K-12 Schools Can Now Use the NaviGate Prepared School Safety Technology to Meet Drill Requirements
NEW PHILADELPHIA, OH--(Marketwired - January 18, 2016) - Through a new school safety technology, available to any school throughout the state of Michigan, K-12 Michigan school administrators can now easily and accurately meet the state's annual school safety drill requirements of Public Act 12.
Since 2014, more than 50 school buildings in Michigan's Berrien County have been using the cloud-based NaviGate Prepared® school safety system to improve school safety. It offers 24/7, real-time access from any Web-authorized device to a school's imperative safety information -- effectively organizing safety information for administrators while giving first responders 'eyes on' access to everything they need in an emergency -- from floor plans to 360-degree images and more.
Now, the technology's new drill log function also aids Michigan school administrators with the scheduling, management and tracking of annual safety and training drills -- allowing administrators to organize and log all pertinent information related to drills to better manage drills and meet state-mandated drill requirements.
As required by Public Act 12, NaviGate Prepared helps ensure administrators report annual safety drills to the state's county Emergency Management Agency's (EMA) and publically post all completed drill logs for each school building in a district to the school or district website.
"The new drill log feature within our NaviGate system delivers tremendous value to our Regional Education Service Agency, bringing great ease to what once was an extremely tedious process for reporting and posting our safety drills per the mandates of Public Act 12," said Doug Montey, Building and Grounds Supervisor for Berrien RESA (Regional Education Service Agency). "We firmly believe in the NaviGate Prepared technology and its ability to improve the safety of students, teachers and staff. This product enhancement further solidifies that."
Public Act 12 outlines minimum drill requirements for various drill types, such as fire drills, tornado drills and more, following suit with many other U.S. state safety drill mandates. However, slightly more unique to this Act is that it also requires Michigan schools to post completed drill logs on the school or district website within 30 days of a completed drill, maintaining these logs for at least 3 years.
Additionally, by Sept. 15 of each year, K-12 schools must also provide a list of the scheduled drill days for the school buildings operated by the school, school district, intermediate school district, or public school academy to their respective county EMA's.
"Ensuring local first responders are aware of a school's upcoming safety drills is an important step in improving crisis preparedness and emergency response strategies for potential school crisis situations," said Capt. Rockey Adams, Berrien County Emergency Management Coordinator, Berrien County Sheriff's Department. "From the first responder perspective, it's highly beneficial for schools to collaborate continuously with their local first responders and including responders in a school's annual safety drills improves training and emergency response, helping them become more familiar with each building and fostering improved communication between fire, police and emergency personnel and school administrators."
With NaviGate Prepared, schools can schedule drills for the year, receive reminder emails on upcoming drills and missed drills and easily save and print drill schedules for submission to EMA's. Drill logs can be linked to emergency management plans and saved and printed with all required fields for every drill type, including date, time and frequency. Administrators can also:
Search district sites by drill type or date
Quickly view drill statistics to see which drills have been completed
Ensure ongoing management of drills from one school year to the next
Drill content is available around-the-clock to local first responders through the NaviGate Prepared first responder portal. Additionally, per Public Act 12, the NaviGate system also allows administrators to post completed drill logs to their school or district website with a simple, one-step click-to-post process.
NaviGate Prepared has been implemented in hundreds of school districts throughout the nation. It is SAFETY Act Designated as an anti-terrorism-level technology by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
For more information on NaviGate Prepared and the technology's new drill logs product enhancement, visit www.navigateprepared.com.
About NaviGate Prepared®
NaviGate Prepared® is a proven school safety and crisis preparedness technology designed to assist and prepare school officials and first responders for crisis situations. Through a secure, cloud-based platform, the technology offers 911 dISPatch centers and emergency personnel real-time Internet access of a school's facility and safety information before, during and after a crisis. Developed by Ohio-based Lauren Innovations, NaviGate Prepared is SAFETY Act Designated as an anti-terrorism-level technology by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. For more information, visit www.navigateprepared.com or call 866-861-7400.
Source: Marketwired - All
Link: New School Safety Technology Assists Michigan Schools With Annual Safety Drill Mandates of Public Act 12