When students, teachers, and staff are in school—and when parents send their children to school—they expect the school to keep them safe from an array of threats like bad weather, acts of violence, student fights, and now COVID-19. A comprehensive Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) that outlines how your school will prepare for, respond to, and

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

Raptor Technologies®, a trusted partner to over 32,000 K-12 U.S. schools, has been having conversations with districts and schools throughout the pandemic to understand their needs and help them address COVID-19.  Conversations have focused on how schools will keep students and others with COVID-19 exposure risk out, facilitate contact tracing, distribute resources to students, and

COVID-19 has changed typical back-to-school plans and has caused schools around the nation to revisit many policies—from updating attendance requirements to reducing class sizes to changing visitor management procedures. However, one thing has remained the same: schools have an obligation to provide safe and secure learning environments for their students and staff. Knowing that students,

Limiting contact with visitors as they check into your school is a necessary step to keep your staff and students healthy and reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Raptor® Visitor Management system provides everything you need to screen visitors for COVID-19 exposure and facilitate contact tracing—while also enabling you to screen, track, and report on

School security software has made great inroads in the last five or six years, being adopted by increasing numbers of K−12 schools, yet a significant number of schools still rely on some form of handwritten, hard-copy visitor log to document and track school visitors, volunteers, and contractors. Keeping track of school visitors is essential, of

As states ease stay-at-home guidelines and school districts start to plan to reopen, one fact stands out: COVID-19 has not yet been defeated and the disease remains a threat to public health. Although efforts are fully underway to develop a vaccine, such protections do not yet exist, so precautions must still be taken and efforts

The COVID-19 pandemic may have altered your school’s typical volunteer plan. Volunteers for bake sales, for example, may no longer be needed—at least for the time being—but engaging your community through volunteerism is still a great way to promote and maintain a positive environment. While in-person or group volunteering events may have to be rescheduled,

On March 27, 2020, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The $2 trillion CARES Act relief package includes $30.75 billion for an Education Stabilization Fund, which provides flexibilities for states to respond to the pandemic. The Act includes two grant programs that

School closures and stay-in-place restrictions have placed huge demands on students, parents, administrators, and teachers. School officials and faculty have shown tremendous agility and dedication in adapting instruction, resource distribution, and meal delivery to keep meeting their students’ needs in the face of the pandemic. This flexibility and innovation,   occurring as it has within days

As the school year reaches its end and social distancing remains in effect, there is an increased focus on delivering personal items left behind and/or graduation items to students. This type of distribution, where items belong to specific students, can be difficult to manage and bring challenges such as: Ensuring items are delivered to the

In a recent webinar focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, a panel of industry leaders addressed considerations for school safety amongst school closures, as well as preparation for back to school. The four industry leaders include: Dr. Stephen Sroka, President of Health Education Consultants and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve

With thousands of school closures in response to COVID-19, The “I Love U Guys” Foundation®—a well-known school safety organization that provides research-based best practices to help schools respond to crises—realized it could modify its Standard Reunification Method™ (SRM) to meet schools’ needs for distributing critical resources to students, such as homework, learning devices, and meals.

COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, forcing schools to adjust their routines. Now, at the time of writing, some 124,000 K-12 schools are closed because of the pandemic, impacting at least 55 million students. Ensuring Students Receive What They Need Almost 30 million of our nation’s students rely on schools for nutritious meals, and

As COVID-19 continues to spread, schools around the world face the daunting challenge of keeping their students and staff safe. While most U.S. schools are closed, there are some schools that are still open, and even those that are closed to students can still be open to staff, visitors, or contractors. Schools must still take

Access Control vs. Visitor Management Systems A primary concern for educators and parents alike is a threatening intruder entering a school and endangering the lives of students and staff. Two key tools districts rely on to stop intruders are visitor management systems and access control systems. Although both systems help provide a safer environment by

A Streamlined Reunification Process Minimizes Fear and Chaos When a student finds himself in a crisis event at school, one of his first thoughts is getting to safety and finding his caregivers. Moreover, research shows that the sooner students are reunited with their caregivers, the less likely they are to suffer from symptoms of traumatic

This article originally appeared on WHNT 19News. To view the original article, click here. Jun 21, 2019   MADISON COUNTY, Ala. — The Madison County Board of Education is investing in some serious security for their schools. It’s a new system that keeps track of every visitor, where they are, who they are, and checks a

A School Security Checklist: Proven Practices to Help Strengthen K–12 School Security Districts continually review their school security roadmaps to better prepare for potential threats to student and staff safety — from unauthorized visitors, to fires, to possible natural disasters, up to and including violent intruders and active shooters — so we’ve compiled the following

What the Nation’s Largest School Districts Are Doing to Protect Students and Staff Recent mass shootings have again sparked a national debate on gun laws, mental health, and approaches and attitudes toward public safety. But for K-12 school districts across the country, protecting students and staff from dangerous intruders has never truly been a matter

Emergency Notification – and So Much More: The Raptor Emergency Management System Emergency Notification System For as long as people have faced potentially dangerous or even life-threatening situations, they have needed a way to communicate the presence of danger to their fellow citizens. In the modern day, television, radio, and civil defense sirens represent just

This article originally appeared on Fox 12News. To view the original article, click here. LAKE OSWEGO, OR (KPTV) – Lake Oswego schools are taking an extra step to make sure they know exactly who’s walking through their buildings, specifically sex offenders. “We need to do whatever we can to protect our kids, and to know who

877-772-7867 Facebook Twitter Linkedin Youtube Get Started Request A Quote 6 Tips for school violence prevention School violence can be prevented.  A predictable “pathway to violence” can be observed as school shooters plan out their attacks ahead of time, disclosing these plans through friends, social media, and assignments.  Often multiple adults are troubled by their

This article originally appeared on Times News. To view the original article, click here. Mar 12, 2019 BLOUNTVILLE — A visitor management system is in place at all 22 Sullivan County schools, a system also used in neighboring school systems including those in Kingsport and Johnson City. It is called the Raptor Visitor Management System, provided by

This article originally appeared on The Kansas city star. To view the original article, click here. Aug 19, 2018 Robert M. Atwell Jr., 40, of Marceline, Missouri WASHINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE A man accompanied a woman to a Tennessee elementary school early Monday morning to register her child for classes. It was the first day of school