Visitor Management System for Schools

It is unfortunate that our schools are on such high alert that they have to monitor and enhance their security to keep students, teachers, and administrators safe.  

School security has become a top concern for all given the prevalence of violence and threats of violence in schools of all grades. 

As more tragedies occur, the demand for the most comprehensive and robust school security technology is rising. 

Thankfully, technology provides the best solution to manage this challenge effectively through a visitor management system for schools.

Why Technology is the Best Visitor Management System

Though hiring the right, permanent staff is key, visitor management systems also empower accuracy by ensuring the timeliest responsiveness possible and seamless integration with law enforcement. 

It is critical to understand the evaluation criteria for school visitor management systems and identify the best ones that fit within your school and district’s culture, as well as within your state’s laws.

A solid school visitor management system ensures thorough and timely assessment of incoming visitors, guests, volunteers, vendors, and temporary employees.  

Visitor Management Systems Should Start at the Front Door

The school visitor management system may begin at the front door but permeates the entire building, providing a seamless dashboard that creates full and restricted access levels only to certain areas, while also alerting security and even law enforcement, of who may not be a welcome visitor on the premises.  

In order to evaluate the best visitor management system possible, it is paramount that basic components exist including a 

• video surveillance system,

• the ability to produce temporary ID badges, and

• perhaps even metal detectors.

A more sophisticated school visitor management system starts at the sign-in process, where registrations should be integrated with national criminal databases and with a background screening system that is preferably a police level background check.

Visitor identity checks should not only include government issued identifications that are scanned, but also

• biometric technology for additional authentication that includes fingerprinting,

• recognition of palms and faces,

• scanners for concealed and exposed weapons, and

• reporting.

Visitor Management Systems Should Always Evolve

The most innovative school visitor management technology is always evolving. 

Additional elements that include real-time arrest alerts, geofencing, and the ability to alert internal security and law enforcement within seconds, are also key factors to determine how advanced the visitor management system is.

Training staff is also a priority. 

Click here for more on visitor management systems for schools

The best visitor management systems for schools are not only software based, but also leverage proprietary hardware that has been created by only a few of the best in the industry.

Finally, working with the right visitor management technology system run by the best, most seasoned and experienced professionals with direct experience in law enforcement, government, security, and the military is also a pivotal differentiator. 

Safe Hiring Solutions is founded by a former violent crime detective. 

Challenges with Visitor Management Systems 

Despite advances in technology, there remain challenges that include:

• A lack of awareness that these systems even exist for schools

• Varying state laws

• Differing challenges and priorities among stakeholders

• Budget constraints

• School, district & government agency bureaucracy

• A lack of infrastructure to support new technology, e.g. legacy systems, processes and procedures that need to be streamlined and even replaced by technology

Visitor Management Systems for Schools

Parents and communities are demanding that school administrators do everything they can to prevent future shootings like the ones in Parkland, Florida, Santa Fe, Texas, and Newtown, CT.  

School districts and government agencies often have severe budget constraints prohibiting them from using the most state-of-the-art technology.  

In the end, it’s ultimately up to the schools themselves to weigh the pros and cons and intricacy of a visitor management system implementation that will screen visitors and keep people safe.  

While visitor management technology is still evolving and is not 100% preventative, it is the best preventative measure available today to keep our schools safe 

If there is anything we have learned from these terrible tragedies, it’s that every second counts and visitor management systems are the one solution we have at our fingertips to ensure school safety. 

For more on how you can implement visitor management systems for schools, click here.

How to Make Schools Safer With A School Visitor Check-In System

It was a call that no parent wants to get – even a parent who is a seasoned retired policeman who also happens to lead a national safety company.  But the call came through.  

There was an intruder alert at my son’s school – just two weeks into the new school year.  However, much to my relief, it ended up being a “safe” person after-all.  

Yet, the alert jarred me.  And, to be completely honest, it upset me.  

I was mad that my child, as well as all the other students and teachers, had to be frightened and go through lockdown procedures (not knowing immediately that it would end up being a “safe” person).  

I was mad about something else too – my son’s school had an old “buzzer” entry system that didn’t even have a camera!  

The Lack Of School Visitor Check-In Systems

Out of curiosity, I investigated if any other schools had an intruder alert in this, the beginning of the school year.  

I was shocked to see that ALL but five states in our country had either an intruder alert or a threat of school violence in the first two weeks of the new school year!  

And, just as troubling, I found out that the majority of public schools in our nation have nothing more than an antiquated “buzzer” entry system – some with a camera and some without.

This is unacceptable in a nation that has the most technologically advanced security systems available in the world.

The Importance Of A School Visitor Check-In System

 The fact that a school visitor check-in system is missing in most schools today in our nation is profoundly alarming.  

The right visitor management system (VMS) and school visitor check-in system serve as a preventative tool to identify threats of potential danger and violence and to help ensure school security.

In fact, a full-service school visitor check-in system can integrate with student information systems for a primary goal of safety while also streamlining and improving front-office efficiency. 

Click here to join us for one of our SafeVisitor weekly demos.

As a 25-year veteran policeman and specialist in violent crime prevention, I started Safe Visitor Solutions to create SAFE PUBLIC SPACES – especially ensuring that our schools would have the best security systems that technology and experience could provide.  

How School Visitor Check-In Systems Work

While our political parties argue about how to keep our schools safe, my company continues to encourage school administrations to make sure they have prioritized the safety of their students, teachers, and staff by replacing antiquated entry systems to school check-in kiosks that are:

• Reducing unexpected/unknown visitors

• Providing a comprehensive background check/screening process and system.

• Initiating pre-registration for low-risk visitors for conducting business meetings.

• Instituting geofencing

• Excluding parties

• Conducting national sex offender searches

• Deploying school check-in kiosks with a scanner

We must all work together to keep our schools, our children, our teachers, and our very system of education safe and secure.

If you would like to learn more about how to use a visitor management system, like a school visitor check-in system, join us for one of our SafeVisitor weekly demos or set up a personal demo.

What is Best Visitor Management System for Schools?

Are you looking for the best visitor management system for schools?  These days, there are no shortages of school security vendors and navigating the marketing can be time consuming and frustrating.  So it is important to understand what you are looking for in a visitor management system because not all of them are the same.

The first question you must answer is if the visitor management system is a simple tool to replace the notepad and pen at the front desk or the foundation of your school security plan?  

If it is the former, there are numerous simple visitor software programs that will log your visitors, print a temporary badge and convert your process to an electronic process.  That is not what we are discussing here. We are focused on schools who are looking for a comprehensive school visitor management system to serve as the foundation or hub of your school security plan.

You will notice that being the first visitor management system in the market is not on the list.  I spent 10 years in law enforcement and the model was to promote people who had the most seniority.  That was a dysfunctional leadership model.

I was part of a team that created the largest law enforcement-based domestic violence unit in the U.S. in 1994.  And the average seniority of the 33 detectives was 5 years. We recruited young, hungry, investigators that were not caught up in we-have-always-done-it-this-way but thought outside the box and were solutions driven.

Results:  we dropped the domestic murder rate in Nashville by more than 50%!

What do you need in a complex visitor management system?

• Security-Focused Leadership.  Almost daily, we are vetting security companies and products for our 7,000+ clients.  The first page I ALWAYS go to is the About Us. Who is the leadership team? If I do not find anyone who has security or law enforcement experience I never look at another page.  You need technologists but understanding how to develop software is not security.

• Cloud-Based.  The cloud is important because it integrates your locations or campuses, allows data to be shared like approved visitors, volunteers and vendors or excluded parties.  It also makes the management of the system simple for your IT department.

• Configurable.   Is the visitor management system a one-size-fits-all or customizable?  The VMS should allow you to make the system work according to your policies and business rules.

• Integrations.

  • Background Checks.  If this is the foundation of your security program, then you need access to more than a low level sex offender search. Understand that background screening is complex and there are federal, state and local laws that regulated how background screening is conducted.  Yes, even for volunteers. A complex VMS will have integrations to:

    • National, state and local criminal record systems.

    • Real-time monitoring.

    • Motor vehicle records

    • Reference checks

  • Student Information Systems.  Sync data like students arriving late or leaving early with your SIS.  Make sure approved or excluded party information is synced. Removes labor from your front office team.

  • Access Control Systems.  Manage current employees and share data with your access control system utilizing your Excluded Parties List and leveraging your security cameras, etc.

  • Crisis Alert Systems. Ensure that your emergencies are managed by your crisis alert system by a simple integration that allows your VMS to pass this communication over and manage escalated events.

  • Reunification. In a crisis event, make sure you can match students with approved guardians or parents and account for all visitors on premise.

• Customer Service.  I have yet to speak to a company who does not claim to have great customer service.  However, these days, customer service is a dying service. Technology can certainly help answer questions.  However, great customer service starts with a senior member of the leadership team who leads a customer service team and offers multiple avenues of communicating:

  • Direct dial numbers

  • Direct email

  • Support ticket systems

  • Live chat

  • Monthly online meetings/ webinars that provide tips and tricks to expand the use of the VMS.

If you would like to learn more about how a visitor management system can work, join a weekly SafeVisitor demo or schedule a 1:1 demo.