/ How it works
How NIX works.
Run a phone-free school day, verified with a quick ID scan at the door. A simpler, cheaper alternative to phone pouches.
/ The problem
Phones don't just distract at events.
Phones don't just distract at events. They're with students all day, every day, and the pull to check them never lets up. The popular fix, lockable pouches like Yondr, means buying, handing out, collecting, and replacing a pouch for every student every year, roughly $30 a head, and the phone still comes through the door every morning.
/ The NIX approach
Leave it at home. Scan at the door.
NIX flips the model: instead of locking up a phone the student still brings, the student simply doesn't bring it. They leave it at home or in the car, walk in, and scan their student ID badge at the door, and the geofence confirms the phone isn't with them. It's software, not hardware, and it does something pouches can't: it breaks the habit of having a phone on you at all times.
/ Honesty
NIX doesn't lock or confiscate anything; there's nothing on the student to lock. The door scan verifies they arrived phone-free, and a single campus geofence quietly backs it up. During school hours the app checks one thing, whether the phone is inside the campus boundary, and nothing more: a phone at home simply answers no, and one that crosses onto campus during the day gets flagged for your admins. Outside school hours the school-day check collects nothing. An event your school runs has its own window, 90 minutes before to 30 minutes after, and checks the phone wherever it is. An event window covers every student at the school who has the app and has allowed location, whether or not they plan to go, because NIX can't know ahead of time who will show up. If a student never scans in, nothing is saved to that event and the school sees nothing: the reading just overwrites the last one. Your school enforces the policy it already has.
/ Step by step
Three roles, one campus-wide policy.
Admins set the policy, students come in without the phone, and staff scan at the door.
/ For admins
Set the policy
Set the policy
Set your phone-free hours from the dashboard. NIX only applies during the hours you specify.
Draw one campus geofence
One boundary, usually around the buildings, defines where the policy applies. No per-classroom setup, no extra hardware.
Put scan stations at the doors
Staff scan IDs at the entry points, signed in to the NIX app with a free Staff account. It is the same scan used at events.
/ For students
Come in without it
Install the app and allow location
Install the NIX app on iPhone or Android and sign up with your student ID. The app asks for background location, called "Always" on iPhone and "Allow all the time" on Android, so the check can run while the app is closed. That does not mean location is collected all the time: only inside your school's check windows. You can decline, and then you start each check by hand.
Leave the phone at home or in the car
Not on you: at home or in the car. The geofence confirms it isn't with you.
Scan your student ID badge at the door
The card you already carry. A quick scan at entry, and nothing new to bring or remember.
You're checked in phone-free for the day
The geofence confirms your phone isn't with you. That's the verification, simple and done.
/ For staff
Scan at the door
Scan student IDs as they arrive
The same quick scan used at events, run by staff signed in to the NIX app, with no pouches to fill, lock, or hand back at dismissal.
/ The tech
What's under the hood.
The same engine that runs events runs the school day: one app, one dashboard, one scan.
One app, iPhone and Android
One app for students and a built-in scanner mode for staff at the door. No extra hardware to buy, charge, or replace.
One campus geofence
Schools usually draw one boundary around the buildings, so the parking lot falls outside it. The school-day check runs only during school hours, from 45 minutes before the day starts to 30 minutes after it ends, and asks one question: is the phone inside. A phone at home or in the car answers no. NIX keeps that answer and one latest reading that overwrites itself, so there is no location history. A phone that comes inside is flagged for your admins, not a teacher mid-class, unless it is in a phone zone the school marked, for bus riders for example. The school-day check collects nothing in the evening, on weekends, or over the summer. An event has its own window, 90 minutes before to 30 after, wherever the phone is.
School hours & holidays
Set your phone-free window once, then add no-school days and half-days. The school-day check only runs on the dates you choose, from 45 minutes before the day starts to 30 minutes after it ends: never in the evening, never on a holiday.
Student ID badge scanning
Whoever's on the door scans the physical student ID badge students already carry. No QR codes, nothing new to issue.
Compliance dashboard
See at a glance how many students arrived phone-free across the day. Your school acts on its own policy from one clear view.
Per-school pricing & seats
One annual subscription per school, sized by enrollment, with seat-based team management. No setup fees.
/ Why it works for schools
Simpler and cheaper than pouches.
The comparison isn't just cost. It's everything your operations team doesn't have to do.
- A fraction of the cost
- Software pricing versus a physical pouch, plus replacements, for every student, every year. Pouches run roughly $30 a head; NIX is one per-school subscription.
- Breaks the dependency
- When the phone stays home, students aren't fighting the constant pull of a device in their pocket all day. The goal isn't locking it up. It's removing the habit of having it on them at all.
- Nothing to manage
- No pouches to distribute, collect, or replace. Just a scan at the door.
Common questions
How is this different from phone pouches?+
Does NIX lock up or track phones?+
Is the school day rewarded like events?+
Can we run events and the school day together?+
/ NIX Assistant
Every admin gets an assistant. It's included.
The NIX Assistant is built into the admin console today, for every NIX school, at no added cost. Type what you need in plain English: set up Friday's game night, move it to 7 pm, pull last month's numbers. The assistant drafts, your admin confirms. Nothing is created or changed without a person's sign-off.
Staff-facing only. It works from event details and aggregate numbers, never student personal data, and conversations are not stored on our servers. See how we handle data.
The actual flow: you ask, it drafts, you confirm
/ Built for schools
More presence. Less screen time. Less work for staff.
NIX gives students a concrete reason to look up and show up, and gives your team a system that runs itself once it's set up.
- Compliance you can show a board
- Every scan is logged. Phone-free compliance in real time, ready for a board or district report. The same scan also gives the office a whole-school arrival record: who scanned in, and when, downloadable as a spreadsheet. It complements your student information system and does not replace it. It is not period-by-period attendance, and nothing is written to your SIS.
- Higher event turnout
- A real reward for showing up turns optional events into ones students actually attend.
- Genuine presence
- Phone-free verification rewards students for being in the moment. Together, not on a screen.
- Effortless to run
- Set up an event, hand the code to anyone running the door, staff or student workers, and let NIX verify and reward. No spreadsheets, no clipboards.
/ What we do not do
Verification, not surveillance.
A phone-free policy should never turn into a tracking program. This is exactly what NIX measures and what it throws away.
One yes or no
The scan answers a single question: was the phone left off campus. That verdict is what the school sees, never a record of where the student actually went.
Coordinates are purged
At an event, the location saved with a scan is deleted automatically 90 days after the scan. A school-day scan saves no coordinates at all. What stays is the verification result and the single latest reading, which overwrites itself, so no location history accumulates on a student.
Nothing about the screen
NIX does not read messages, apps, or anything a student does on the device. There is nothing there to read.
Bring NIX to your school.
Pilot a verified phone-free school day, with rewarded phone-free events included. No pouches, no new hardware, no setup fees.