Donna Klein Jewish Academy is a K-12 Jewish day school in Boca Raton, Florida, serving about 767 students. Julie Katz has managed the school's systems for almost 27 years. When the attendance platform the school had been relying on started showing consistent login problems and inconsistencies, she began evaluating alternatives. In the 2025-2026 school year, the middle school moved to Orah: students arrive at class, scan a QR code on their ID badge at an iPad kiosk, see their name confirmed on screen, and the teacher is free to be at the door.
SchoolPass login failures and inconsistencies sent the school looking for an alternative
Donna Klein had been using SchoolPass for classroom attendance until a pattern of login issues made it hard to depend on. "There were a lot of login issues, inconsistencies," Katz says, "so we decided to pursue another app."
Before settling on Orah, the school evaluated other scan-in systems. Some added seconds per student at the door, a difference that compounds across a full class and repeats every period. That was enough to rule them out. Orah then came on-site to run a live demonstration.
"Seeing automated attendance run live in a classroom was impressive. Students scan in, see their name appear instantly, and the teacher can greet students instead of spending the start of class marking the roll. It's also consistently a few seconds faster per scan than what we saw with other systems we looked at."
Students scan their QR code, their name appears on screen, and the teacher is at the door
The setup for the middle school is straightforward. Students carry ID badges printed with a QR code. As they arrive at class, they scan at an iPad kiosk and see their name confirmed on screen. The teacher, freed from the register, is at the door.
"The teachers have told me that it works so quickly when the students come in that the teacher's actually able to greet the children, as opposed to standing there and hovering and making sure the attendance is being taken," Katz says. "The teachers said they now have more time to greet the children and welcome them into the classroom, which is a big bonus."
Teachers can go back up to six days to correct or update records. If a teacher is absent and a colleague covers, that colleague can take attendance on their behalf through the same view, keeping records complete regardless of who is at the front of the room.
The division that completed the least attendance now completes the most
Before Orah, middle school was among the weakest divisions in the school for attendance completion. "The numbers were so high, the teachers weren't being accountable enough," Katz says.
After switching to automated scan-in, the picture reversed. "The middle school seems to be the one school that's taking the most attendance because they're using Orah," she says. "Now the number is so low that only a few teachers maybe forget to take attendance. That number has changed quite a bit because the teachers really like the Orah app."
Two things drove the shift. The Orah app is simpler to use than Blackbaud, which removed the friction that had been causing teachers to avoid the task. And the assistant principal can now send automated reminder notifications when a teacher has not submitted. "I think one of the helpful tools for our assistant principal was the notifications that he could send to teachers saying, 'You forgot to take attendance,' and the constant reminders. So our attendance has been a lot better this year."
Attendance comments sync to Blackbaud, so audits no longer mean chasing teachers down in summer
When a teacher records an absence in Orah, they note the reason: sick, on vacation, in a test session. Those notes travel with the record when it syncs to Blackbaud.
"One of the simple things that I love is that the comments," Katz says. "When teachers put the child was sick, the child's on vacation, they put those comments in, it comes back to Blackbaud. So then when we get audited, I can just pull those reports and know exactly where that child was instead of tracking that teacher down in the summer. It's a little thing, but it's a big thing to me."
The same records reshape how conversations with parents go. When a family disputes an absence or tardy, the school can show exactly when the student scanned in. "When the parent says, 'But my child was here.' 'Yes, but they kept coming late to class, and we can show they swiped in at this time,'" Katz says. "We can show the parents that, yes, your child's here, but they're not in class."
Orah also provides backup access when Blackbaud has outages. "When you want to see a child's schedule, see where they need to be, call the parent, it's a backup of information so that you don't have to just depend on one system to find where the child is."
In their own words
"One of the simple things that I love is that the comments. When teachers put the child was sick, the child's on vacation, they put those comments in, it comes back to Blackbaud. So then when we get audited, I can just pull those reports and know exactly where that child was instead of tracking that teacher down in the summer. It's a little thing, but it's a big thing to me."
Julie Katz, Website and Database Manager, Donna Klein Jewish Academy
What they're building toward
The middle school is now the template for the rest of the campus. The high school is waiting on RFID scanning, which will let students tap to authenticate rather than present a QR code. That matters for the high school division, where the school wants a stronger authentication layer.
Hall passes are expected in August 2026. The plan is for students to scan out when heading to the nurse, guidance, or a test, and scan back in on return. If a student has been away for more than half an hour, the assistant principal can check where they went.
"If we had a fire drill or we had a lockdown, then we would know where these children are," Katz says, "and make sure that, you know, they in fact were at the nurse, got back to classroom, and they're safe where they should be."
Parent entry links will roll out at the start of the 2026-2027 school year, giving families a direct way to log absences without calling the office.
See how Orah helps day schools know where every student is, every period. Book a demo.
