CARY, NC (Oct. 20, 2014) – In recognition of America’s Safe Schools Week, October 19-25, SchoolDude, a leading provider of operations management solutions, today launched a new third-party research study. The results of the K-12 and higher education administrator survey are highlighted in a coordinating infographic: Safety & Crisis Planning in Today’s Schools: Overcoming the Hurdles.
According to the survey, nearly 50 percent of school administrators indicated that mobile access is a top three priority for updating emergency response plans. This includes preparation for potential emergencies, e.g., fire, natural disaster, disease, accidents, threats or violent aggressive action.
“With SchoolDude’s CrisisManager, it is our mission to help keep schools secure, providing safety procedures within arm’s reach via individuals’ mobile devices,” said Lee Prevost, president of SchoolDude. “Developing and maintaining a crisis management plan should never fall by the wayside. Our research shows that administrators must reassess the efficiency of their current crisis response plans to make sure all safety needs are met.”
The school officials surveyed said most safety plans are paper-based, residing in binders (79 percent) or maps/posters (74 percent). Only 22 percent of school officials are using emergency text notifications via mobile devices.
“Transferring paper-based plans to mobile devices makes them more accessible and actionable with guidelines for individuals during an emergency,” added Prevost.
Additional SchoolDude research shows:
· 64 percent of school officials say improved team efficiency is the most important advantage of a mobile application for emergency notifications. 45 percent cite better communication as a key advantage.
· 58 percent of schools report using an email notification system to communicate with staff and faculty during an emergency, and 33 percent used email to communicate with parents and others externally.
· 42 percent of schools have an emergency plan based on self-imposed, rather than mandated, compliance requirements.
SchoolDude serves more than 6,000 school districts, independent and private schools, colleges and universities – and more than 25 percent of the public K-12 districts in the U.S. use SchoolDude’s management solutions.
SchoolDude’s “Safety & Crisis Planning in Today’s Schools: Overcoming the Hurdles” infographic can be viewed at: https://www.schooldude.com/Portals/0/Public Content/Infographics/CrisisManager-Infographic.pdf [1].
About SchoolDude
For the past 14 years, SchoolDude has served as the market leader in education enterprise asset management, delivering Software-as-a-Solution applications to help both small and large institutions better manage their facilities, IT and business operations. More than one million education professionals from more than 6,000 educational institutions are using SchoolDude products to streamline maintenance work order and IT help desk management, schedule preventive maintenance and plan for capital replacements, increase inventory accountability, maximize after-hours facility use and utility consumption. SchoolDude helps clients stretch budgets by managing support services effectively and efficiently, making a difference by helping institutions improve and enhance the teaching and learning environment. For more information, visit http://www.schooldude.com [2].
# # #