The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district wanted to better ensure the safety of their students and staff entering the 2023-2024 school year. But to do that, they needed to address the district’s outdated emergency notification system.

For one of the nation’s largest school districts, student safety remains a top priority as instances of violence in schools continue to rise in the U.S. Tragically, 2022 saw the highest number of K-12 school shooting incidents ever recorded with 188 casualties in schools across the country.

By partnering with Kokomo24/7®, CPS was able to modernize their outreach system and streamline standard safety operations. Learn how Kokomo24/7®'s intelligent software was tailored to address CPS’s specific needs, and put in place school safety solutions that rapidly and efficiently notify students, staff, and families during emergencies or non-emergency events.

The Inefficiency of Manual Notifications

Until 2023, CPS’ emergency notification system was comprised of manual phone calls from Chicago's emergency communications center to school administrators.

When an emergency occurs on or near a school campus, quick communication is key. CPS administrators often found the manual process of calling each stakeholder led to serious delays, a task complicated by the different messaging needed for various types of emergencies

While each school has its own emergency management plan, most K-12 regulations require school administrators to contact the necessary authorities and emergency responders, communicate the incident to the broader school district, and notify student families as soon as possible after an event.

Complaints from school principals, parents, and community members frequently noted inefficiencies in the district’s emergency outreach. Manual notification processes can leave people feeling out of the loop during critical times. What’s more, phone calls leave ample room for error, sometimes resulting in missed communication or the spread of potentially harmful misinformation.

Knowing they needed to make a change, CPS contacted the school safety experts at Kokomo24/7® to work on a district-wide emergency notifications solution.

Kokomo24/7®: Transforming School Safety

Manual emergency notification systems are not only slow, but prone to significant human error. CPS needed an intelligent notification solution capable of simplifying the emergency outreach workflow and delivering critical information to all stakeholders while meeting regulatory guidelines.

The Kokomo24/7® team worked with CPS to implement an automated notification system, capable of significantly reducing notification time with templated messaging. With CASES™ Incident Management Software and NOTIFY™ mass notification software, Kokomo was able to deliver a complete incident notification solution, custom tailored to CPS’ needs.

With Kokomo24/7® as its digital transformation partner for safety systems, CPS was able to:

• Reduce community-wide emergency notification time from 30 minutes to 3 minutes.
• Prepare messaging meeting complex regulatory guidelines for a variety of situations and stakeholder groups.
• Automatically and immediately disseminate templated messages to stakeholders as needed.
• Easily follow-up with manual messaging as needed during ongoing events.
• Communicate via text, email and voice to minimize missed communication.
• Avoid backlash from uninformed/misinformed community members.
• Satisfy community members who wish to be in-the-know
• Standardize the district’s safety operations.
• Improve regulatory compliance and simplify reporting using the software’s data collection and reporting tools.

Kokomo24/7®’s communication software continues to help CPS increase its notification efficiency, minimize error, and foster a safer, more informed community. Let’s take a closer look at two of Kokomo’s essential school safety tools.

Kokomo NOTIFY™

Kokomo NOTIFY™ is an intelligent mass notification tool that allows organizations to send personalized email, text, and voice messages before, during, or after an event or emergency. Using customizable messaging templates, schools can send instant notifications to all affected community members.

The NOTIFY™ dashboard is enabled with two-way communication, allowing administrators to safely speak with students or staff who might need help during a crisis. The software comes with an optional emergency alert button, so safety leaders can instantly connect with local responders when there’s no time to waste. Plus, Kokomo’s centralized data hub helps safety administrators reduce compliance burdens by streamlining critical communications.

Thousands of schools already trust Kokomo NOTIFY™ to help them communicate critical information, whether it’s an important email blast, a school event, or an emergency situation. Kokomo NOTIFY™ integrates perfectly with other Kokomo24/7® school safety solutions, including Kokomo CASES™.

Kokomo CASES™

Kokomo CASES™ is an incident management solution designed to give administrators streamlined control over the entire case management process, from reporting and monitoring to responding and recovering. Schools using Kokomo CASES™ can easily manage incident reporting from start to finish.

Kokomo CASES™ helps simplify incident management with task management tools. Predictive analysis with AI technology allows users to stay a step ahead of potential threats. Kokomo CASES™ also increases situational awareness with a comprehensive incident map.

CASES™ is equipped with robust backend reporting that supports various forms and houses important documents, a big assist when it comes to complying with complex safety regulations.

Together with Kokomo NOTIFY™, Kokomo CASES™ helps schools ensure the health and safety of students, staff, and families by optimizing the entire incident management process.

Kokomo24/7®: Your Complete School Safety Solution

Efficient communications and effective incident management have never been more important for K-12 safety. With the help of Kokomo24/7® school safety solutions, CPS and countless other districts and schools across the country are doing their part to enhance the health and safety of our students.

No matter how big the community, Kokomo24/7® software solutions work to maximize school safety with tools that create a more secure learning environment. The Kokomo24/7® platform makes it easy to track, prevent, and respond to incidents with one unified data source.

As seen with Kokomo NOTIFY™ and Kokomo CASES™, Kokomo24/7®’s customizable software modules can be used alone or can be seamlessly integrated with one another for an end-to-end safety management solution.

We’re ready to discuss your district’s safety management challenges or answer your questions about notification or incident management. Use the contact form below or email info@kokomo247.com.