With legacy equipment unable to support today’s rapid response technology, education institutions

need an innovative approach to communications.

A unified communications (UC) strategy coupled with modern devices is essential for emergency response. This approach ensures seamless collaboration and compliance with emergency notification laws. It allows districts, schools and educators to send alerts and call for help quickly and reliably.

The Need for Modern Solutions

Today’s emergency response technology improves public safety by providing organizations with information, interoperability and compliance.

Information. Many education institutions use legacy telephone systems or voice over internet protocol systems that don’t allow the locational specificity required for rapid, accurate response to 911 callers.

Interoperability. Organizations need solutions that enable communications across disparate devices, collaboration platforms and service providers.

Compliance. Recent laws demand capabilities that aren’t available on traditional phone systems. For example, Kari’s

Modernizing Rapid Response How schools can promote safety with technology

A CENTER FOR DIGITAL EDUCATION THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PAPER

One-Touch Alert System Helps Keep District Safe The Howe Public School District in Oklahoma uses Poly Rove, a wireless IP phone solution that lets teachers, administrators and other staff communicate with each other regardless of their location.1

With this solution, staff can activate an emergency alert from a handset attached to their belt. Instead of taking the time to get to a desktop phone, staff can quickly activate a 911 alert from the handset to notify others in the school or authorities.

Law says a caller must be able to use any phone to reach 911 without dialing a prefix. RAY BAUM’S Act requires that public safety answering points and 911 centers must be able to identify the exact locations of callers.

Modernization can address compliance by using geo- graphic information system technology to transmit precise location information.

Seamless Communication

To get started, consider the specific roles and functions of various users. Use those considerations to choose the features you need for each case. Right-sizing your solutions will help save money while ensuring each user has what they need.

Prioritize these capabilities when choosing a solution:

Flexibility. Standards-based communications ensure interoperability with your preferred collaboration platforms while a scalable infrastructure adapts to evolving needs. Seek out security measures such as encryption, centralized device management and backup, and recovery.

Smart routing. Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable automatic, intelligent data routing, but they require advanced processing capabilities. Manual processes are too slow to handle the load that UCs require. Modern technology such as graphics processing units and neural processing units are optimized for this type of work.

Integration. Your solution must be able to communicate what is occurring in one system to other systems. For example, if a fire alarm goes off, you must be able to use multiple modalities to reach as many people as possible.

This piece was written and produced by the Center for Digital Education Content Studio, with information and input from HP Inc. and Poly.

©2025 e.Republic LLC. All rights reserved.

Sponsored by: HP Inc. and Poly Explore solutions to support modernizing rapid response technologies.

Produced by: Center for Digital Education The Center for Digital Education is a national research and advisory institute specializing in K-12 and higher education technology trends, policy and funding. The Center provides education and industry leaders with decision support and actionable insight to help effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21st century. www.centerdigitaled.com

Seek out security measures such as encryption, centralized device management and backup, and recovery.

1. youtube.com/watch?v=TcZ0CiDbyzg

Best Practices Capabilities and demands will change as advancements are made. Follow these best practices to give yourself the flexibility to evolve your communications strategy.

Create a deployment and maintenance plan. Know how you’re going to roll out phones, video systems and other devices over time. Have a long-term maintenance plan for repairing and replacing devices.

Provide training. Make sure all of your staff know how to reach 911, send out an alert or use other features. This is essential for effective rapid response.

Choose technology partners carefully. You may want to collaborate with a vendor to address resource constraints or meet deadlines as you modernize. Ask potential partners for road maps on what should be done as your needs evolve. And avoid vendor lock-in: Be sure phones and other devices are compatible with multiple service providers.

Positioned for Success Organizations can better protect people by taking steps to ensure they’re prepared for natural disasters, medical situations and other emergencies. The same UC tech- nologies that promote safety can immediately improve everyday communications across districts and higher learning institutions.

Investing in modern solutions now positions organizations for future success no matter how technology or their internal needs change. These educators will be able to quickly im- plement new capabilities as they become available, enabling them to better serve people and accomplish their goals.

IMAGE SOURCE: HP

https://www.govtech.com/education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZ0CiDbyzg