A First Responder’s Insights on School Safety: Achieving Clarity in Emergencies

Former dispatch supervisor Jason Klink outlines how wearable panic buttons and dynamic campus mapping eliminate critical information gaps for first responders.

• By Jason Klink
• June 29, 2026

In school safety, how a school partners with the surrounding community makes a big difference.

I’ve been a 911 dispatcher and a supervisor, and I’ve felt that sense of urgency when a call hits the screen. I know what it’s like to try and keep a caller calm while simultaneously trying to pull every scrap of actionable data out of a chaotic situation.

In those critical first moments of an incident, whether it's a medical emergency or a threat on campus, officers, medics and firefighters are ready and want to help. The real challenge is the information gap. For emergency responders, a response is only as good as the information fueling it.

Three Common Barriers to Effective Emergency Response

Uncertainty can start within the first minute of an emergency, slowing the response time. There are three common issues that regularly hinder emergency response.

• Awareness of the Incident is Delayed: Teams can lose time because the right people don’t know help is needed. Responders need to know as quickly as possible that an incident is occurring. 
• Location Information Is Old or Incomplete: “Near the science building” is not the same as “4th floor, room 409.” Time is lost searching. A person who needs help could also be moving at the time of the emergency, delaying the ability to find them. Most critical incidents in schools occur outside of the classroom and there is not always even a room number to provide. In the 2024 to 2025 school year, a report found that 60% of alerts from wearable panic buttons came from outside of the classroom. Responders may need to navigate to specific areas of hallways, parking lots or sports fields. Having access to campus-wide mapping and precise-location information is vital to effective response.
• Systems Don’t Work Together Under Stress: Radios, phones, apps and procedures can leave gaps in critical moments. When considering safety technology, adoption and reliability are key issues. For example, a district might have invested in a safety app for staff to install on their phones and use to get help. However, only a small fraction of the staff have it downloaded or some haven’t logged into it in months or don't remember how to use it. Moments of high stress are not the time to ask people to remember complicated, multi-step instructions to signal for help. Phones might not have service or could have low battery at a critical moment.

When considering safety planning, consider how you will make sure your response is not delayed by these common issues.

How to Get It Right: The Three Elements of Effective, Coordinated Emergency Response

District leaders can partner with emergency responders to improve response times and coordination in emergencies. Having served more than 30 years in public safety, I believe that to improve emergency response, we have to master three key elements:

• Speed: Reducing the time between the onset of an incident and the moment the emergency dispatch center is notified is critical. Alyssa’s Law is gaining traction nationally, with more states requiring districts to equip staff with wearable panic buttons. When a teacher or staff member has a wearable, they can quickly signal for help with the push of a button. These devices work better than apps or cell phones because they are more reliable and easier to use under stress, with multimodal alerting reaching the right people quickly. States across the country, including recently Illinois, are asking districts to consider use of panic buttons in safety planning to protect students. The progress of Alyssa’s Law is part of a national movement toward higher safety standards.
• Clarity: Respondents need to know exactly where an incident is happening, down to the floor and room number, not just a general GPS pin on a map. Districts should consider technology that provides responders with digital maps that include precise locations and tagged assets, such as medical equipment or fire extinguishers. This type of precise, detailed map in the dispatch area, helps to guide officers, firefighters or EMS to where they need to go.
• Coordination: Ensuring that the moment an alert is triggered, everyone, from the person on-site to the dispatcher at the console to the unit in the field, is seeing the same picture and knows what to do. Having a plan of action is not enough if people don’t know what to do. Comprehensive planning and training are needed for a coordinated response.

When districts partner with their communities, they can dramatically improve emergency preparedness and response. Having the information responders need and getting it to them quickly and effectively in high-stress situations improves speed and clarity, replacing chaos with coordination when seconds matter.