Meeting stringent drill requirements, identifying dangerous visitors, vetting and managing school volunteers, being equipped to respond to emergencies, and protecting communities against COVID-19 are just some of the increasingly complex school safety needs that districts must address. Below we discuss how Raptor empowers schools to address these needs and which federal and state funding sources have grants that directly relate to Raptor integrated school safety solutions.
Federal Funding Sources
- The Department of Homeland Security’s State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) supports state, tribal, territorial, and local preparedness activities that address gaps in terrorism preparedness, including risk management for protection programs and activities.
- The School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV) grant through the U.S. Department of Education funds short-term and long-term education-related services to help schools recover from violent or traumatic events in which learning environments have been disrupted.
- The Rural and Low-Income School Program provides rural and low-income districts with funding to improve student achievement, including improving school safety.
- The School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) within U.S. Department of Justice provides funds for technology that expedites notification of local law enforcement during an emergency, as well as other school safety solutions.
- The Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence program that is offered through the Bureau of Justice Assistance provides funding for solutions that help prevent and/or respond to school violence.
- Specific to COVID-19 response, U.S. Congress passed the CARES Act, which provided $13.2 billion to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to help K-12 schools purchase solutions to help with COVID-19’s impact.
State Funding Sources
There are 28 state education departments that offer school safety program grants that fund safety technologies. Examples of these include Tennessees Safe Schools Act, the Pennsylvania Safe Schools Grant, and the Indiana Secured School Safety Grant (SSSG) Program. For more information on the funding available in your state, contact your state education department.
Purchasing Raptor with Grant Funding
Addressing your complex school safety needs does not have to be daunting you just need the right solutions in place. Raptor Technologies an uncompromising ally to over 32,000 K-12 schools nationwide provides the only integrated school safety platform that empowers schools to keep unsafe individuals out, be prepared and know how respond to any emergency, screen and approve volunteers, and confidently respond to COVID-19. Many grant requirements directly relate to these core components:
- Keeping unsafe individuals out like registered sex offenders or banned visitors and knowing precisely who is in your schools are essential steps to increase safety. Schools that rely on outdated paper-and-pencil visitor logs have no way of confirming a visitors identity and level of threat to your students and staff. Raptor Visitor Management used by more schools than all other providers combined screens for sex offenders and alerts staff of custom violations so you can be confident that you are only allowing approved, safe individuals into your school.
- Being prepared and knowing how to respond to any emergency is critical. Raptor Emergency Management integrates all phases of school safety preparation, response, and recovery to give schools complete line of sight during drills, active emergencies, and post-incident reunification. The system includes Raptor Alert, a mobile panic button solution and emergency notification system that expedites awareness and response to localized incidents and school- or district-wide emergency situations. Raptor Emergency Management also enables schools to monitor the status of every student and staff member, access EOPs and building floor plans, and reunify students with caregivers 4x faster.
- Screening and approving school volunteers, especially those who work directly with your students, is imperative. Raptor Volunteer Management, which can include background checks for all applicants, enables you to confidently know if an applicant is safe and should be granted access to your students, staff, and school. The system also makes managing the entire volunteer program from application, recruiting, and reporting more efficient.
- Helping schools protect their students, staff, and communities from COVID-19. Raptor empowers schools to pre-screen students before each school day, keep visitors with exposure risk out, minimize contact between staff and visitors through contactless check-in, facilitate contact tracing, streamline distribution, manage and schedule cleaning services, and approve virtual volunteers.
Although fully capable of operating as stand-alone solutions, our products integrate with each other and sync with your student information system to ensure that you remain in complete control and have full line of sight to everyone and every incident in your schools every day.
For grants listed here, view the funding sources website for funding availability, eligibility requirements, and more information. Note that grant deadlines and availability may differ each year.
For more information on how you can purchase Raptor with grant funding, contact us.
