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Voice Broadcasting Auto Dialers
Using our PACER and WIZARD phone systems and voice broadcasting software, we can broadcast voice messages and service announcements to your clients and community. Phone call messages can be automatically generated using our XML Push technology.
Our phone message service can place one call or millions of calls. Pre-recorded messages can be played to either individuals and answering machines or just to individuals. Different messages can be played to an answering machine versus an individual.
Contact DSC today. to learn more about our voice broadcasting service and auto dialer phone systems.
Auto Dialers Help Curb Truancies
The following is an extract from the article "Officials work to curb truancies" by JENNIFER KABBANY - Staff Writer for the North County Times.
"Spring is here: The sun is out longer, the days are warmer ---- and that itch to ditch is stronger than ever. After eight months of school under their belt and with nearly perfect weather, students are more apt to take a risk for a little fun in the sun, officials with school districts say.
"It's a combination of we are almost out of school for the summer and also the weather," said Donna Opoku-Agyeman, the director of child welfare and attendance at Lake Elsinore Unified School District.
But district and law enforcement officials have developed numerous ways to curb truancies, including strict attendance policies, truancy sweeps, calls home when a student is absent and placing campus supervisors at strategic locations around campus.
Still, there are thousands of students who ditch every year. In the 2003-04 school year, there were 13,527 truancies at the mainstream high schools in the four Southwest County school districts of Temecula Valley, Murrieta Valley, Lake Elsinore and Perris High.
Specifically, Temecula counted 732 truancies in 2003-04 at Temecula Valley and Chaparral high schools. Great Oak High School had yet to open.
That same year, Murrieta tallied 283 truancies at Murrieta Valley and Vista Murrieta high schools. At Perris Union, there were 5,259 truancies at Paloma Valley and Perris high schools. And in Lake Elsinore, there were 7,253 truancies at Temescal Canyon and Elsinore high schools.
The districts tally the information annually and turn it in to the California Department of Education as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act's requirements.
Habitual ditchers are often referred to districts' school attendance review boards, which monitor absences and truancies and involve parents, students and administrators in resolving habitual problems. The review boards, along with the sweeps and calls home, do a lot to help students decide not to skip schools.
These programs are in effect year-round, and some school officials charged with campus security say it doesn't matter what season it is ---- they keep a watchful eye on students and make sure they are where they need to be during school hours.
"I'm always looking for kids walking about," said Tom Ogle, a Murrieta Valley High School campus security guard. "I ask them where they are supposed to be, and often walk them back to their classroom."
Ogle said he doesn't stop there. He walks into the classroom with the wandering student to determine from the teacher whether he or she is truant. If so, Ogle said he marches the student to the office.
Hot spots where students like to loiter during class or wander off campus include the parking lot and behind buildings, Ogle said, adding that typically he catches a couple of students each week trying to ditch.
"It's important to keep these kids on campus, it doesn't matter what time of year," he said.
Like Murrieta Valley, campuses across Southwest County employ guards such as Ogle.
Despite the guards, however, where there is a will, there's a way.
Murrieta sophomore Sean Kitt said that if he really wanted to sneak off campus, he could.
"It's probably pretty easy," he said, adding that he has no desire to do so.
According to the California Department of Education, a student is defined as a truant when he or she misses more than 30 minutes of instruction without an excuse three times during the school year. The state's education code requires that parents be notified of the situation, and habitual truancies may result in parents being fined by the courts.
Sgt. Rick Zerkel, who oversees the Temecula Valley Unified School District's school resource officers, said truancy sweeps conducted throughout the year help to deter ditching, especially with habitual offenders. Sometimes, the sweeps have led to parents being fined, he said.
During the sweeps, officers are given a list of names of truant students from the district, Zerkel said. Officers search for students on the list, knocking on doors, hitting local convenience stores and fast-food restaurants and, hopefully, finding the students and bringing them to school, Zerkel said.
In Lake Elsinore in late February, police found 22 truant students, issued them citations and returned them to their high school campuses in a truancy sweep, according to authorities.
One of the reasons officials take such a determined stance against truancy is because students who ditch classes can suffer academically, said Danielle Clark, a spokeswoman for the Temecula school district.
"The district's philosophy is that consistent attendance at school is an integral part of student success," Clark said.
What's more, school districts are not paid for students who do not attend classes. Most districts' funding from the state is allocated on a per-student basis at the rate of about $5,000 a head annually. Much of districts' state funding is based on average daily attendance.
One of the ways officials try to deter truancies is through a strict attendance policy, Clark said. According to that policy, any sixth-grader through 12th-grader who is absent more than nine times may have his or her grade lowered. The other Southwest County school districts have similar policies.
Calling parents when a student is absent is another way to deter ditching. At the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, when students are absent from class without a note from parents, an auto-dialer phone system calls to notify parents of the absence and asks parents to send a note. If parents don't respond, an attendance clerk will call home, said Karen Parris, the district's spokeswoman. Similar systems are in place throughout the area...."
To view the entire article, please visit www.nctimes.com.
What is Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Voice Broadcasting (VB) and how can it be applied to different ivr applications?
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Call Reminder Service with Phone Alert Reminders
To quickly broadcast your call reminders and alerts, Database Systems Corp. offers a comprehensive phone service. Pre-recorded messages can be played to either answering machines or to individuals informing them of upcoming conventions, community events, doctor or dental appointments, warranty repair notification, civil alerts, or marketing promotions. Different messages can be played to an answering machine versus an individual. Simple to complex scripts can be developed for touchphone response. Calls can be directed to operators that are standing by or can be transferred to outside third parties.
Personalized information from your custom database (such as name, appointment date and time) can be included in call notifications. In some campaigns, you may only want to leave a message if an answering machine is detected. In other campaigns, different messages can be played based upon contact with an answering machine or a person and based upon the time of day. An individual could be given a message with selection options using our interactive touchphone response system.
Calls can be routed to a remote company representative or to a group of service agents. Multiple message campaigns can be performed at the same time, each with its own set of business rules. Our call announcement system can conform to your specific requirements.
Contact DSC to learn more about our IVR services and IVR software solutions.
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