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Written by Marie Hynes
on January 30, 2024

Innovation plays a pivotal role in ensuring the safety and well-being of students in K-12 districts. 

Understanding that technology changes quickly, Gaggle harnesses innovation to effectively address the new challenges facing school districts related to student safety, compliance, early intervention, and digital citizenship.

As Gaggle continues to address the challenges and risks that districts often encounter, we’re excited to share with you the array of new features, offerings, and enhancements that were introduced in 2023 to better serve our partners by both making the lives of educators and administrators easier and keeping students safer.


New Features and Their Benefits


Incident History Insights
Gaggle's Customer Portal now allows users to view previous incidents for a student within the incident detail view. 
The benefit: Authorized staff responding to incidents gain additional insights into a student's digital behavior, ensuring a more comprehensive approach to student safety

Audit Logs for Incident Workflow and Emergency Contacts 
To enhance transparency and accountability, Gaggle now provides detailed audit logs for both the Incident Workflow and Emergency Contact management. 
The benefit: Districts can track actions and document responses every step in the incident resolution process.

Incident Reassignment 
Gaggle's Customer Portal allows incidents to be re-assigned to a different group. 
The benefit: This flexibility streamlines incident management and ensures that the right team is always on top of the situation.

Quick Access to Student's Digital Locker
A new feature within the incident detail view allows Emergency Contacts (ECs) to access a student's digital locker or email directly. 
The benefit: This direct link makes life easier for those managing Gaggle incidents as they are able to gather necessary information more quickly.

Emergency Contact Assignment
Assigning an Emergency Contact for specific incidents enables schools to ensure that the most relevant ECs are involved when incidents occur. This enhancement gives the ability to assign an incident based on the category in addition to the type.
The benefit: Districts have precise control on who gets alerted on Gaggle incidents.

Automated Email Notifications for New Emergency Contacts
Gaggle's commitment to facilitating swift communication extends to the introduction of automated email notifications for newly assigned Emergency Contacts. 
The benefit: This ensures that ECs are promptly informed and engaged in the incident resolution process.

Possible Student Situation (PSS) Alert Acknowledgment and Group Communication
In 2023, Gaggle revamped our PSS text alert system. This was an important priority as Possible Student Situations are time sensitive and critical.
The benefit: The improved real-time texting functionality enables Emergency Contacts to acknowledge a PSS right from the text message or from within the Portal. Additionally, Emergency Contacts can now email other district staff from the Portal with important actions being taken while responding to these incidents.

Enhanced Portal Filtering Options 
Portal users can filter incidents utilizing a myriad of filter options to optimize their incident management workflows. 
The benefit: This simplifies the process of reviewing incidents and gives ECs and administrative teams helpful insights on how/when their ECs were responding to incidents.

PSS EC Coverage Validation
To ensure comprehensive PSS Emergency Contact coverage, Gaggle has introduced alerting and validation mechanisms. 
The benefit: This ensures that no student incident falls through the cracks and that the right individuals are notified promptly.

Annual Account Verification Checklist
Gaggle's Customer Portal now includes an Annual Account Verification checklist. 
The benefit: This ensures that districts maintain accurate and up-to-date information.

Support for Long Delay Windows and Multi-Precinct Districts for districts with GAFT
Gaggle has expanded its support for customers by accommodating long delay windows and multi-precinct districts. 
The benefit: This caters to the unique needs of districts implementing GAFT and makes the service completely customizable.

Integration with Student Information Systems (SIS) 
Gaggle integrates with Student Information Systems (SIS).
The benefit: This offers access to student and guardian contact information within Gaggle incident alerts, saving precious moments in times of crisis.


Game-Changing New Offering

Gaggle is proud to introduce its new Web Activity Monitor, designed for web search and web activity monitoring. This enables educators and administrators to maintain a watchful eye on students' online activities, ensuring a safer digital learning environment.

 

Key Enhancements

Advanced Spanish Language Content Analysis: Gaggle has significantly expanded its algorithm to better analyze Spanish language content, ensuring a more inclusive approach to student safety.

Improved Identification of Concerning Comments: The platform has been enhanced to better identify concerning comments in Google documents, providing a more robust safety net for students.

Continuous Updates to Blocked Words: Gaggle now offers extensive weekly updates to its blocked words list, reducing false positives and enhancing accuracy.

Enhanced Content Ingestion Speed: Enhancements have been made to increase the speed of ingesting content from Google Workspaces, ensuring timely monitoring and response.

With these new features, innovative service offering, and key enhancements, Gaggle continues to be a trusted partner in protecting the safety and well-being of students. We remain committed to providing thousands of K-12 districts the tools they need for their students to thrive in a secure and supportive environment. Learn more.

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