The school safety system will be available this fall and entail a FirstNet-certified mobile app, wearable panic button and online portal designed by the telecommunications company Intrado, according to a news release Tuesday. Intended for wear by school administrators, teachers, bus drivers, coaches, club advisers or other staff members, the panic button delivers a haptic vibration when notifying 911 dispatchers and other school personnel.
The news release said the subscription-based service also has a secure two-way faculty chat function, and will integrate with school information systems that account for all students in emergency situations.
Matt Walsh, AT&T FirstNet assistant vice president, said setting up the system will require school customers to provide digitized versions of their building floor plans, classroom schedules, athletic team rosters and bus assignments so responders can be aware of everyone’s potential whereabouts in emergency situations.
“It allows schools to prepare for a crisis and manage a crisis,” Walsh said.
More than 26,000 public agencies across the country are part of AT&T's FirstNet network, Walsh said, including police and fire departments, ambulance services, utility companies and hospital emergency rooms.
Walsh added that the FirstNet school safety system will allow schools to customize some actions, such as automatically locking all doors in a building after an alarm is triggered or configuring video feeds in certain locations. It also has lower-level notification capabilities, to include reporting incidents of vandalism to school administrators, informing security guards of a potential fight in the hallways, or notifying appropriate personnel if a student’s psychological well-being is in question.
“They have the opportunity to determine what they want to happen at their school when the button is pushed,” Walsh said.
The news release said the FirstNet system is fully compliant with Alyssa’s Law, which requires classrooms to have silent panic alarms that are directly connected to law enforcement agencies. The law is in effect in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and Tennessee, and legislation is pending in other states, according to the website for the nonprofit Make Our Schools Safe.
