This is an exciting time in our state as over 470,000 students are zipping up their backpacks and heading back to school. There are so many positive changes in education to look forward to this year. For starters, we now have more than 1,300 students signed up for computer programming as a result of our legislation to ensure every high school offers a computer science course.
And to ensure that our students and teachers can devote their full attention to the academic challenges before them, we are very pleased to announce a state of the art system designed to keep our schools safe and provide our children with prompt emergency care when needed.
The 90th General Assembly passed Act 950, the School Safety Act, during the 2015 Regular Session. This legislation requires the creation of a panic button application which would be accessible to every teacher and school employee. In the event of an emergency, the teacher would press one button to contact emergency services. This could be used for medical emergencies involving in a student or a school shooting. If used for a state of emergency situation, such as a threat of violence, then the Smart 911 system would alert all teachers and staff in the school of the situation. Emergency responders will be equipped with every floor plan of every school. The system is aimed at saving minutes which will ultimately save lives.
This week, sponsors of the legislation announced the state has entered into a contract with Rave Mobile Safety to provide the service.The Department of Emergency Management is now working with all 257 school district to have the panic button application up and running by next month.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that 7% of students nationwide have missed one or more days at school because they simply felt unsafe. There are no easy answers to questions these statistics raise, but we hope this system will alleviate at least a portion of this fear for students and their families.
Learning is a treasure that will follow you throughout your life. We encourage students to take advantage of the opportunities before them this school year.
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