5 Steps To Streamline Student Device Collection

As K-12 students prepare for summer break, school IT teams are staring down the daunting task of year-end device collection. Chances are the conversations have looked very different across most districts this year.

The Challenge of Student Device Collection

When the pandemic forced staff and students into a remote learning model last year, some schools had to increase the size of their student device fleet. With continued uncertainty over what a return to school would look like, it made more sense to send devices home with students.

Whether those devices returned to school for the summer, however, has been a district-by-district decision. There’s no one clear answer, Regardless of what your district decided in this anything-but-normal school year, there are steps you can take to ensure a successful device collection process – and for Absolute users looking to reclaim Chromebooks, you already have the tools to easily do it.

Making Device Collection Easy

The Absolute platform supports a more effective and efficient device collection process. With Absolute, IT teams gain the visibility to see every device in their fleet from a single screen. The platform creates an unbreakable digital tether to devices, data, and applications, making it possible to secure and manage those endpoints no matter where they are.

If a laptop misses the return deadline, administrators can freeze it remotely, send out an alert message to notify the user, and track the device to a precise location for recovery. Using the cloud-based Absolute console, there are 5 basic steps to streamline your device collection and audits:

1. Plan - 45-60 days prior to device collection, prepare user message scripts and target your student device groups.

2. Execute - In the month leading up to the collection period, create custom alerts and reports to categorize devices by desired return date.

3. Collect - Follow your standard procedures to collect student devices.

4. Control

• 1-2 days after collection, flag outstanding devices as missing
• 5-7 days after flagging devices missing, freeze devices that haven’t checked in

5. Monitor - Use the Missing Devices view and Device Freeze Summary report to keep your inventory visible.

Our Device Collection Guide outlines each of these 5 steps in more detail, and highlights the Absolute features that will support you through a simpler, more efficient device collection process.

Learn How Absolute Can Help You Streamline Device Collection