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Status Solutions Introduces Emergency Alerting as a Service for K-12 Schools

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/28/13

An application that sends alerts when a user touches a "panic button" or by some other event is now being offered as a subscription for K-12 environments. According to Status Solutions, the switch in its business model for sales of Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) will enable schools to pay for it as an operating expense instead of as a capital expense.

SARA sends voice and text alerts to multiple channels--phones, pagers, emails, computer screens, and public address systems. Those alerts can be sent to designated individuals, groups, or the entire community of subscribers. There are also integration tools that allow the program to be tied to alarm systems for automated response when motion is detected or a break-in occurs, and a wireless sensor network that can work with triggers and monitors, such as classroom panic buttons or portable buttons carried by individuals or signaled by fire, water, and temperature monitors. The same functionality that pushes alerts to computer and mobile screens can also be programmed to show video footage and floor plans or other related materials on those same devices.

"If every bank has a panic button, then each of our schools should too because children are more precious than currency," said Mike MacLeod, the company's president. The subscription service approach will provide "an easy way to implement situational awareness with automatic upgrades, remote supervision, and backup. We really want to help schools be proactive in protecting our kids."

Status Solutions software has been used by Ohio's Mount Gilead Exempted Village School District, among education customers.