School Safety: Utilize Cooperative Purchasing to Equip Your School with Robust Safety Solutions
School is almost back in session and your school’s procurement professionals are likely gearing up to purchase the supplies and equipment needed for the upcoming school year.
As your school seeks to assess urgent needs and identify gaps, it is vital to consider safety solutions that may need to be added to your arsenal.
There are many kinds of incidents that can impact schools. Hazard types include:
Biological: infectious diseases, contaminated food
Community: nearby infrastructure, military installations, waste sites, community venues
Crime and violence: weapons, fights, active shooters, gang violence, intruders
Climate and culture: drug use, bullying, hostile environments
Natural: natural and weather-related disasters
Physical environment: structural, maintenance, and grounds hazards
Technological: internet predators, cyber-attacks, power outages, inappropriate computer use
Terrorism: explosions, kidnapping, bioterrorism, nuclear blasts, radiological threats
Conducting a Threat Assessment at Your School
Maybe your community doesn’t often face annual weather concerns such as hurricanes, and your school isn’t located near hazardous infrastructure like nuclear power plants. Regardless of the environment your school inhabits, unpredictable disasters like fires and crimes can occur anywhere. That’s why it’s essential to prepare for natural and man-made events that could affect the wellbeing of your students.
If your school hasn’t formally determined the risks it’s up against, conducting a site assessment is essential for highlighting the highest probability threats, your school’s vulnerabilities, and what security practices should be implemented. Districts and schools looking to identify weaknesses in their environment should select an assessment tool, establish a list of assets to be assessed, and use research to create a list of potential hazards.
When your school is ready to conduct a site assessment, a team of individuals should be gathered from the school and the community to assist with the assessment. In a critical incident review published by the U.S. Department of Justice, threat assessment teams were advised to establish a structured process for managing threat assessments, along with a manual to guide their activities. For any identified gaps, the U.S. Department of Justice recommends that the school establish plans for procuring and implementing necessary technology and equipment.
Outfitting Your School with Safety Measures
While schools in states like Texas must adhere to strict safety requirements and undergo regular formal assessments, other states have more generalized recommendations that may not always be enforced. All schools, however, can protect their environment from violence and other threats with measures like an access control system, security cameras, and an IT infrastructure that allows for site monitoring.
If your school is looking to adopt more robust security measures but doesn’t know where to begin, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency (CISA) suggests a layered approach to physical security that includes means of detection, delay, and response throughout the school grounds and buildings. Detection methods could include lighting and CCTV at the grounds’ perimeter, motion detection and screening devices at the building perimeter, and CCTV with an open-sight design in the building interior. Delay methods might involve limiting entry points and installing fencing at the grounds’ perimeter, as well as automatic locks on doors at both the building perimeter and inside the building. Response methods could consist of emergency call boxes at the grounds’ perimeter, a school-wide intercom system at the building perimeter, and emergency alarms within the building interior.
Cooperative Purchasing as Your Avenue to a Safer School
Your school’s procurement team plays a crucial role in identifying and advocating for IT and facilities solutions that ensure the safety of students and educators. Unfortunately, few local education agencies can quickly purchase and implement all the latest safety materials and technology. School districts often operate within limited budgets, and it can be particularly challenging to gain additional funds to meet security needs outside those mandated by regulatory requirements.
Working with a cooperative purchasing organization is often the most efficient way to equip your school with health, safety, and security supplies. Instead of investing valuable time in bidding for products to protect your school, you can leverage cooperative contracts obtained through a rigorous request for proposal (RFP) process managed by skilled procurement teams across the country. This purchasing approach frees up your time to focus on your students and offers immediate access to a diverse range of industry-leading security solutions.
Questions about cooperative purchasing? Click here for more information.
Access World-Class Safety Solutions Through OMNIA Partners
Easy access to safety products and solutions is crucial for your school’s procurement personnel, and cooperative purchasing organizations are invaluable allies in meeting safety requirements. A free membership with OMNIA Partners means full access to our contract portfolio, spend visibility, analytics, and subject matter experts.
Whether you’re planning to install a new security system or equip your schools and campus with automated external defibrillators (AED), there are cooperative contracts to accommodate your unique needs. Our contracts are competitively solicited and publicly awarded and encompass the biggest names in the safety industry. And, while you use our contracts to help your school integrate new security solutions, you can connect with our industry experts for guidance through strong supplier relationships.
School Specialty has carefully curated an extensive range of solutions designed to help you keep your students healthy and safe. On-staff safety experts can also advise you on the best way to meet your district’s needs. Their solutions include physical security, health and wellness, operation and emergency management, environmental safety, and transportation safety items.
Safeware is a national leader in public preparedness with a focused group of safety products for K-12 schools. The classroom safety offerings meet a variety of needs including first aid (trauma kits, bus kits), school security (active aggressor prevention, lockdown, collapsible defense systems, metal detectors), facilities supplies (fire extinguishers, lab safety equipment, maintenance, janitorial, PPE), and more.
ODP Business Solutions provides workplace and technology solutions and maintains an extensive range of products and services. Their solutions include methods of perimeter hardening like ballistic film and security glass, safety and security technology, and a myriad of other school supplies and equipment.
Mallory specializes in distributing safety and emergency equipment and services to public agencies nationwide. With multiple locations and a team of dedicated safety professionals, Mallory ensures that purchasing departments and end-users can access essential fire & rescue, law enforcement, and general safety solutions for any project.
Graybar collaborates with OMNIA Partners to provide agencies with communication, networking, wireless, security, electrical, and lighting solutions. Graybar can help you upgrade your school’s alerting system with alarm equipment, motion sensors, and photoelectric beam sensors. Their offerings extend to security and CCTV cameras, access control equipment, sound systems, and LED floodlights.
Everon (formerly ADT Commercial) can fully integrate your existing security, fire, and life safety systems with their access control systems, gunshot detection solutions, mass notification and emergency communications systems, video systems, remote monitoring and more.
CDW-G is one of the largest education technology solution providers and has established a robust contract portfolio for OMNIA Partners that helps reduce your administrative workload while ensuring that your needs are met with new IT products and services.
SHI works with OMNIA Partners to offer customers access to its comprehensive catalog of IT services and solutions. The SHI team includes educators, engineers, and support personnel dedicated to assisting education clients in securing their networking infrastructure and end-user devices, as well as with other specialized IT requirements.
The Home Depot Pro supports public agencies with time and cost savings, ensuring that your school can get the supplies you need when and where you need them. Through its partnership with OMNIA Partners, The Home Depot Pro provides maintenance, repair, operating, and industrial supplies and services, contributing to the safety of educational institutions.
HD Supply, a premier wholesale distributer, offers a comprehensive range of safety services and solutions. Through HD Supply, you can equip your school with access control solutions like locks and door closers, as well as safety and emergency equipment, first aid supplies, motion sensors, and security lighting. They also provide hardware essentials like padlocks, lock sets, fire extinguishers, and safes.
Grainger is America’s top source for industrial-grade supplies and safety products. With a strong commitment to next-day delivery for 97% of the U.S., Grainger ensures schools have access to a wide range of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) offerings, from bullet-resistant doors to occupancy and motion sensors.
Purchase Physical Security Supplies on OPUS
OMNIA Partners OPUS is the best way to research and buy from hundreds of suppliers all in one place at zero additional cost. Your school’s procurement team can explore millions of products and directly purchase safety supplies and other school essentials from major K-12 suppliers like Safeware, ODP Business Solutions, and Grainger. If you are looking for a specific item, OPUS includes the QuickConnect feature, enabling your team to find almost any product in our catalog and connect with a supplier contact who is experienced in public sector purchasing.
Register for OPUS today and assemble a cart with all the tools needed to protect your students.
Prepare Better with OMNIA Partners
Conducting thorough threat assessments and adopting a layered approach to physical security are critical steps in fostering safer learning environments. And, collaborating with cooperative purchasing organizations like OMNIA Partners allows schools to streamline their procurement processes while gaining unprecedented access to a wide array of safety solutions.
As you get ready for your students to come back to school, consider how leveraging time and cost savings could help your procurement team create a safer learning environment.