Starting Monday, April 9, Ridgefield School District plans to implement a screening process for all visitors entering its schools.  The Visitor Management System, from Raptor Technologies is designed to keep students and staff safe by screening all visitors requesting access to school areas where students are present.  Staff trainings occurred on March 8th.  The new process will be effective when school resumes after Spring Break.

All visitors will be required to check in at the school’s front office (in Building A for the elementary schools).   If they will be accessing areas where students are present, they will need to provide a valid ID in order to obtain a visitor’s badge.  Their ID will be scanned to check nationally registered sex offender databases for information that would indicate a potential threat to students or staff.  If the scan flags such data, the system will summon the building administrator and security officer to the front office to speak with the visitor. 

Visitors whose ID scans are cleared will be given a visitors badge, which will serve as their pass to be in the building.  With the new screening process in place, parents who routinely walk their elementary school students to the classroom will need a visitor’s badge in order to do so. 

A visitor’s badge will not be required if the duration of the visit takes place only in the school office.

Following are features of Raptor Technologies’ Visitor Management System:

  • Instantly screens each visitor against the registered sex offender databases in all 50 states
  • Checks visitors against custom databases set by each school for custody alerts or banned visitor information
  • Keeps accurate and reliable records for every visitor entering the schools each day
  • Creates reports for entire districts and/or individual schools
  • Allows users to instantly alert a customized list of school officials and first responders in emergency situations

The district will also implement Raptor Technologies’ K-12 Volunteer Management System in May/June to help streamline its process to recruit and manage its pool of volunteers.  The system will replace the current paper application process.  Implementation of this system will:

  • Automatically track the hours of every single volunteer in the school
  • Automatically submit volunteer application data for a complete background check
  • Keep vital volunteer information in one place for easy access
  • Create reports on volunteers quickly and easily
  • Make it easy for parents and community members to sign up to be volunteers and sign up for events

Raptor Technologies provides integrated school safety technologies to nearly 20,000 K-12 schools nationwide.  For more information, visit their website at www.raptortech.com.