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Safety is a critical component of any K-12 school, and a key part of safety is having the right information during an emergency. Leveraging tools and practices that keep the right people informed at the right time goes a long way toward enhancing safety and security in schools and districts. However, safety is an ongoing process. It doesn’t happen all at once, and it should never be thought of as something that can be done once and then be left alone. Safety requires continuous adaptations to respond to the needs of your school or district.

Attend this free webinar to:
• Learn about emergency preparedness and response
• Understand how to build a mass notification ecosystem that reaches everyone
• Receive best practices for using mass notifications to communicate about new schedules and expectations that have been implemented as a result of COVID-19…Read More

Remote Science Instruction in High School Biology and Chemistry

Leading school science supplier Carolina Biological Supply Company introduced a new product line to help high schools provide high-quality, hands-on science instruction during COVID-19 disruptions. The solution includes all of the digital and physical components that individual students need to complete science investigations for the entire school year from anywhere, boxed and ready to take home. Carolina Kits | 3D® FLEX programs for remote learning are available now and are a full-year lab program for either high school biology or chemistry, intended to complement the classroom teacher’s curriculum and instruction. The FLEX product is a box of hands-on supplies that contains everything a student needs to complete take-home science labs and assignments from their teachers; from safety goggles to plastic ware to safe, home-friendly chemicals to perform 16 different science investigations. The program includes access to over 120 digital resources, including instructional videos and digital labs, and is also available in an all-digital FLEX Lite version.

Every student is provided with their own materials that can travel with them, so they can do the same hands-on labs, no matter the circumstances or location. If they are working individually in the school due to social distancing guidelines or at home in their kitchen, they can safely perform hands-on Next Generation Science Standards* (NGSS) investigations.

Teachers are vital to the student’s success and FLEX provides teachers with extensive resources to be successful with remote learning. From detailed lesson plans to background materials to student worksheets – everything is also included for the teacher. The teacher controls the digital resources and assigns them as suggested in the lesson plans or as students progress. The program is designed for both synchronous and asynchronous learning.…Read More

Professional Learning Summer Webinar Series

Flinn Scientific is hosting a safe return to school series of webinars, designed to provide facts and information to enhance student learning and facilitate instruction in a safe format, regardless of the learning modality.

Webinars cover safety measures, processes, and protocols required to keep students and staff safe. They have curated the top recommendations from recognized leaders in education, safety, and protection worldwide to help you sort through the overwhelming avalanche of content and readily get to the facts, links, and information that you need.

For School District Personnel
Guidance to Safe School Re-Entry: We all recognize that there is not a ‘one-size fits all’ solution to safely returning to school. In this session, they discuss safety preparation and concerns within schools and maintaining a physically and mentally healthy school environment.…Read More

COVID-19 student transportation safety solution

CalAmp, a global technology solutions pioneer transforming the mobile connected economy, and its subsidiary Synovia Solutions, today introduce Bus Guardian, a suite of digital solutions designed to help schools more safely and confidently return students to the classroom.

Bus Guardian is a powerful, flexible, and scalable solution designed to help schools deliver actionable reporting on school bus ridership focused on contact tracing in the event of an ill student. The program also delivers a hygiene verification system to help administrators monitor and report on real-time sanitization efforts.

When paired with the latest features of the award-winning mobile app, Here Comes The Bus, Bus Guardian delivers a robust, off-the-shelf slate of software and hardware products ready to support schools and families as students return to the classroom.…Read More

Is Zoom Safe? —15 Zoom Safety Tips

If you’ve been reading the news lately, you’d know Zoom’s video conferencing software isn’t as safe as we all previously thought.

But did you know that locking your meetings and disabling your audio and video can help keep your information more secure and private?

With the recent increase in remote learning, you’re probably wondering, “Is my child’s information safe?” or if you’re a teacher, “What can I do to beef up the security features for my class?”.…Read More

PebbleGo Health, Offers Special Educator Preview in June

Capstone, innovative publisher of children’s educational content for schools and home, announces the release of PebbleGo™ Health, a curricular content module focused on fundamental health, wellness, safety, and social-emotional learning concepts for K-3 students. PebbleGo Health features 156 age-appropriate articles aligned with state and national curriculum standards supporting health education, as well as a range of topics to build positive social emotional skills in support of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework.

From body systems and safety to self-awareness and relationships, PebbleGo Health helps students learn functional health information and develop foundational health skills. During this launch month, Capstone is offering a special Educator Preview to all educators who want to explore the new resource for free.

The module’s robust content promotes personal, family, and community health, exploring a wide-range of topics, such as: Feelings and Emotions, Health Care Visits, Health Care Workers, Healthy Habits, If You Need Help, Illnesses and Conditions, My World and My Health, Nutrition, Relationships and Friendships, Safety, Self-Awareness, and the Human Body. The module includes three extended learning exercises in each article, including a related activity and critical thinking prompts in “Share What You Know” and “Questions for Understanding.”…Read More

Simplify student health care management

Frontline School Health Management has expanded their offering to include COVID-19 training, tracking, data analytics and reporting for students AND staff to support and ensure the physical, mental and behavioral health, well-being and regulation compliance of the full school community as they develop plans to address social distancing, COVID-19 case tracking and more in addition to their existing responsibilities.

  • Comprehensively and easily collect health data on students, their families and school staff (e.g., symptoms, testing, immunity and other data)
  • Educate, implement and enforce practices to increase safety and reduce risk
  • Provide comprehensive tracking, reporting and oversight
  • Support mental and behavioral health issues among students

For additional information visit Frontline Education

…Read More

How to thoughtfully implement panic buttons into your school safety plan

During an emergency situation, there is nothing more important than response time. A single minute can be the difference between help arriving on time versus too late. In fact, the average school shooting lasts 12.5 minutes, while the average police response time is 18 minutes. There is no time to waste when something goes awry, especially in a school.

Anyone who has worked in the education field can tell you that there is no such thing as a typical school day–whether it’s a burst pipe, student fight, an intruder, or an allergic reaction, no two days are ever the same and they rarely go according to plan. In these situations, teachers and staff should have a way to summon help quickly and easily, and a great tool for this is a panic button.

Related content: 5 ways our district tech enhances student safety…Read More

Free access to assistive technology products

If you or your students are suddenly at home with no access to your AT software, Freedom Scientific has you covered.

Your health and safety are just as important to us as accessibility. We know many of you must remain at home and will need to continue to work or attend school remotely. To ensure that your life remains accessible Freedom Scientific is offering those in the US and Canada a Free Home License of JAWS, ZoomText, or Fusion which will expire June 30, 2020.

For those outside North America, Freedom Scientific and its international distributors are working together to provide home solutions for their customers during the COVID-19 crisis. Please contact your local distributor if you need assistance connecting to school or work from home.…Read More

Digital ethics for kids

iKeepSafe, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing a safe digital landscape for children, schools and families, recently launched the sixth installment of the Faux Paw the Techno Cat narrated e-book series, Faux Paw and the Unfortunate Upload. This e-book covers digital ethics for kids, helping them to understand how their behaviors online can impact their relationships in real life.

The Faux Paw e-book series is a free resource for parents, educators, and caregivers to help teach children the importance of safety and security online. “With more children spending time online due to COVID-19 school closures, it’s more important than ever for parents and teachers to ensure their children are staying safe while using digital devices,” says Jacalyn Leavitt, founder of iKeepSafe and former First Lady of Utah. “This book — and the rest of the Faux Paw series — is an excellent resource for parents and educators to help keep their children safe when using the internet.”

Each book in the Faux Paw series covers a separate online safety topic for kids, including how to handle a cyberbully, balancing real life with screen time, and how to make healthy media choices. The books are available in PDF format through the iKeepSafe website, or can be viewed on the iKeepSafe YouTube channel as either a narrated e-book or animated cartoon.…Read More

Remote Monitoring Software Free to Districts

In order to help teachers keep students on task throughout the school day, when they are at learning at home, Impero Software is making its Impero Education Pro web-based software free for the remainder of the school year to districts that do not already have remote monitoring software in place. The powerful cross-platform product combines tools for online safety, teacher control, and real time monitoring and session tracking for student devices.

“The most important thing for schools right now is ensuring they have the tools available to support remote learning and we’re working to remove any barriers to that” says Justin Reilly, Impero CEO. “In order to conduct lessons remotely with a group of students who are on their devices at home, teachers need a remote classroom management solution that provides a live view of the student devices, alongside online safety and learner engagement tools to keep them safe and on task. As a former teacher, I am sympathetic to the challenges teachers are facing in this unprecedented time and we are working diligently to support schools. That is why we are offering this tool free for the remaining three months of the school year.”

Impero Education Pro is designed to enhance learning, support IT teams and safeguard students in the digital world. Teachers have access to key tools including live thumbnail view, broadcast screen, block list, live chat, and log viewer to ensure students receive continued access to education.…Read More

Protection for student devices — Even off campus

Lightspeed Systems is offering a free, extended trial of Relay Filter or Relay Classroom through the end of the school year.

Relay Filter protects students, even off-campus
Students being out of school and at home for extended periods can mean they spend more time online. Distance learning can also mean students who don’t usually take devices home will need to do so. Filtering those devices is essential.

Relay Filter protects students on school devices at school, at home, and everywhere in between. Safety Check extends this protection to include real-time monitoring and alerts on students at risk of self-harm or violence.…Read More