New Intrado Safety Suite with Wearable Panic Button reduces emergency response time by connecting school personnel with 9-1-1 via FirstNet.
In advance of the 2023-2024 school year, schools nationwide can purchase a new school safety solution – powered by FirstNet, Intrado, and AT&T ESInet – to reduce emergency response times by seamlessly connecting school staff, school information systems, and first responders.
FirstNet — a nationwide wireless broadband network for first responders deployed through a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership between the federal government and AT&T — aims to deploy, operate, maintain, and improve the first high-speed, nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety.
Fully compliant with Alyssa’s Law, this new solution includes:
- The FirstNet Certified Intrado Safety Shield mobile app helps schools prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from safety threats. The app includes a silent panic alarm, secure 2-way faculty chat, digitized emergency response plans, role-specific response checklists, integration with school information systems to account for all children in an emergency and quickly reunite students with their parent/guardian, and more.
- A lightweight, Wearable Panic Button for staff (think teachers, bus drivers, and administrators) that can send life-saving situational data to 9-1-1 while simultaneously and silently notifying campus-wide personnel via haptic vibration. And FirstNet covers 250,000+ more sq. miles than commercial networks, so its benefits extend beyond school grounds to support emergencies during field trips, athletic and other off-campus events, or simply during daily transportation. Plus, automated daily health checks give educators peace of mind all year long.
- The Intrado Safety Shield portal provides critical stakeholders with a single operational view for all emergency response activities across the district. And with near real-time and automated mass notifications – spanning full-screen takeover desktop alerts to digital messages on desk phone screens – this hub unites fragmented systems and processes to help immediately communicate critical information.
According to AT&T:
This new solution is more than just a panic button. Traditional panic buttons notify a preset individual who then contacts 9-1-1. We are helping school districts remove the “middleman” by integrating directly into 9-1-1 call centers – also known as Public Safety Answering Points or PSAPs – with their NextGen 9-1-1 solution like AT&T ESInet. The solution automatically works in any 9-1-1 center without adding new equipment or processes.
Plus, it eliminates the need for 9-1-1 call takers to transcribe the caller’s information by sending preset, customized information that can then go directly to first responders, turning minutes into seconds. And since FirstNet traffic is always prioritized, the incident data is protected from commercial network congestion from the moment the button is pressed all the way to reaching the first responders arriving on scene.
Since being founded in 2012, the FirstNet Authority has collaborated with local, state, federal, and tribal public safety in every state and US territory to understand and incorporate their unique communication needs into the plans for FirstNet.
The FirstNet network provides public safety with dedicated coverage and capacity when needed, including unique benefits like always-on priority and preemption and Band 14 spectrum — a nationwide, high-quality spectrum set aside by the government specifically for FirstNet. These advanced capabilities enable FirstNet to help fire, EMS, EMA, law enforcement, and 9-1-1 personnel save lives and protect their communities.
AT&T is a MACo Platinum Corporate Partner.
9-1-1 To Go — Live Demo and Discussion at the MACo Summer Conference
Maryland counties are leading the way in building a statewide Next Generation 9-1-1 system to equip public safety agencies and first responders with 21st-century tools and technology to protect residents and save lives. This year’s MACo Summer Conference will feature a live demonstration of NG911 remote call-taking technology (powered by FirstNet), critical for ensuring resiliency and redundancy for Maryland’s 24 county 9-1-1 centers.
The 2023 MACo Summer Conference is August 16-19, 2023, at the Roland Powell Convention Center in Ocean City, Maryland.
Learn more about MACo’s Summer Conference:
