School administrators and staff deal with large and small emergencies day in and day out. School safety plans safeguard students and staff throughout all types of crises by creating predictable and effective procedures that are implemented quickly when emergencies occur.
Certainly, schools must plan for urgent emergencies like severe weather events and incidents of violence. But a school safety plan should also include measures to protect students and staff during day-to-day events. By responding to medical emergencies, behavioral interventions, and other common incidents faster, admins create a culture of support and safety administrators create a culture of safety that builds trust among students and staff.
In today’s schools, maintaining a strong culture of safety is more crucial than ever. In 2023 alone, 348 school shootings occurred on school campuses in the US. As a result, 249 K-12 students were injured or killed on school property. While violence can never directly be prevented, preparation and planning can help shorten response times.
School safety plans that focus primarily on extreme emergencies are often less attentive to everyday scenarios. Day in and day out, school staff must intervene in physical altercations between students, triage medical emergencies, pursue elopements, and de-escalate behavior incidents. An effective school safety plan must create a culture of safety that safeguards students and teachers during these incidents, too. The ideal school safety plan is, therefore, a comprehensive, multilayered approach that provides support during all types of incidents.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ is the foundation of a multilayered school safety plan. The Safety Platform uses innovative technologies to reduce response times to both emergencies and everyday incidents. By making the Safety Platform the foundation of their school safety plan, administrators empower staff and protect everyone on campus.
What Is a School Safety Plan?
There is no one ideal school safety plan. Rather, each district and school should identify its needs, existing mandates, and existing infrastructure. Other factors, including a school’s student and staff population and school culture, should also be taken into account when creating a safety plan. But all school safety plans should provide a holistic safety framework that takes different types of situations into account.
Critical elements of a school safety plan include:
- prevention strategies
- school maps and floor plans
- Safety equipment lists
- up-to-date staff member rosters that include staff responsibilities during emergencies
- safety policies and protocols
School safety solutions should also be attentive to several areas of campus operations:
- Train staff on safety protocols.
- Educate students how to engage with safety protocols.
- Ensure reporting systems are established for reporting potential or ongoing incidents.
- Develop protocols for assessing potential threats.
- Craft emergency response plans for what should occur before, during, and after a crisis.
- Perform property inspections and assessments to determine the safety and integrity of school buildings and grounds.
- Implement systems for communicating with first responders and parents during and after critical incidents.
In addition, reunification and recovery are critical elements of any school safety plan. Schools should implement systems that enable students to be reunited with their guardians quickly and orderly after an emergency. In the longer term, schools should make recovery plans.
The best recovery plans address infrastructure repair, financial recovery, working to minimize learning loss, and mental health care for students and staff. A comprehensive school safety plan takes the long view of school safety and works to mitigate harm before, during, and long after school emergencies.
Prevention
Although eliminating emergencies is impossible, schools with robust prevention strategies can mitigate harm. This creates safer schools and more stable learning environments. When staff know that their safety and security are a priority, they are better able to focus on student learning. And when students feel safe, they are better able to learn.
Assessing the Building and Safety Equipment
Safe schools control access to their buildings and grounds. Making schools safe for students, staff, and visitors means implementing safety strategies on school grounds.
Staff should perform assessments for physical safety. These include checking the grounds, playground equipment, and environmental factors (such as air and water quality). The structural stability of the school building and factors that affect accessibility should also be assessed. These assessments reveal whether security equipment, such as door locks, should be implemented.
Managing Technology
School administrators can leverage school safety technology to gain insight into potential risks. To gain high-quality insight, school safety software must provide accurate data that can be easily collected, managed, and leveraged. This data can be used to inform future safety protocols, identify weaknesses in a school safety plan, and meet reporting requirements.
Increasingly, schools are utilizing the latest safety planning technologies. These technologies include AI-driven facial recognition software, passive body scanning, and biometric access control. Emergency alert apps are a very common tool in use in American schools. Staff use these phone apps to report ongoing incidents and emergencies as well as safety and security threats. However, research shows that app-based school alert systems introduce complications that can slow response times.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™ offers an effective alternative to emergency alert apps. This wearable mobile panic button empowers staff to remove the barriers that can get in the way of effective emergency communication like Wi-Fi signal strength, cellular coverage and having a phone on your person at all times.
Teachers who have used CrisisAlert testify to its effectiveness. One Florida elementary school teacher described an incident: “During an ELA lesson, students from the neighboring classroom came running over shouting ‘Our teacher needs help! Someone is having a seizure!’ I quickly pressed my badge three times, and the administration came running. Thanks to the CrisisAlert badge, the student was able to receive help quickly and safely while their teacher was able to support them and help them during their episode.”
Administrators working to create school safety plans should assess their technology by considering the following questions:
- Does school safety technology facilitate clear communication between faculty, staff, administrators, and the community?
- Does the technology promote rapid response by law enforcement and first responders?
- Is the technology designed to support risk assessment and emergency prevention and response?
Student Education and Resources
Teachers and administrators are on the educational frontlines and see the potential safety risk factors every day. A multilayered school safety plan includes prevention strategies that educate staff members about risk factors and behaviors and empower them to report these to administrators.
Prevention strategies also include classroom management about safety protocols. Students should practice emergency procedures such as fire drills or other evacuations, lockdowns, lockouts, and shelter-in-place scenarios. They can also be encouraged to report suspicious behavior, threats, and incidents they witness or experience.
Schools should also make psychological safety a foundational part of their school safety plans. They should implement curricula that support student learning and emotional safety. Mental health support for students and families is fundamental to creating a culture of safety in schools.
Communication is also key to creating a culture of safety. Schools should communicate safety protocols, expectations, and rules for student conduct through various channels including emails, voicemails, digital newsletters, and printed materials.
Preparation
School staff must know how to respond during emergencies. Administrators creating school safety plans should consider the following:
- Is everyone made aware and understands when an emergency is occurring?
- Does everyone on school grounds know what to do when an incident occurs?
- Are the steps easy to understand and implement?
- Have staff teams practiced what to do during an emergency?
CENTEGIX conducted a comprehensive analysis of CrisisAlert customers’ usage data to better understand the nature of school safety incidents. The results reveal what types of emergencies occur in schools and illuminate educators’ experiences when comprehensive safety plans are in place.
School staff members unanimously support safety planning. The CENTEGIX survey analysis indicates that medical emergencies and behavioral incidents make up a majority (98%) of crisis alerts. Teachers and staff also continue to face the threat of school violence, and rates of safety incidents in schools have continued to rise. Safety planning and security resources are, therefore, essential for rapid response during emergencies.
Staff and Faculty Training
School staff should be trained in safety protocols. This training can include:
- first aid and CPR
- student behavior interventions
- discipline procedures
- orientation to security and safety technologies
- threat assessment
- specific school safety protocols
In some states, safety drills are required in schools. To facilitate effective drills, administrators should identify staff members and assign appropriate roles. This ensures that everyone is clear about their responsibilities.
As a result, all school staff will know what to do whether they face an injured child on the playground or a full campus lockdown. A comprehensive school safety plan specifies what protocol to implement in every scenario, which responders to call, and how to manage students.
Keeping Parents Informed
Parents should be made aware of how schools plan to keep their children safe.
A new Gallup poll shows that parents of school-aged children still worry about protecting their children: 38% of parents surveyed fear for their child’s safety at school. One in seven parents say their child has expressed school safety concerns.
Schools can help parents feel more secure by sending emails, text alerts, and other communications. These communications should inform parents about the school’s safety practices and protocols, upcoming safety events, current data about school safety effectiveness, and resources available to parents and their children. By seeking parent involvement and implementing feedback when developing safety plans, administrators bring parents onto the team helping to keep students safe.
Removing Barriers to a Fast Response
When an emergency occurs, every second matters. Administrators should prioritize removing any existing barriers to resolving safety crises.
An effective school safety plan should include a streamlined, direct method of reporting incidents. Wearable emergency response buttons are simpler and more reliable than cell phone-based apps. CENTEGIX CrisisAlert’s wearable badge empowers staff to instantly and discreetly request help from administrators, resource officers, or others from anywhere on campus.
Response
The best response protocols are accessible to staff, focused on initiating specific actions, and simple to learn and perform.
Before a crisis occurs, school staff needs to know:
- who to inform about an incident
- how to inform the right people and when
- when to involve 911
- evacuation and reunification locations
- lockdown criteria
- when and how to contact student guardians
A Florida principal described her school’s experience with CENTEGIX CrisisAlert: “The CENTEGIX badges have been a game changer for us. There have been multiple situations, including seizures, a dislocated knee, an allergic reaction, a couple of classroom altercations, and a threatening individual, that have prompted staff to use the three-button press. Our staff response time is significantly shorter with this tool. Responders reach the incident location in 30 seconds or less, regardless of the location on campus. Thankfully we haven’t had a need to use the tool for a full school lockdown as of yet, but I’m sure it will happen, and when it does, we will be ready. The decision to move to CENTEGIX was, in my opinion, a great one.”
Crisis Response
What circumstances lead to an early dismissal or a school cancellation? When should the school go on lockdown, and when should it be evacuated? When should students and staff take shelter, and where? An effective crisis response plan will answer these questions.
The CENTEGIX school safety survey found that student conduct accounted for most emergency alerts. In Spring 2023, incident alerts fell into several categories:
- 84% student conduct of which
- 66% were identified as behavior incidents
- 13% were physical altercations
- 5% were incidents of elopement
- 12% medical
- 2% campus threat
- 2% suspicious behavior
Each of these types of incidents mandates specific responses. As such, school safety plans should identify decision-makers and assign specific actions for protecting students and staff.
When emergencies occur, it’s imperative to have an emergency response team prepared, trained, and rehearsed in its duties. Each member’s responsibilities during a crisis should be laid out in the school safety plan. Designation of responsibility ensures students and faculty know who will do what during an emergency.
One Georgia high school teacher describes how CENTEGIX technology empowers teachers to intervene in potential emergencies: “I received a tip from a student that a peer was threatening to bring a gun to the school. I hit my button three times to alert the administration, and they were at my door in seconds.”
Visitor Management
To make emergency response as quick and streamlined as possible, school staff should be aware of who is present on school grounds at all times. Critical questions for administrators creating safety plans include:
- How do visitors and volunteers enter the building?
- Is there a specific, secure entry point?
- Has staff been thoroughly trained to manage school entry points?
- Is everyone on campus accounted for?
CENTEGIX Visitor Management facilitates check-in and authentication of visitors. Using Enhanced Visitor Management, schools can view visitors on the digital campus map and
monitor visitors’ time and whereabouts while on school grounds. This CENTEGIX technology can be used to locate all types of visitors—volunteers, contractors, parents, visiting guests, and community members—in real-time.
Critical Incident Mapping
Increasingly, state legislatures are requiring critical incident mapping technology in schools because it improves emergency response. This technology enables schools to create maps of their school grounds. These maps typically include safety assets, evacuation routes, locations of first aid supplies and AEDs, and any other information first responders need to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies.
CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint is a dynamic digital critical incident mapping system that empowers schools to optimize incident response and safety planning. Using this technology, school staff can:
- define and customize school safety plans
- quickly share campus maps
- update safety asset locations and details
- perform safety assessments quickly
- meet reporting requirements
Reunification and Post-Crisis Response
Schools must implement protocols for communicating with parents during and after an incident. Best practices following emergencies in schools emphasize that recovery should start when a crisis begins; reunification is the first step in this recovery. The “I Love U Guys” Foundation provides guidance and support for schools developing reunification plans and post-crisis response plans. The organization asserts that standard response protocol should be action-based, flexible, and easy to learn.
A school safety plan must include procedures for reuniting parents with their children following an incident where children must be released unexpectedly. This plan should be developed in collaboration with district safety teams, emergency managers, and other public safety officials.
Districts should also establish a process for assessing the incident’s impact on students and staff and determining how best to support them with resources. Post-emergency support may include:
- educational classroom resources
- mental health services such as grief and trauma counseling
- referrals to other community resources for staff, students, and families
Alyssa’s Law
Alyssa’s Law is legislation designed to accelerate law enforcement response times during emergencies at public schools. The law requires that all public elementary and secondary school facilities install silent panic alarms that can immediately alert law enforcement of an ongoing emergency. The law was named in honor of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting victim Alyssa Alhadeff.
Alyssa’s Law passed in New Jersey, Florida, New York, Texas, Tennessee, and Utah. Lawmakers in Arizona, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have introduced Alyssa’s Law for consideration. Alyssa’s Law has also been introduced on the federal level.
Read more about your state’s legislation on Alyssa’s Law here.
School safety laws like Alyssa’s Law encourage school districts to create a safety framework that empowers staff to respond quickly to any type of emergency. In schools that comply with Alyssa’s law, staff can request assistance from medical and law enforcement first responders with the push of a button.
A More Efficient Tool for School Safety
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform, featuring CrisisAlert, creates a culture of safety in schools nationwide. When every second matters, CENTEGIX gives schools the most critical factor in incident response: time.
The Safety Platform’s solutions work together to create the foundation of a multilayered school safety plan. These solutions include:
- CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™ wearable emergency badge empowers staff to quickly and discreetly request help with the push of a button.
- CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint™ is a digital, dynamic critical incident mapping tool that pinpoints the location of the emergency and the location of all safety assets.
- CENTEGIX Enhanced Visitor Management system allows staff to check in, authenticate, and locate visitors in real time.
- CENTEGIX Reunification technology digitizes reunification to prioritize efficiency and communication and helps staff regain control in emergencies.
CENTEGIX school safety technologies operate on a privately managed network and allows schools to integrate into their existing school technology infrastructure. The Safety Platform features a dashboard that makes safety information accessible to staff and provides actionable data to inform safety policies and resource allocation.
Visit CENTEGIX today to learn more about how CENTEGIX solutions can become an integral part of your school’s comprehensive school safety plan.
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CENTEGIX® is the industry leader and largest wearable safety technology provider for K-12 education with over 600,000 badges in use. The cloud-based CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ initiates the fastest response time for emergencies campus-wide. Leaders in over 11,500 locations nationwide trust CENTEGIX’s innovative safety solutions to empower and protect people (every day).
