3 School Communication Challenges an Emergency Notification System Solves

When your Sugar Land, TX school system is responsible for the care and well-being of thousands of students, good communications at all levels of the school hierarchy is essential. Ask yourself these questions:

• Can your school quickly and effectively communicate events internally to staff, faculty, and students?
• Can your school quickly and effectively communicate events externally to law enforcement, medical personnel, and the surrounding community?
• Can your school quickly and efficiently communicate events district-wide if necessary?

 Having practical communication tools in place is a vital part of school safety and security plans. A robust emergency notifications system can help close communication gaps in the areas listed above. Keep reading to learn more.

SEE ALSO: Provide Support for Safety Staff With Automated School Security Systems

Internal Staff/Faculty Communications

Implementing an emergency notifications system that teachers, staff, and administrators can access from a mobile device or computer browser promotes better internal communications for emergency and non-emergency situations. Administrative staff can easily send templated reminders to faculty about upcoming half days, school closures, or fire drills. Faculty members can use a mass notifications platform to report absences, student injuries, and other incidents that require an administrator’s attention.

During an emergency, mass notifications can help school staff launch a coordinated strategy to keep students safe. Administrators can quickly alert teachers to lock down their classrooms. Two-way communication allows teachers to send messages, videos, and check-in statuses as needed during a critical incident.

External Emergency Response Communications

Time is essential when an emergency like an active shooter event, medical emergency, or weather emergency occurs. When every second counts, a time-consuming telephone call to 911 could make a life-or-death difference. An emergency notifications system allows school administrators to tap one button that alerts all necessary personnel simultaneously to a critical event. This could include law enforcement, medical personnel, the fire station, and district officials. The same notification can also alert internal staff, the surrounding community, and parents to outline the procedures they need to follow. Modern notification systems with mobile apps enable administrators to react instantly to an emergency no matter where they are on campus.

District-Wide Communications

Implementing a district-wide mass notifications system vastly improves communication between schools in the same district. School administrators don’t have time to spare to alert other schools in the area during an emergency. A centralized, district-wide system can send critical information and notifications between schools in an instant. Efficient information distribution enables surrounding schools to prepare their own staff for an impending emergency or organize resources and space to help a sister school facing a fire, gas leak, or active shooter situation.

ASAP Security Services has vast experience designing, installing, and integrating emergency notification solutions for K-12 schools across Texas. To learn more about school security systems, set up a consultation with our team by calling (877) 418-ASAP, filling out our contact form, or starting a live chat with us below. We look forward to working with you!