LocknCharge wins 2026 EdTech Breakthrough award for education IT solution

LocknCharge was named the 2026 EdTech Breakthrough Award winner for Best Overall IT Solution Provider for the Education Market for ForwardPass. The recognition spotlights smart locker automation designed to cut device handoffs from about 30 minutes to two minutes or less for schools and universities. Why it matters: - Education IT teams are handling more devices, users, locations, and daily requests without extra time in the school day. - More than half of school IT teams spend over four hours a day managing devices, pulling staff away from classrooms, service desks, and front offices. - LocknCharge says ForwardPass is designed to reduce that burden by making device access faster and more accountable. What happened: - LocknCharge won the 2026 EdTech Breakthrough Award for Best Overall IT Solution Provider for the Education Market. - The award recognized ForwardPass by LocknCharge, the company’s smart locker automation system for education device handoffs. - EdTech Breakthrough said it received more than 3,000 nominations from around the world. - The field included companies and products such as Canva, LEGO Education, PowerSchool, Cisco, Carnegie Learning, and D2L. The details: - ForwardPass automates five common education workflows: Loaners, Repairs, Deployments, Replacements, and Charging. - Students, faculty, and staff can authenticate and self-serve the device they need from a smart locker. - Each exchange is recorded automatically, giving IT teams visibility, accountability, and exportable records. - LocknCharge says the system can turn common device disruptions from 30 minutes to two minutes or less. - In K–12 settings, ForwardPass can let students pick up a charged loaner before the morning bell without creating a front-desk line. - In higher education, ForwardPass can support after-hours access while keeping a chain-of-custody record across locations, service desks, and departments. - LocknCharge helps schools, universities, and workplaces store, charge, secure, and manage mobile devices at scale. - ForwardPass is built around the daily realities of education IT teams and the device exchanges that create friction. Between the lines: - The award highlights a broader shift in education IT toward self-serve workflows instead of manual handoffs. - LocknCharge is framing device access as a learning-time issue, not just an IT operations issue. - The company ties the product to customer feedback from schools, colleges, universities, and IT teams that deal with bell-time loaners, repair intake, deployment days, replacement handoffs, charging access, exam periods, and after-hours support. - The recognition signals market validation for tools that combine automation with auditability. What’s next: - LocknCharge plans to keep building systems that simplify device access, improve accountability, and give time back to education teams. - The company is directing readers to book a discovery call to learn more about ForwardPass. - The company also says it will continue developing self-serve, accountable workflows for schools and universities. The bottom line: - LocknCharge’s win puts a spotlight on a growing need in education: faster, trackable device handoffs that keep students moving and IT teams from becoming the bottleneck.