Keep life-safety systems available, protect equipment and data, and continue essential district work through prolonged and geographically broad utility disruption.
Safety first: Report downed lines, fire, gas odor, flooding, sparking equipment, or other immediate hazards to 911 and the responsible utility. Do not enter electrical rooms, touch damaged equipment, or operate generators except through trained and authorized personnel.
Plan beyond a short blackout
A utility failure can disable alarms, access control, elevators, HVAC, refrigeration, water, sewage, phones, internet, charging, and local servers. Public Safety Power Shutoffs and disasters may also affect staff homes, fuel delivery, cellular towers, and alternate sites. Define site-closure, relocation, food safety, accessibility, student release, and instructional continuity decisions before the outage.
Resilient power design
Layer
Required planning
UPS
Size for the approved load and runtime; monitor batteries; test transfer and graceful shutdown; replace batteries on a managed lifecycle.
Generator
Use code-compliant permanent connections and transfer equipment; calculate startup and steady loads; test under load; plan fuel, maintenance, ventilation, emissions, and safe access.
Critical loads
Explicitly identify fire/life safety, communications, networking, access, refrigeration, medical devices, lighting, and limited computing; prevent unapproved loads.
Telecommunications
Confirm carrier backup duration and physical path diversity; maintain radios and alternate carriers; do not assume internet or cellular service will survive.
Cloud and data
Ensure off-site services do not depend on on-premises identity, DNS, firewall, or a single circuit; keep geographically separated recoverable backups.
Operating checklist
Maintain a current one-line electrical diagram, critical-load inventory, shutdown/startup order, panel labels, vendor contacts, and authorized operators.
Configure orderly shutdown before batteries are exhausted; after restoration, inspect for unstable voltage and start services in dependency order.
Provide manual student/staff accounting, family communication, medication, meal, transportation, and reunification procedures.
Record outage start/end, affected services, temperatures, discarded food or medicine, equipment alarms, actions, expenses, and data gaps.
Reconcile queued or manually recorded transactions after systems return; verify clocks, authentication, integrations, backups, and monitoring.
Test scenario
Exercise a 72-hour regional outage during extreme heat or wildfire weather. Include loss of the primary ISP, limited generator fuel, a failed UPS battery string, a staff shortage, and a cloud application that relies on on-premises identity. Measure the time to communicate, account for people, shut down safely, switch to alternate workflows, and restore cleanly.
With facilities and students spread across large or multiple campuses, the monitoring of education facilities brings special challenges. Ensuring student safety and reducing vandalism to valuable campus property is...
An integrated security solution from Axis gives you maximum protection for students, staff, and school property, but it also offers operational and educational benefits to make your school budget...
CatapultEMS is designed and developed by CatapultK12, a company that has provided schools nationwide with easy-to-use website solutions and excellent support for over 10 years. Utilizing their experience in...
Parents, teachers, staff, superintendents, and law enforcement all recognize school emergency preparedness as one of today’s most pressing educational issues. Medical emergencies, student altercations, unauthorized visitors, suspicious activity, and...
CrisisGo is available to different industries such as Education, Business, and Religious organizations, providing each one its own unique features. CrisisGo was built to focus on physical safety, mental...
With automatic badge printing, photo capture, host notifications, legal agreement (NDA) signing and storage, and a multitude of out-of-the-box integrations, Envoy Visitor Registration makes sign-in more secure and enjoyable....
exacqVison is a leading manufacturer of video management system (VMS) software and servers used for video surveillance. exacqVision believes that the two most important factors at every school are...
Gaggle is a company known for providing safety management and prevention solutions tailored for schools and districts, focusing primarily on student safety and well-being in digital environments. Gaggle supports...
Hero (formerly PlascoTrac) is a SaaS (software as a service) platform from SchoolMint that uses an in–browser web app and a mobile app to allow K–12 schools to capture...
identiMetrics™ will simplify your school day and help you and your staff perform at your best. You get efficient, accurate, hassle free accounting and metrics. Oh, and happier staff,...
LobbyGuard offers a full line of visitor management and front office automation products, including self-service kiosks as well as software-only solutions for customers of any size or industry. ...
Milestone XProtect® video management software (VMS) brings all the puzzle pieces for video surveillance together in a perfect combination to create a solution that keeps people and property safe...
In today’s security conscious environment, most businesses will track and monitor visitors and keep a record of their time spent on the premises. NEC’s Front Desk Assistant application...
Ocularis by Qognify is a unified and integrated security platform for institutions in K-12 and higher education designed for prevention as well as fast response in real time using...
OnSSI Ocularis IP-Video Surveillance The C•CURE 9000 security and event management system and OnSSI Ocularis IP-video platform integration provides a single, robust interface for securing an enterprise. The incorporation...
The Raptor System can help your school screen out registered sex offenders, manage custody issues, coordinate volunteers, and respond to emergencies. Over 17,000 campuses across the U.S. trust Raptor...
Patented StudentSafe™ technology gives your Behavioral Threat Assessment (BTA) teams a head start with access to a student’s full chronology already in the system. Whether an assessment is...
IDENTITY MANAGEMENT means quick and easy student and staff ID creation and organization. Automated ID Management that is integrated with your SIS and HR software gives...
School Check IN was developed to help schools answer the challenge of tracking volunteer hours. Later, features for tardy/late students, early dismissal, visitors and teachers, were added. ...
Security Camera Warehouse: Security, Modernized Commercial-Grade Surveillance Systems - Customized to Your Needs and Location Beautiful, Intelligent, Smart Software Solutions - Android, iOS, PC, Mac,...
Maintaining a safe and secure campus is a significant priority and involves multiple locations, systems, and people working together. A focus on technology solutions for higher education. Transact gives...
Truancy Hunter™ is a web-based tool that completely automates truancy tracking from the initial truant through the SARB process. By utilizing data directly from the district’s existing student information...
Simple, intelligent hybrid video security designed for reliability and scale. Verkada offers simplicity and added protection to organizations looking to modernize their approach to physical security. The D-Series...
Faced with strict safety demands, dwindling budgets, and students spread across large or multiple campuses, the monitoring of education facilities brings special challenges. Ensuring student safety and reducing vandalism...
