How Technology is Shaping School Safety in 2025
As in 2024, school security technology is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace. With the ongoing prevalence of school shootings and increasingly more digital education landscape, enhancing campus safety and security continues to be a major concern. Here are three ways technology is shaping school safety in 2025.
Artificial Intelligence
A hot topic in 2024, AI continues to be at the forefront of security technology. When it comes to education, artificial intelligence provides critical insights into campus surveillance, visitor management, and risk assessment.
When we think of artificial intelligence, one of the first things that come to mind is facial recognition. In the context of school security, facial recognition technology helps track visitors from before they even enter the building, allowing school security personnel to quickly identify the precise location of potential threats at all times.
The use of AI for weapons detection is also gaining traction. Integrating with existing surveillance systems, weapons detection systems are trained using deep learning to identify a variety of potential weapons, immediately sending an alert to authorities and school personnel.
Finally, predictive AI is becoming more and more utilized for risk prediction and mitigation. Using machine learning, the computer system is fed data from previous incidents and uses algorithims to identify potential risk patterns. Predictive AI can be used to detect not only potentially violent situations but also as a preventative measure against data breaches or even fall risk from wet floors.
Access controls
With the ongoing prevalence of school shootings, controlling access points continues to be a major concern for schools. While it’s no surprise that locks and door hardware have long been one of the most popular forms of access controls, their role in school security is becoming increasingly more important. According to Campus Safety, lock and door hardware upgrades are set to skyrocket over the next couple of years, particularly when it comes to visual indicator locks and system integrations. Visual indicator locks allow people inside the room to clearly see whether a door is locked, providing a safe and effective way to limit intruders from entering the room. System integrations with other technologies, such as electronic locks with physical access cards can streamline everyday access while bolstering security.
As with nearly every industry, the push towards mobile integration is making its way into campus security. For K-12 environments, this would be mainly used to grant emergency personnel quick access to the building or individual classrooms without forcing their way in, a process that takes precious time and can result in costly damage to the building.
While door access is incredibly important for controlling school security, what happens when someone falls through the cracks? With so many violent school incidents instigated by a familiar face, secure vestibules are being implemented as an extra layer of security once visitors have made it inside the building. Featured in the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) whitepaper “Secure Visitor Entry Center” outlining best practices for school security, secure vestibules are quickly becoming a standard school safety measure, with adoption rates increasing by 15% in the past two years.
Integrated technologies
With school safety technology becoming increasingly more advanced, it can be difficult for school resource teams to keep up with all the changes. Integrated technology provides a more comprehensive security solution, allowing schools to maximize safety even with limited IT resources.
For example, schools can integrate their intercom system with video surveillance cameras to have a visual description of a visitor before they even enter the building. Further integration of access control systems with video surveillance allows for constant visual monitoring of the visitor to quickly cut off access points in case of a shooting or related emergency. All of these technologies then provide feedback on a single, unified management platform that can be controlled and monitored on one screen or device. This single platform can then be programmed to automatically send targeted notifications depending on the situation detected, allowing for a more rapid response.
While an integrated mass notification system streamlines communication and response in critical situations, it is also a game-changer for everyday school communications. Integrations for automatic bell scheduling, digital signage for those with hearing impairments, and school-specific options allows for more efficient and effective day-to-day operations.
Communication Company of South Bend is a systems integrator providing security solutions for K-12 education environments. To learn more about integrating security technology into your classroom, visit our dedicated education page or contact a member of our team today.
