489 Virginia-area schools in 102 school divisions will share $12 million in security grant funding from the state's department of education. The grants will include monies for video monitoring systems, voice and video internal communications systems, school bus interior cameras, mass notification systems, visitor-identification systems, access control systems, two-way radios, security vestibules and other security upgrades.

Glasscock Independent School District, a public school district located in Garden City, Texas, with hundreds of students across two schools, has embarked on an ongoing security plan to convert to a largely wireless, keyless access-controlled environment, to streamline its security and access at its facilities.

New Mexico is awarding money to 222 school campuses for security upgrades, including new doors and locks, fencing and surveillance cameras.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will soon be allowed to only wear clear school backpacks on campus.

Increased security measures and state-of-the-art security systems have become a common theme in today’s education industry. As threats become more apparent, security directors are turning to technology to help prevent or mitigate an event. New facilities are being equipped with cutting edge technology to ensure the safety of students and staff.

Of the hundreds of school shootings that have taken place in the last 50 years, only a few have involved the attacker having to physically break into the building, either through a window or – as in the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting – through a glass door. While there is technology available to mitigate that risk even further (including several brands of bullet- and impact-resistant glass), Advanced Data Risk Management LLC President and school security consultant Dan O’Neill says that perimeter security should only be one factor in eliminating easy targets for active shooters.

With programmable automatic locking from RS2 and local integrator Kendell Doors, however, Shanks can program the building’s doors to lock and unlock during various community or extracurricular events on the campus.

Locking all exterior doors, even excepting the main entrance, is a bad move from a first responder standpoint, says the Vancouver report.