Beginning with the 2021-2022 school year, Florida public and charter schools will be required to demonstrate compliance with Alyssa’s Law, named after one of the students killed in the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. The new legislation calls for silent panic alarms linked to law enforcement and first responder services. Already passed into law in New Jersey and now Florida, Alyssa’s Law is quickly gaining traction around the U.S.

“Complying with Alyssa’s Law is critical for school districts to protect students and staff who find themselves in emergency situations,” said Tracy Reinhold, Everbridge Chief Security Officer and former head of the FBI’s Intelligence Division. “Our mobile panic button technology surpasses the state’s requirement. We’re honoured to serve hundreds of organisations across all of Florida’s 67 counties and look forward to providing Florida school districts with the same innovative safety solutions.”

The legislation requires the Department of Education to set up a model panic alert system that can be used by public and charter schools in Florida’s K-12 districts. The alarm will be used to ensure school officials can contact nearby law enforcement quickly in the event of an emergency.

The Everbridge school security solution allows for full interoperability between K-12 schools, the district and the local public safety answering points (PSAPs) to provide access to digitised floor plans with the location of the person who activated the panic button. As part of the overall solution and through partner integrations, Everbridge enables anyone on campus, with or without access to the mobile app, to simply call 911 and the system will respond the same way as the mobile panic button activation, instantly connecting the caller with the PSAP and opening the digitised floor plans for first responders. Everbridge provides the ability to instantly notify parents and guardians of a school incident and to keep them informed of a changing situation.

Additionally, as schools continue to navigate the prolonged impact of Covid-19 amid vaccination roll-outs, districts still face the challenge of quickly informing students, faculty, and staff of coronavirus risks and timely follow-up reporting. The Everbridge CEM platform helps schools monitor potential exposures and effectively communicate across all key stakeholders, protecting students, faculty, and staff during critical events such as Covid-19, severe weather, or violence on, or near, campus.

Many colleges and universities also leverage Everbridge for their critical communications, contact tracing support and return-to-campus initiatives, including the University of Denver, UCLA, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, University of Maryland College Park, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Austin, Michigan State University, and Washington State University. Internationally, notable schools that deploy Everbridge solutions include Nord University in Norway, Technical University of Denmark, Imperial College London, and the American University of Paris.