Addressing school safety needs and legislative requirements with FirstNet-approved apps

February 15, 2021

As attendance in our nation’s public schools starts to rebound, demands for school safety are gaining traction. Popular legislation, referred to as Alyssa’s Law, mandates that all public elementary and secondary school buildings be equipped with silent panic alarms that directly notify law enforcement.

FirstNet® and multiple pre-evaluated solutions in the FirstNet App Catalog now provide a cost-effective means for school districts, local governments, public safety agencies, and law enforcement to prepare and comply with school safety recommendations.

The legislation is named after Alyssa Alhedeff, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool in Parkland, Fla., and one of the 17 people who lost their lives Feb. 14, 2018 in a mass school shooting perpetrated by a former student.  To date, the law has been passed in New Jersey on Feb. 6, 2019 and in Florida on June 30, 2020. And it’s in various stages of the legislative process in New York and Nebraska. Alyssa’s law also was introduced as a bill in Congress Oct. 4, 2019 (HR4606 and HR3665). You can find more information and regular updates about the law and its progress at Make Our Schools Safe. 

First responders, and the many professionals who support them, depend on FirstNet to keep them connected in the field. That connectivity is ever more vital when an incident threatens the welfare of our children and their caregivers. When seconds count, the FirstNet ecosystem amplifies connections via Apps that afford on-scene intelligence, automated 911 calls, and alerts to on- and off-duty officers in proximity of a school emergency. 

The FirstNet App Catalog has multiple solutions that help enable your important work in protecting our schools. Every mobile app in the FirstNet Catalog is vetted, tested and confirmed as relevant, highly-secure and reliable, so you know they’re dependable. Below are some of the apps that help first responders keep our children, school staff and themselves safe.

• Guard911
  
  Guard911 has a robust suite of four relevant Apps. SchoolGuard is tailored for public and private K-12 schools. CampusGuard911 is for higher educational institutions. And Guard911 is for commercial businesses, churches, government buildings, and other organizations. These FirstNet approved apps are all complemented by a novel solution and App called Hero911.  While the School, Campus, and Business 911 Apps provide for panic buttons and instant 911 communications, Hero911 notifies all emergency personnel – on or off duty – in proximity of the building to reduce response time. Hero911 is the only federally approved App of its kind allowed for federally issued devices which provides immediate situational awareness originating from a protected Guard911 property.
  
  
• Rave Mobile Safety
  
  Rave Mobile Safety offers the widely used Panic Button solution that helps school officials protect students, faculty and staff members. Features include:
  
  a. Staff Assist, for minor medical accidents or administrative updates
  
  b. Status Checks, to prioritize emergency response during crisis
  
  c. And direct connection to 9-1-1, which triggers an active assailant, fire, or more with the single click of a button.
  
  Rave’s critical communication and collaboration platform is trusted by more than 10,000 K-12 schools, including statewide deployments in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Delaware, and New Mexico. Some 3,500 communities and state agencies, and 1,600 corporations nationwide also use Rave. It empowers users to react quickly, enhancing response times, situational awareness, and communication throughout the course of an event.
  
  
• CrisisGo offers its CrisisGo App.
  
  CrisisGo offers its CrisisGo App. With the crisis response platform you can execute important communications options during an emergency; call 9-1-1 to send a panic signal to a specific group of team members, or send an alert to all CrisisGo users on campus. These critical communication tools are available on most devices, but their partnership with Sonim Technologies lets users execute their choice more efficiently by leveraging the red button on the side of the Sonim XP8, ultra-rugged, FirstNet Ready™ smartphone.  Request more information at CrisisGo + Sonim.   

Check out our FirstNet App Catalog Booklet and online FirstNet App Catalog to find other valuable mobile tools.