Sometimes it’s hard to see the impacts of our efforts, whether we’re talking about reaching a goal or finishing a big work project.
To get a better handle on how the PASS (Partner Alliance for Safer Schools) K-12 program is impacting the systems integration industry, I took a step back to analyze what we’ve doing – and what we hope to do. Here’s what I learned, and I wanted to share it with you. This is how we’re seeing PASS K-12 be used across the country so far …
Part 1: Promoting Guidelines
NSCA, the Security Industry Association (SIA), and the rest of our committee members and endorsing organizations consistently promote the PASS K-12 guidelines to educators and school districts, as well as to the industry (integrators, consultants, etc.).
As a result, many integrators have already started applying the school security guidelines when they conduct needs analyses and risk assessments. Why are the guidelines becoming so trusted? Because they’re completely unbiased, not leaning toward one company or technology. The content was produced by the leading school security and life safety experts in the country.
Part 2: Developing Specs and RFPs
Consultants and integrators are using the PASS K-12 guidelines to develop specs and RFPs (based on the four tiers in the guidelines, and the funding their clients have available). In some cases, these tiers are linked to the school’s CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) rating. Each tier increasingly becomes more aggressive in terms of the risk mitigation approaches suggested and the investment required. Each tier carries a weighted CPTED score improvement and, therefore, can be used when asking for financial support from federal, state, and local agencies.
If funding is an issue for schools that want to complete security projects, PASS is helping them overcome this by working with states and agencies to find funding. Here’s a recent example: In Virginia, Governor Terry McAuliffe awarded $6 million in school security equipment grants to protect students and education professionals with video monitoring, metal detectors, electronic access control, visitor identification, and other security upgrades.
Some of these projects have been bid on by integrators, but they were held up due to lack of funding. Now that the grant has been awarded and the projects can move forward, we’re confident that some of our members utilizing the PASS guidelines will likely win some of these projects.
Part 3: Influence Legislators
To make sure schools get funding to adhere to the PASS guidelines, we are working to influence legislators. This helps schools make their buildings safer while also creating new business opportunities for our integrator members.
PASS has already worked to influence legislators in Virginia, New York, and Indiana, and we’re currently focused on New Jersey with A3348 and S2439, which require certain school security measures to be incorporated into the architectural design of new school construction and existing buildings.
Part 4: Educating Members
We continuously educate schools and our members on how to use the PASS guidelines and risk assessments, and work with design professionals to price the tiers per project.
Based upon this education, here’s some feedback we recently received from an educator:
“I want to say that we had a great presentation about PASS in LA last month with Scott Lord. I gave your presentation to our Safety Mental Health and Accountability Committee and they were impressed by what PASS is doing and the fact that our district used much of the guidance. I also have had a lot of people ask me about PASS and where they could get help on selecting the best processes and technology to improve their schools both at the K-12 and college levels.”
This is exactly what we had in mind when we launched PASS. We’re making a difference when it comes to school security, and plan to continue to help these guidelines become incorporated in school design, construction, operations, and upgrades. –Chuck Wilson, NSCA Executive Director