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Does Your School District Utilize A Panic Button During Emergencies?
Michelle Vroom's Blog Page
Does Your School District Utilize A Panic Button During Emergencies?
Posted 4/28/2014 at 4:33:57 PM by Michelle Vroom [System User]
Some school districts and even states are now requiring panic buttons to be installed in school buildings. Some states are also offering a grant program to help schools add this additional safety feature.
For example, The North Carolina General Assembly mandated that every public school must have a panic alarm system installed by July 2015. Read more here.
This is a great safety improvement for schools, but a static location for these buttons may not always be helpful in certain emergency situations. Whether there is one per building or one per classroom, they may not always be safely accessible by the time someone is alerted of the emergency. Other district's are exploring options that are remote but tend to be very costly so the devices per building are minimal.
Instant Connect offers a panic button that can be accessed from anyone’s mobile device. This allows access to many more individuals at any location within the school grounds as long as they have their mobile device on them. A teacher can simply text a message to a specific phone number stored in their phone which automatically notifies the designated group—whether it be all staff members or a smaller emergency response team.
The panic button option can be utilized for several different kinds of emergency situations including school shootings, inclement weather and health hazards.
This solution comes with many other features that save time and resources through instant mass voice, SMS text and email messages at all levels within an educational organization.
Many K-12 public, private or charter schools and districts use it to increase parent, student and community engagement too.