Review Screening Alerts

When a check-in or check-out needs a staff decision, an alert appears on the GoGuardian Visitor Front Desk right away. Most alerts are quick checks, such as confirming the students a guardian is picking up. If screening finds a possible match on a sex offender registry or a watchlist, you review the match and either confirm it or mark it as not a match. This article shows you how to work through each alert in Visitor. What you decide is up to your school’s procedures, such as which answers to accept, who can pick up a student, or what to do after a confirmed match. Follow them for every alert. You can review alerts for the check-in points you’re assigned to. Site Admins can review alerts at every check-in point. For how screening works and the settings behind it, see Understand Visitor Screening.

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Find Alerts Waiting for Review

Alerts appear in 3 places on the Front Desk:

• Alert banners at the top of the page, 1 for each alert, such as “Possible Offender Match for JANE DOE at Front Office Kiosk.” Red banners are possible matches, flagged answers, and screening errors. Yellow banners are Confirm Students.
• Kiosks card: a kiosk with an alert shows Needs Review, Needs Confirmation, or Screening Error instead of Active.
• The check-in panel, for check-ins you run at the Front Desk yourself: alerts appear in the panel, each with Review. Flagged answers and student confirmations appear when you finish the form, 1 at a time. Denying any one of them denies the whole check-in or check-out.

Click Review Alerts or Review to open the alert. If 2 staff members open the same alert, the first decision applies, and the alert closes for the other staff member.

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Review a Possible Match

A possible match means screening found a record with details similar to the visitor’s. It isn’t a finding about the visitor, which is why a staff member confirms every possible match before Visitor takes action. The alert tells you which kind of record it found:

• Possible Offender Match: a record from a sex offender registry. Registry data comes from a third party, and GoGuardian does not independently verify it.
• Possible Watchlist Match: an entry on your school’s watchlists. A watchlist is a list your school keeps of people staff need to know about at check-in, such as a parent who isn’t allowed to pick up their child under a custody order.

You review both kinds of match the same way:

1. Click Review Alerts on the alert.
2. Ask the visitor for their government-issued ID. If they scanned an ID at the kiosk, the scan appears on the left. Otherwise, you see “Ask the visitor for their ID.”
3. Compare the Confirm Identity details with the ID: first name, middle name, last name, and date of birth.
   • If everything matches, click Confirm Identity.
   • If anything is wrong, such as a misread date of birth, correct it and click Run Security Screening Again. Visitor closes the alert and screens the corrected identity. If there’s still a possible match, a new alert appears.
4. Check the visitor against the Possible Match. The review is now titled Potential Offender Match or Potential Watchlist Match. The visitor’s photo, name, date of birth, and ID are on the left, and the record is on the right. To check the ID again, click Go Back.
   • Potential Offender Match: shows the registry’s photos, name, date of birth, physical details, and Convictions. Click Show more details for the rest of the record, such as Cases, Sources, and Record Links. If the registry returned more than 1 record, click the arrows to move between them.
   • Potential Watchlist Match: shows the watchlist entry, the Watchlist it’s on, and the Reason your school entered.
5. Under “Is this the same person?”, choose Not a Match or Confirm Match. See Mark Not a Match or Confirm a Match.

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Mark Not a Match

Choose Not a Match when the visitor isn’t the one in the record. The check-in or check-out continues, and Visitor doesn’t notify anyone.

1. On the possible match, click Not a Match. If the registry returned more than 1 record, Visitor shows the next one. Compare it, and click Not a Match or Confirm Match. After the last record, the Not a Match dialog opens.
2. For a Potential Offender Match, optionally select Permanently dismiss these matches for this visitor. Visitor then stops raising these records for this visitor at your site. A permanent dismissal can’t be undone. Follow your school’s procedures. For how dismissals work, see Understand Visitor Screening.
3. Click Mark Not a Match.
4. Verify the result: The alert banner is gone, and the visitor can finish checking in or out.

A watchlist match can’t be dismissed permanently. If the visitor resembles a watchlist entry, it’s a possible match on each visit.

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Confirm a Match

Choose Confirm Match only when you’re confident the visitor is the one in the record. Visitor then denies the check-in or check-out and alerts the notification lists for that match right away.

1. On the possible match, click Confirm Match.
2. Read the Confirm Match and Notify Staff dialog. It shows how many staff members will be notified and through which notification lists:
   • For a possible offender match: your site’s default notification list.
   • For a possible watchlist match: the notification lists attached to the watchlist. If no one will be notified, the dialog says why, such as “No one will be notified because a default notification list isn’t set up.”
3. Click Confirm Match. Escalation Started means Visitor sent the alert to the notification lists. If no notification list with members is set up, you see No Staff Notified instead.
4. Click Done, then follow your school’s procedures for a confirmed match.
5. Verify the result: The alert banner is gone.

The check-in’s Activity Log details keep the record you confirmed and show who confirmed it. For what notified staff receive, see Respond to a Visitor Alert.

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Review a Flagged Answer

A Flagged Answer means the visitor or student chose an answer your school marked for review, such as answering yes when asked whether they feel sick. It’s a routine check, and it never notifies anyone.

1. Click Review Alerts on the alert.
2. Read the question and the answer in Review Flagged Answer. Follow your school’s procedures, such as talking with the visitor or student.
3. Choose what to do:
   • To let the check-in continue, click Accept Answer, then click Accept Answer to confirm.
   • To stop it, click Deny Check-In (or Deny Check-Out), then click it again to confirm.
4. Verify the result: The alert banner is gone.

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Confirm Students for a Pickup

Confirm Students asks you to check that the visitor is approved to pick up the students they selected. Every pickup through a Select Students step needs this confirmation before it completes. It’s a routine check, and it never notifies anyone.

1. Click Review on the alert.
2. Check the students listed under Select Students against your school’s pickup records.
3. Choose what to do:
   • If the visitor is approved for every student, click Confirm Students, then click Confirm Students to confirm.
   • If not, click Deny Check-Out (or Deny Check-In), then click it again to confirm.
4. Verify the result: The alert banner is gone.

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Resolve a Screening Error

A Screening Error means an error stopped a check from running. It isn’t a match.

1. Click Review on the alert.
2. Find the check that shows Error: Offender registry or Watchlist.
3. Click Retry Screening.
4. If the error comes back and your school’s procedures allow it, click Skip Screening, then click Skip Screening to confirm. The check-in can then be completed without the checks that had an error.
5. Verify the result: The alert banner is gone. If you skipped screening, the check-in shows Screening Skipped, and its Activity Log details show who skipped each check.

If screening errors keep happening, tell your IT team which check had the error and when.

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Understand What the Visitor Sees

On a kiosk, the visitor keeps filling out the form while you review. If they finish first, the kiosk shows “Please wait” until you decide. They never see what screening found. If you deny the check-in or check-out, or confirm a match, the kiosk shows “You could not check in” and “Please see the front desk.”

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Troubleshoot Screening Alerts

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Resources

• Understand Visitor Screening
• Respond to a Visitor Alert
• Use the Front Desk
• Watchlists
• Notification Lists
• Activity Log