New School Safety Tool from Blackboard Supports K-12 Districts with Crisis Management Response

  • November 29, 2018

Blackboard today announced the launch of Blackboard SafetyList, a crisis management response platform that helps school district leaders coordinate the internal teams responsible for preparing for and managing safety and security incidents.

Powered by Groupdolists, Blackboard SafetyList turns paper plans into action plans, rapidly mobilizes internal response teams, tracks tasks in real-time, reduces fragmented communications, and records all activity in a real-time audit trail, all to assist school districts with their efforts to ensure that school responders are tightly coordinated, in-sync and accountable. The tool includes a library of over 45 pre-built crisis response checklists to help coordinate team efforts in an emergency. It also provides a tap to join conference bridge for keeping open lines of communication across an entire campus crisis response team, as well as incident logging for simple, accurate post-incident analysis.

SafetyList is one component of Blackboard's comprehensive School Safety solution, which also provides physical security and communication solutions to help districts prepare for and effectively manage crisis-based incidents. Easily managed through a web browser application, it offers many technologies designed for school campuses and to aid with quick communication with the broader education community, including:

  • Camera Surveillance: Equipment districts can use to help them keep track of what's happening in their schools from one centralized camera monitoring location. 
  • Active Incident Website: School systems can convey the important information their communities need during a crisis through a single crisis website. 
  • Locks & Access Control: Facilitate access for buildings, classes, labs and more with a single click. 
  • Communication Tools: Administrations can share relevant news and timely updates with families and community members through a native branded app and mass notifications.

"To be such a critical component in the Blackboard SafetyList platform is a testament to our mission to help protect people, assets, and reputation during unexpected incidents," says Michael J. Sher, CEO of Groupdolists. "Our team is incredibly passionate about building tools that help organizations mobilize and coordinate response teams better, smarter and faster than ever before, and the fit with SafetyList makes so much sense."

"Maintaining a safe and secure learning environment for students and staff is a top priority for school district leaders nationwide, but many of them are struggling with how to navigate the complex safety challenges in today's environment," said Marc Rubner, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Blackboard. "Blackboard is proud to offer robust tools that help school systems use the power of technology to meet these needs. We look forward to working with school districts nationwide to assist them with their safety and security efforts."

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