CENTEGIX | Education
South Carolina School Safety Standards
CENTEGIX | Education
South Carolina School Safety Standards
2022 Model Safe School Checklist
Each South Carolina student has the right to a free and safe education. South Carolina school alert systems are designed to protect the state’s young people while they learn. For generations, students have been taught to line up and walk outside for fire drills. They’ve also avoided windows as they sat down along the walls of interior hallways and covered their heads during tornado drills.
However, nature isn’t the only threat. The South Carolina State Board of Education released its 2022 Model Safe School Checklist on July 12, 2022. In addition to fire and tornado drills, the checklist included bomb threats and active school shooters.
According to South Carolina Law, school districts must perform a fire drill every month. Weather and active shooter/intruder drills are mandated to be conducted twice each year. Each district was encouraged to review its District Comprehensive Safety Plan for different scenarios to make sure South Carolina school safety solutions include plans for:
Prevention
Protection
Mitigation
Response
Recovery
South Carolina Coalition for Schools
After multiple tragedies in 2022, The Palmetto State Teachers Association, South Carolina Counseling Association, and South Carolina Association of School Psychologists joined forces with other associations to create the South Carolina Coalition for Schools.
The group created a School Safety Agenda for the 2022-23 academic year. The group’s five beliefs inspired this collection of South Carolina school safety solutions:
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- Every child in South Carolina has the right to grow and learn in schools and communities that are free of violence and fear.
- The creation of safe environments for children requires the coordinated and collaborative efforts of diverse groups and individuals.
- The factors that contribute to violence against children are multi-faceted and cannot be solved by any single policy action.
- The work to find policy solutions to keep children safe is urgent and is of critical importance to every South Carolinian.
- The enactment of each policy in our School Safety Policy Agenda holds the potential to be the solution that can save a single child from a single act of violence.
The Board of Education and coalition don’t agree on every proposed remedy, but it’s clear that important steps need to be taken to ensure the health and well-being of the state’s school children.
Crisis Management
South Carolina school safety solutions require a multi-pronged approach:
- Preparedness—an emergency response plan should be developed for all schools. Students, staff members, administrators, and law enforcement officials should be trained to understand what to do when an emergency occurs.
- Response—the FBI recommends a “Run Hide Fight” strategy that includes locking classroom doors to bar a potential shooter from entering.
- Recovery—after a shooting occurs, administrators must decide when to reopen the school, how to serve the emotional needs of students and staff, and how memorials should be handled.
Prevention and Intervention Programs—in addition to a threat-assessment program, districts should embrace anti-bullying education and a tiered approach to discipline that provides mental health care for troubled young people.
Security and Technology
Administrators, teachers, and other staff members should closely monitor access to school grounds. School resource officers provide extra layers of security. While patrolling around the campus on a daily basis, they develop a sense of who belongs on campus and who doesn’t.
The South Carolina Association of School Resource Officers was formed in 1996. Members gather together each year for training on how to handle potentially dangerous situations, so they can more effectively respond to minor and major events on campus.
In addition, some school district officials have considered hiring private security officers to prevent incidents from getting out of control.
In 2018, the South Carolina General Assembly set aside $15 million in lottery money to provide extra equipment for school resource officers. The money also could be used to upgrade South Carolina school safety solutions at buildings with upgrades including but not limited to:
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- door locks
- security cameras
- metal detectors
- lifesaving medical equipment
Grants for South Carolina School Safety Solutions
The U.S. Department of Education’s Project Prevent Grant Program provides funds to local educational agencies impacted by community violence. Grant applications must include
- the severity and magnitude of the problem and the identification of schools to be served
- plans for collaboration with community-based organizations
- activities designed to promote a safer school environment
- evidence-based, culturally and linguistically competent, and developmentally appropriate programs
- a framework for planning, implementation, and sustainability
The DOE also awards School Emergency Response to Violence grants. They provide short-term education-related services to schools recovering from violent or traumatic events. Learn more here.
Small Steps: Tackling the Safety Checklist
According to the 2022 Model Safe School Checklist, administrators should inspect the school grounds on a regular basis to ensure appropriate doors are locked, inside and outside lighting is working properly, and the PA system is ready in case of emergency.
School security isn’t about doing one thing. It’s about doing a lot of small things that add up to protect students and everyone else on campus. See how your school meets the checklist here.
How Are Your Resources Being Spent?
CENTEGIX protects over 11,500 schools across the country. We can protect your school, too.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™, featuring CrisisAlert™, accelerates your response to emergencies. We’ve built the CENTEGIX Safety Platform to support you in the single most critical factor of incident response: time. Because in an emergency, every second matters.
Discover federal resources to fund new safety and security initiatives in your district by exploring federal funding resources for school safety.
Customer Spotlight: Richland School District Two
Our first South Carolina school district, Richland School District Two recently held a media day to highlight the new CrisisAlert system, which is part of their new two-pronged approach to safety to empower their teachers and staff to call for help when they need it while keeping their students safe.
Check out how they’ve implemented the CENTEGIX CrisisAlert system and how it’ll make a difference in their community in this news video.
CENTEGIX | White Paper
The Impact of Safety on the Mental Health and Well-being of Staff and Students in K-12 Schools
When safety leads, success follows.
Hear from Our Educators
We engage with teachers and staff every day to understand how CrisisAlert supports them, and here’s what they’ve shared:
A student was having trouble breathing and her vision was beginning to black out. We don’t have service in our building and it can be difficult to get ahold of the office staff, so having something to immediately alert them of emergency was incredibly helpful in a very scary situation.
I had a student who was refusing to follow directions and became very defiant. This student was beginning to get aggressive. I used my badge to alert our campus security monitor to remove the student from the situation. It is a very useful tool when the response was as immediate as it was.
A student was having a severe panic attack, trouble speaking, crying, not able to answer my questions as to what was wrong with her. I used the device to call for administrative help and it worked like it was designed to. Help arrived in a matter of seconds. I saw firsthand how well it works.
The Safety Platform™ Meets Grant-Funded Safety Measures
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform is an emergency incident response safety system that features wearable panic buttons, digital mapping software, and reunification and visitor management capabilities and generates accurate, usable data. The Safety Platform solution uses visual strobes, digital messages, and automated intercom announcements to inform everyone of a campus-wide incident and to instruct them on actions they should take. The Safety Platform meets the security infrastructure needs the South Carolina school safety grants aim to address.
The Safety Platform features an analytics dashboard that assists administrators as they make safety and security decisions. A data set is generated when a staff member uses their wearable badge to request assistance. Administrators can better understand where and why and under what conditions. These administrative decisions, enabled by Platform data, contribute to the “positive and safe climate” that the safety grants aim to foster.
The CENTEGIX school safety platform provides robust and uninterrupted communication between staff members, administrators, first responders, and students. Unlike other emergency incident response systems, the Safety Platform’s technology precludes adoption and connectivity challenges. It runs on a dedicated IoT network; it’s not susceptible to Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity interruptions. And because the CrisisAlert mobile panic button is worn along with an ID badge, 100% of staff members use it. This high adoption rate means that every staff member at every location on campus can request help when they need it. CrisisAlert generates accurate location data for every alert, no matter where on campus. Therefore first responders know exactly where to go during an emergency. In many instances, this kind of rapid response can prevent tragedy.
These critical features of the CrisisAlert badge and Safety Blueprint from CENTEGIX ensure an immediate response:
Desktop takeover notifications for staff mean campus-wide alerts are never missed.
Location accuracy enables rapid response.
The system immediately connects the parties best prepared to handle the situation.
Wi-Fi and phone outages have no effect on the system.
Wearable security badges are easily accessible, lightweight, and wearable.
CENTEGIX Safety Platform can help school districts and LEAs enact these measures, making students and staff safer. The Safety platform school safety solution helps create a climate of safety by enabling staff members to request help immediately, from anywhere on campus, in any type of emergency. Under these conditions, teachers can focus on student needs, and students can focus on learning.
CENTEGIX is the leader in incident response solutions. Our Safety Platform is the fastest and easiest way for staff to request help in an emergency, from the everyday to the extreme. CENTEGIX innovates technology to empower and protect people, and leaders nationwide trust our safety solutions to provide peace of mind.
Discover the Safety Platform
Safety solutions that prioritize speed for the best outcome.
Mapping and locating capabilities provide the precise location—of emergencies, visitors, and safety assets.
A visitor management system screens and locates visitors on your campus.
Protocol development to plan for rapid incident response.
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert vs. Mobile Apps
CrisisAlert eliminates vulnerabilities related to app-only solutions and enables rapid incident response to all emergencies.
In an Emergency, You Need CrisisAlert™
Adverse situations can happen at any moment—from everyday crises such as medical emergencies, severe weather, and physical altercations to extreme situations that threaten your entire campus. The faster you get help to the right location, the better the outcome.
See how our CrisisAlert wearable mobile panic button empowers staff to get help instantly in an emergency.
Ready to Connect with a CENTEGIX Specialist to Learn More?
Alysse Daniels, M.Ed.
Senior RVP, Strategic Accounts
Phone: 404-202-3813
Email: adaniels@centegix.com
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Empower Your Educators
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