Raptor Helps Ropes ISD Close Communication Gaps and Track Campus Sign-Ins

In this case study, we’ll look at how RISD partnered with Raptor to close the gaps in their visitor and emergency management procedures— and how they helped shift their community’s culture surrounding school safety.

“If you want to increase the safety and security of your school, Raptor is the way to go. Not only does it help with your Visitor Management system and keeping records, but it also has the Emergency Management component that is simple to use. Raptor has always been very good with customer service, and the system itself streamlines everything for you.”

Ron Rincones, SRO at Ropes ISD

The Challenge

Visitor & Student Uncertainties

Using the pen-and-paper method to track sign ins and outs in the office—both for students as well as visitors created uncertainty and challenges around who was or wasn’t on campus, and it was difficult to track student attendance records and thereby recognize a pattern.

Tracking & Managing Drills

Having a system that communicated well with their student information system (SIS) was important—it improved their ability to account for students during emergencies. Having a safety system with a strong track record in customer service was equally important; it would mean they’d have a true partner in their district’s safety.

Communicating Severe Weather Delays

Communicating information about severe weather delays required sending a text to 20 members of the school staff, who would then relay that message to their assigned departments. If someone in the original message group overlooked the text, their whole department would not be informed of the situation.

How Raptor Helped

By implementing Raptor Visitor Management, RISD is able to easily see who has signed in to be on campus—critical information in an emergency and they have the peace of mind knowing each visitor’s identification has been cleared against the sex offender databases of all 50 states as well as RISD’s own custom databases, such as custodial rights.

Drill Management with Emergency Management

Keep track of all drills and provide feedback to teachers and students on performance
Schedule drills in advance and receive reminders to help with compliance requirements
Review automatic reports that show your compliance with district requirements
Include volunteers and visitors in your drills

Team Assist Communication

By applying Raptor Team Assist, RISD can notify all school staff about weather delays—with one message. This streamlines the process and eliminates the possibility of any one department not receiving the update.

"We wrote everything down on paper—all our visitor logs and student sign in and out—and it really made issues of attendance a challenge. If a student signed out every day for 10 weeks, we would have to go through day after day after day of pages to prove it, or if a student signed out for an appointment, their teachers wouldn’t know that a student—who had been marked present in the morning—had signed out before their class period. With Raptor, it’s all in there. It goes into the app, and they’re marked absent."

Tim Carter Principal at Ropes High School

Ropes Independent School District serves 545 students; they house their PreK-12th grade students on one campus.

Approximately 35% of
their student population qualify as low socio-economic status.

About 40% of attendees transfer from the larger urban areas to attend the smaller, rural school system Ropes ISD provides.

Pen-And-Paper Sign In/Out
Documenting Drills
Attendance Tracking
Communication Challenges For Weather Delays

Raptor Visitor Management

Raptor Emergency Management

Streamline and Control the Visitor Sign-in Process While Maintaining a High Level Of Security–and Check Visitors’ Sex Offender
Easily Track Drills
Student Sign In/Out in Same System As Attendance
Team Assist Simplifies Communication