Ensuring the safety of students, faculty, and staff in and outside of the classroom is a responsibility that requires careful planning and execution.
Though a critical component of every school district, school safety management can be daunting for administrators for various reasons.
Let's review a few:
Communication: One of the main challenges is ensuring that all students and staff are aware of safety protocols and procedures, as this requires constant training and communication, which can prove difficult to implement consistently.
Flexibility: The ever-evolving threats to school safety require constant monitoring and adaptation of new technologies and training scenarios.
Costs: Budget constraints and limited resources can make it challenging to implement comprehensive school safety systems and measures.
Overall, it takes a concerted effort from administrators, staff, and the community to prioritize and maintain a safe learning environment for everyone.
Building a School Safety Plan - 5 Essential Steps
Here are 5 best practices for implementing an effective school safety management system to ensure back-to-school safety stays a top priority.
1) Develop a comprehensive emergency response plan
Your emergency response plan should outline the procedures everyone must follow in an emergency, such as
Natural disasters
Intruders
Other dangerous situations
The plan should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it is practical, relevant to new possible threats, and understood by all staff members.
2) Conduct regular safety drills
Safety drills are a critical component of school safety management. Drills need to be conducted regularly to ensure that everyone in the school community understands the emergency procedures and what to do next.
Safety drills should also be realistic and cover various emergency scenarios.
3) Implement effective communication systems
All schools should have a communication plan that includes multiple communication channels, including:
Phone
Email
Text messaging
The plan should also include procedures for communicating with parents and the local community, including first responders.
4) Monitor and control access to the school
Controlling access to the school is another critical aspect of school safety management. All schools need a system to monitor and control access to all buildings on campus or in the district.
Your control access system may include security cameras, key card access, or other technologies that can help to keep unauthorized individuals out.
5) Provide ongoing safety training
By providing ongoing training, administrators and their teams can ensure that everyone in the school community is prepared to respond to emergencies and is equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to keep the school environment safe.
This training should cover a variety of topics, such as
Emergency procedures
First aid
Conflict resolution
The Ultimate School Safety Management System
Looking for a simple yet effective way to quickly initiate emergency plans and communicate to all individuals in the facility? What about managing emergency condition statuses in various parts of the building while creating a sense of security for all individuals inside?
vIDix Aware is your one-stop solution for school crisis management.
What Is vIDix Aware?
Though developed with schools in mind, Aware's crisis management system can be used in any business. The software allows users to quickly initiate an incident via web application from a phone, tablet, or computer.
How It Works
A facility or staff member of the school can communicate an incident or potential threat throughout a facility or school district. The employees or staff assigned to specific areas can respond to the incident with their current status.
All statuses are then gathered and displayed for an administrator to see with color indicators on a map for a big-picture view of the unfolding emergency.
In the case of a fire, everyone would know immediately where the fire is located and how best to evacuate.
As the administrator, you can also send messages back and forth with the responding staff to get more details or send pertinent information.
If first responders need to intervene, vIDix Aware will send them an email or text message with a link that allows them to view the same information as the administrators.
The facility map will have visual indicators to help responders understand exactly what is happening.
Finally, after an incident has been mobilized, a comprehensive report of all communication can be accessed.
Funding & Grants Focused on School Safety
The Greenlights Grant Initiative assists schools in obtaining school safety funding to install life-saving safety measures, allowing those with limited staff and budget constraints to improve campus security through the installation of:
Security cameras
Alarm systems
Other safety equipment
The program is open to all schools, and funding is awarded based on the school's needs and the severity of their safety issues. By providing school funding for safety measures, the Greenlights Grant Initiative is helping to ensure that our schools are safe places for students, teachers, and staff.
How to Apply for Funding
If you are interested in the Greenlights Grant Initiative, you can start by visiting their website and browsing through the list of available grants. While there, you'll discover important details about grants from various government agencies, including:
The Department of Justice
The Department of Health and Human Services
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
The Department of Education
To help school districts apply for and secure federal funding, the Greenlights Grant Initiative also provides various helpful resources, such as webinars, how-to guides, and more.
Superior Support When Seconds Matter
With new laws and funding available, more schools have implemented shotgun sensors to improve emergency response time. vIDix Aware can automatically start an event based on a gunshot at a school while notifying faculty and staff.
Once a gunshot sound is detected, one or multiple actions can be triggered such as initiating a lockdown along with a pre-recorded intercom message being played.
Besides gunshot sensors, vIDix Aware can also integrate with other hardware such as a push button at reception desk or a pendant around a teachers’ neck to initiate an event.
Why Choose vIDix Aware?
vIDix Aware is more than a school alert system. It's an all-in-one security solution. Customers can use the application on a phone, tablet or computer to start an event.
If a person sees a student with a deadly weapon and does not have their cell phone, they could walk up to an Aware Terminal placed in the school’s common areas to start an event thereby triggering mass communication of danger.
The Aware Terminals require faculty and staff to first authenticate themselves before displaying the configured events. Authentication can be done using the following methods:
Technology card
Fingerprint scan
Entering PIN number
Combining 2 of the authentication methods
Ready to Schedule a Demo?
Schools should be safe places where students can learn and grow without fear of harm. In today's world, however, threats to school safety come in many forms. Therefore, by implementing effective safety protocols and procedures, administrators can help prevent these threats and keep their schools secure.
If you'd like to learn more about vIDx Aware and how this school safety management system can support your building or district, contact us at sales@bankoe.com or 952-888-6688 for more information.
Together, we can ensure back-to-school safety is a reality for everyone!