School security systems for entrances are designed to help keep students, teachers, and staff safe. This can include digital kiosks that allow visitors to check in and access the building based on their credentials.
Visitors should be funneled into a vestibule entrance where they can be verified before entering. This helps protect the school from unauthorized entry and provides an easy way to track who has entered the building during emergencies.
Controlling Entry
A school’s exterior door locks keep students and teachers safe. They can be equipped with IP intercoms or access control units from 2N, which can reliably prevent the entry of unauthorized persons by checking whether the person entering is a registered user of the system. A visitor management software application can also be integrated to record all people logged into the building at any time. This can help reduce the risk of a robbery or burglary while making it easier for parents and guardians to know that their child or pupil has arrived safely at school. Additionally, providing pvc custom ID cards online for authorized personnel can contribute to a streamlined entry process.
In addition to the usual student, teacher, and faculty members, many schools have parents, substitute teachers, guest lecturers, and contract workers who need access. It’s recommended to use a digital visitor management system at a school entrance that can check visitors in and out and record their identity and reason for being there.
Adding electrified security door hardware is also a great way to make the doors more secure. All exterior doors frequently used by staff and students should be equipped with a latch retraction exit device to ensure that the doors can be quickly closed from the inside when necessary while allowing free egress by fire regulations.
Keeping Out Damage
The constant reminder that schools are vulnerable to crime and violence can make students and staff feel unsafe. This can lead to an environment that isn’t conducive to learning.
School security and entrance systems can keep the campus safe by restricting who is allowed. This includes ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to storage rooms, classrooms, and different building areas and controlling after-hours access to specific areas or buildings. It can also prevent students from accessing sensitive spaces such as labs, equipment storage, etc.
Another way that school security entrance systems can also help to prevent damage is by monitoring entry points to the building. This can detect any unauthorized activity and alert security teams to the issue. This saves time and resources and can prevent theft or vandalism before it happens.
Some systems can also be paired with ID badges and a database to instantly send information about visitors to first responders in an emergency. This helps to ensure that only authorized persons are on the premises and reduces the chance of people with malicious intent targeting particular students or members of their families. This system can also prevent students from using their phones to photograph or record the interior of a room, which could be used for identity theft.
Keeping Out Unauthorized Persons
Now and then, students and staff members leave their schools for various reasons. While they’re usually careful to return all school property, including keys, sometimes they don’t, which can pose a severe security risk. With access control systems, however, these unauthorized people won’t be able to access the school as their entry codes or cards will be removed – even if they keep their keys!
School and university entrance systems integrated with cloud-managed visitor management solutions enable security teams to remotely manage a building’s entryways. These access control systems can be programmed to allow visitors to enter using visitor credentials, such as monitoring station-approved visitor cards or one-time PIN codes, while generating visit activity reports and sending alerts.
Similarly, exterior doors can be locked to prevent access from the outside but remain open for parents who drop off and pick up their children during the school day and other temporary guests. Streamlined access methods like these effectively limit the number of usable exits while ensuring that visitors and students have easy and quick access to the buildings they need.
It is also essential that teachers, staff, and students know only to hold the door open for people if they have been given clearance to do so. This can be an easy mistake, but it is a significant security risk that can be avoided by educating all parties on the school’s security policies.
Keeping Out Intruders
The most important feature of any school security system is the ability to keep unauthorized people and things out of the building. Schools should limit the number of entrances to the building, with doors that open to the outside funneling visitors through a vestibule where they can be adequately screened for entry. All exterior doors should close and lock during school hours and be inspected regularly to ensure that they do not have broken locks or that someone has propped them open.
Interior doors should also have access control locks, which can prevent people from entering areas that are not necessary for their jobs. For example, a teacher who is only teaching English might not need access to the chemistry equipment closet, but someone else might need it. These systems also eliminate the need for giant rings of keys to control multiple doors, as they can be controlled by a single method like codes, biometrics, or smart cards.
In addition to securing the building’s doors, schools should implement robust visitor management processes and train students, staff, and visitors on the school’s security protocols and access procedures. After all, the best access control system will not keep out a person with ill intent if a student or teacher opens a locked door out of curiosity or out of a misguided sense of being polite.