Addressing School Safety Concerns
While the school year may be winding down, the need to address how to enhance school safety concerns never ends. As schools and districts look for tools they can implement over the summer to provide a safer environment for students and staff when they return in the fall, Singlewire Software has released three key features in the latest InformaCast update to help achieve this goal.
1. Student Information System Integration
Schools and districts now have the ability to connect their Student Information Systems (SIS) with InformaCast. When connected, student, staff, and parent data from the SIS will be uploaded into InformaCast and automatically create users and distribution groups. This helps ensure InformaCast user data is up-to-date and accurate, helping manage students and ensure that everyone receives critical information. This feature can be used in place of the existing user loader tool available with InformaCast and provides a simpler and more streamlined process for adding users to the platform.
Note: This feature is currently limited to districts that intend to sync fewer than 20,000 students, parents, and teachers from their SIS. If your school is interested in using this feature before June 30, please contact [email protected].
2. Emergency Calling
More states are enacting Alyssa’s Law, which requires schools to be able to connect directly with their local public safety answering point (PSAP) in the event of an emergency. Schools and districts using InformaCast can now add emergency calling to their notifications for active assailants. This fulfills the requirements of Alyssa’s Law and can help first responders be aware of an incident and send help quickly.
Note: Schools and districts interested in using this feature should contact [email protected].
3. Visitor Aware Reunification Integration
During a critical event, being able to reunite students with guardians easily can help ease worries and resolve incidents. Singlewire Software recently acquired Visitor Aware, a visitor and student management solution for schools and districts. We are working to fully integrate these two solutions, and in this release, customers leveraging the Student Manager capabilities of Visitor Aware will be able to initiate a family reunification following the launch of an incident plan in InformaCast.
These are just a few of the updates available in this release of InformaCast that enhance school safety. For more details, customers should visit the Singlewire Support Community.