This information, along with the driver's photograph, is brought into School Check IN.  School Check IN sends a query, using the visitor's information, to our secure web server where the visitor information is compared against our offender database, and a result is then returned back to the School Check IN workstation.

If the visitor passes the check, a visitor ID Badge is printed, which includes the visitor's picture.  If the check is negative (a possible offender hit occurs), no visitor ID Badge is printed.  A scanning error is reported back to the visitor (Scanning error XX - please ask for assistance).  This same message is reported back to the school along with a code and all possible offender matches for this visitor.  The goal here is to stop possible offenders from entering your school and provide you (the administrator) with all possible information on this visitor's status and to do so in a non-confrontational manner.  Keeping this individual in the office and away from the children until security arrives is tantamount.

How large is the SCI National Offender database?
The SCI National Offender database contains ~ 500,000 people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.   In addition, the SCI National Offender database contains nearly every convicted offender's photo, which helps make a positive identification easier.

These individuals are convicted as either offenders and/or predators.  The difference is that a predator generally involves violence (rape or assault) and/or children.    School Check IN only uses official state provided data.  School Check IN does not use third-party acquired data because research showed this data had too many inaccuracies.

Can all driver's licenses or state issued IDs be scanned?
Generally yes.  Click here to view current state options. To adjust for new driver license formats and/or changes, updates will be available on a regular basis.  New OCR and scanner updates can be downloaded directly to your School Check IN workstation.

What are the system requirements?
We recommend either Windows 2000 or Windows XP SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS  (not available for MACS).  Windows 98 is not supported using OffenderCheck.

Does School Check IN use a web-based application to perform an offender check?
School Check IN employs a secure method to access the internet when performing an offender check.  School Check IN opens a connection; sends a query to a secure site; returns the results and then closes the connection.  This process (a fetch & a get) is done in seconds (less than 3 seconds).  This is fast, safe and more secure than a 24/7 web-based always on connection.  School Check IN's method makes it nearly impossible for a hacker to access your computer or your network.

School Check IN is not a web-based application.  In developing OffenderCheck, we looked at all available technology and design approaches to implement a safe, fast and secure system. The internet security professionals, who worked with us on this project, advised against a web-based solution.   It wasn't secure enough.

As one security specialist said "Having an open 24/7 connection to the internet is akin to leaving your wallet on a park bench and hoping no one finds it, and if it is found, then hoping they don't take your money or credit cards."    A web-based solution is not secure enough, regardless of what security is applied or what someone claims.   Any security used would be on the web-based server side of the connection and NOT on your side of the open internet connection, thus making your computer and your network vulnerable.

This is why banks, financial institutions, the military, and most businesses do not use open 24/7 internet connections for transactions.  These entities use a protected INTRANET (their own network).  ATMs are on secure intranets, not the internet.  Even secure shopping sites do not allow 24/7 always open connections.  These sites, after a certain time period, time out log out the user (close the socket).   A web-based 24/7 always-open connection never closes and is an open invitation for hackers.

Sniffer programs prowl the web searching for these situations.  Hackers love open 24/7 always on connections.  Once found, the hacker can either attempt to penetrate the connection or take over the connection.  Once the hacker is in your system, the hacker is virtually untraceable.  This risk doesn't make sense.