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.

School Visitor Management Systems Are The Foundation for Security

There are no shortages of security products and services being peddled to schools.  And more security experts popping up every day.

We spend an enormous amount of time and energy vetting the best security solutions on the market.  We do this to help our thousands of school clients. They need trusted partners to help them navigate a less than transparent market.

But that is an article for a different today.

Last week, we witnessed numerous incidents across the U.S., and one in my backyard where my kids go to school, of individuals breaching security.  And quite honestly, the solution was not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fortify the building.

No matter how fortified you make the school, which I would argue, is not and should not be your one and only solutions for school security, you still have to open the door throughout the day to allow in students, staff, visitors, volunteers and contractors.

A comprehensive school visitor management system is the foundation for security.  You cannot purchase bullet resistant glass or film, metal detectors, or secured vestibules if you have no access control system in place.

Schools are not the mall.  Not everybody that wants to come in should be allowed in.

Until you manage the flow of visitors, contractors, volunteers or community partners walking through your doors, all of the other hardening solutions are irrelevant.

If you build a secure vestibule, but have no line of sight and only an aiphone and a buzzer, then you are going to lose.  How do I know? Because it happened at a school my kids attend last week.

A student came to the front doors, which were locked, and used the buzzer system to alert the front office and get cleared to enter because the office is not near the entry-way.   Unknown to the front office team, who does not have cameras at this time, a 22 year old was behind the student and was able to gain entry into the school.

The trespasser was in the building for several periods, with a backpack, and was found in a bathroom by a school resource officer.  Intent is yet unknown.

The lesson is that people do want into our schools.  And some of those that want access should not have access.  Sex offenders, especially predatory sex offenders, will stop at nothing to gain access to our kids.

What if that had been an estranged spouse, coming to school because he knew his estranged partner would be there.  Because they have to work, they need to make money. Sounds like the school murder in San Bernardino several years ago where the teacher, estranged partner, was killed in her classroom along with another student.

Controlling access is critical.  The school visitor management system is the foundation for a security program.  The visitor management system should:

Require government issued ID for temporary visitors and scan their barcode

• Check of national sex offender and Excluded Parties

• Integrated background checks for high frequency visitors such as volunteers and/or contractors.

• Integration with a student information system to sync who is approved to pick up a student.

• Sophisticated ID validation process to confirm who every visitor is.

If schools are not managing the flow of people in and out of their buildings then everything else is for naught.  

Learn more about school visitor management systems.

Visitor Management Kiosk

A visitor management system is the first step for an organization when implementing a security program.  If you do not know who is entering through your doors then all other security systems are ineffective.

Many schools and organizations are looking for a visitor management kiosk.  What better way to manage the flow of lots of visitors?

However, it is not so simple as to do a quick internet search and find a company that has a kiosk option.  There are a few security foundations that must be understood:

• Not everyone views security through the same lens.  Often front office personnel are multi-taskers and they view a kiosk as taking something off of their plate.  This is absolutely true. But it must done correctly. Removing eyes from the check-in process without having an ID Validation in place is risky.

• Security is not convenient.  Have you flown recently?  Have you gone to a concert or professional sporting event?  Need I say more?

• Not all visitor management systems are security focused.  A lot of the visitor systems are more about convenience and allowing visitors to self-provision and check themselves in.  That may be great if you are an eye doctor. However, in a controlled environment like a school, I need to know you are who you say you are.

• A security kiosk will be placed in a vestibule or in a secured area.  A great security program will always be moving the identification further and further from your front doors.  If the first interaction you have with a visitor is a human at a desk then that can be:

  • Dangerous.  If the person is there with intent on harming someone.

  • Awkward.  If the person checking in is on an Excluded Parties List or Sex Offender.

What should I be looking for in a visitor management kiosk?

• ADA compliance.    You should first make sure you understand ADA compliance.  

• How does the visitor management kiosk validate visitors?

  • Does it scan government issued ID?  At a minimum a quality visitor system will scan government issued ID’s.

  • How do you handle frequent visitors?  If you are an organization that utilizes vendors or volunteers there should be a validation process that begins long before they reach your front door.

    • Background checks.  A comprehensive background check is the foundation of a quality background check.  There is no such thing as an instant background check.

    • ID Validation.  Do you allow vendors or volunteers to self report who they are?  We can use the government issued ID, require a scan of the front and back, parse the 2d barcode and can even pull the photo, require a selfie and do a comparison.

    • 2 Factor ID.  Allowing a visitor to manually enter their information defeats the purpose of a visitor management system.  Even scanning a government issued ID or an issued ID card is not fool proof if you don’t verify the ID scanned is the person in front of the kiosk.  To completely authenticate the visitor, the use of facial recog

    • nition or a palm vein reader at the kiosk the matches against the face or pam print on file is the best method of ensuring the person entering is the approved person.

So, not all visitor management kiosks are the same.  Determine if you are looking to enhance your security or if you are looking for a convenient way of getting people in and out of your organization.

If you would like a demo of SafeVisitor, one of the most comprehensive visitor management systems with multiple kiosk options, please select one of the following to register:

1:1 Demo for your team

Or

SafeVisitor Weekly Group Demo