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Raptor Team Assist Helps Colchester Public School District Improve Emergency Communication

In this case study, we’ll look at how Colchester Public School District partnered with Raptor to strengthen their emergency communication— and how that communication enables them to be more efficient and effective with their localized incident response.
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It’s all about communication. If you don’t have a strong method for communicating across multiple departments, then Raptor is an excellent tool. Team Assist is just an all-around great, real-time, communication feature.

Officer Craig Scheel, SRO at Colchester Public School District, CT

The Challenge

Inability to notify specific teams for specialized incidents

In situations like a student in distress, staff might not be aware of who to contact or who has an existing relationship with the student.

Lack of direct communication between response teams

School personnel responding to localized incidents were not connected in real-time, leading to slow or disjointed responses.

Lack of tracking of localized incident responses

The traditional system they used prior to partnering with Raptor did not provide an easy way to track incident responses, so there was limited visibility into who was responding, what resources were needed, and whether an incident had been addressed.

How Raptor Helped

Real-time communication

“One of our most used Team Assist, is Student is Missing. It automatically notifies our roaming teachers or security staff as well as administrators so they can keep an eye on each situation. If a missing student incident ever goes beyond 30 minutes and our staff members are still unable to locate the student, we begin the escalation process. During this time, we rely heavily on the two-way messaging feature to communicate updates with each other.” Officer Craig Scheel, SRO at Colchester Public School District

Every day, staff encounter emergencies requiring a local response, such as a medical situation, a fight in the hallway or an injured student on the playground. Raptor Team Assist, which operates in the same manner as Raptor Alert, provides configurable alert types for localized incidents as well as their own distribution lists. For example, for an injured student on the playground, a distribution list would likely include the school nurse.

The Team Assist feature within Raptor Alert gives teachers and staff the power to request help for situations like student fights, irate visitors, or medical incidents. This sends alerts to a pre-determined group of staff and enables those involved to chat through group messaging.

And, critically, because Raptor Team Assist operates in the same manner as Raptor Alert, your staff won’t have to learn a new platform for everyday emergencies.

Customizable response teams

Everyday situations can escalate quickly without the presence of the appropriate personnel to identify and resolve the issue. The Team Assist feature within Raptor Alert gives teachers and staff the power to request help for situations like student fights, irate visitors, or medical incidents. This sends alerts to a pre-determined group of staff and enables those involved to chat through group messaging.

Group chats in Team Assist consisting of designated response teams ease stress and build confidence during an emergency by providing critical communication capabilities during the situation.

Example use case:

When a student was unable to communicate due to their distress, their teacher initiated a Team Assist. A staff member with a good relationship with the student saw the alert and was able to respond. “It allows people to self-identify if they are the resources we need. These staff members go, we leave the event open, and if they need extra support, then everybody else in a position to provide that support would be in the know.” Officer Craig Scheel, SRO at Colchester Public School District

Localized incident documentation

“Now that we heavily utilize the Raptor Alert Team Assist feature, we have specific staff members assigned to each type of Team Assist at each school, which gives us better visibility to what is pending, who is responding to it, and how long it remained active before someone closed it out.”

Because requests for assistance are documented within the Team Assist chat, CPSD staff have insight into the status of localized incidents, enabling them to direct resources and personnel response more effectively.

Colchester Public School District in Connecticut serves 2,185 students across four buildings.
  • Inability to notify specific teams for specialized incidents
  • Lack of direct communication between response teams
  • Delay in emergency notifications
  • Real-time communication
  • Customizable response teams
  • Localized incident documentation

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