February 2023 – nSide™

February 22, 2023

Taking Bus Safety to the Next Level

In the event of an emergency or accident, the school bus driver is often the first point of contact for students. This means they must be prepared to respond quickly and efficiently to ensure the safety of everyone on the bus. Safety drills can help school bus drivers become familiar with the proper emergency procedures for emergencies such as inclement weather, a fire or explosion, an intruder, weapons, accidents, and more. By participating in safety drills, drivers can develop the skills and confidence needed to respond quickly and effectively in a crisis. Here are some situations in which school bus drivers should be trained to handle emergencies:

Inclement Weather: Emergencies such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or snowstorms can significantly impact transportation routes and road conditions.
Fire: In the event of a fire, bus drivers need to know how to evacuate the bus quickly and safely while keeping students calm and orderly. They should also be able to identify potential fire hazards on the bus and take proactive measures to prevent fires from starting in the first place.
Bomb/Explosive: Bus drivers should be conditioned to recognize suspicious packages or objects on the bus and know what to do if they suspect the presence of a bomb or explosive device.
Intruder/Unauthorized person: In the event of an intruder or an active shooter on the bus, drivers need to know how to secure the bus and keep students safe until help arrives. They should also be taught to recognize suspicious behavior and take appropriate action to prevent or mitigate potential threats.
Crash/Accident: Bus drivers need to be prepared to respond quickly and effectively in the event of a crash or accident. This includes evacuating the bus, administering first aid, and contacting emergency services.

Providing bus drivers access to safety technology can significantly enhance their ability to perform their job safely and efficiently. By reducing the risk of accidents and improving driver behavior, we can help ensure the safety of passengers and others on the road. In order to understand how, consider these reasons:

Enhancing situational awareness: Safety technology such as forward-facing and rear-view cameras, blind-spot monitoring, and collision avoidance systems provide drivers with increased visibility and understanding of their surroundings.
Improving driver behavior: Some safety technology systems provide real-time feedback to the driver, which can help them correct any unsafe driving behaviors, such as harsh braking or acceleration.
Reducing the risk of accidents: Safety technology such as lane departure warning systems and automatic emergency braking can detect potential hazards and intervene to prevent accidents before they occur.

By recognizing the signs of a crisis and taking appropriate action, drivers can help ensure that students receive the support they need to be successful both in and out of school. School bus drivers should be able to recognize student crises for a couple of reasons:

Early intervention: Bus drivers are in a unique position to observe students regularly and may be able to recognize early warning signs of a crisis, such as changes in behavior or demeanor. By identifying these signs early, drivers can take action to help the student before the situation escalates.
Safety: Students in crisis may pose a risk to themselves or others. By recognizing the signs of a problem, bus drivers can take steps to ensure the safety of all passengers on the bus and prevent any potential harm.

While safety is most critical within the walls of the school building, it also reaches further. Understanding the idea that school safety reaches beyond the school property line encourages schools to work with local communities to create a safe and secure learning environment for students and staff. Many students travel to and from school via buses, bikes, or walking. Their safety during these trips is just as important as their safety on school grounds. School officials must work with school bus drivers, local transportation providers, law enforcement, and community organizations to create safe transportation routes and identify potential hazards along the way.

Our product, nSide|Fleet, provides an extra layer of safety for school bus drivers, their passengers, and the staff that oversees them. With just over sixteen percent of accidents relating to school or bus companies directly, it’s crucial that schools reduce their liability and make their modes of transportation as safe as possible. nSide|Fleet does just that, giving schools the ability to monitor their entire group of school buses in just a few clicks of a mouse.

Grace Watkins

February 22, 2023

February 9, 2023

How updating your maps can boost school safety

The nSide platform is designed to help create safer learning environments for schools. It is built around the idea that in the event of an emergency, seconds matter. Organizing all the tools that go into emergency planning in one platform is what makes response time quick and efficient. When we look at the big picture, however, it is important to point out that in order for the platform to perform the way it was designed to in those seconds, consistent day-to-day use and maintenance is critical. For that reason, any time there is a change on your campus, your nSide maps should be updated.

There will inevitably be times when your school buildings will undergo maintenance, new construction, or have new utilities added. In each of these situations, there are steps you can follow to make sure your nSide map stays up-to-date. There are five main scenarios to consider:

Building Maintenance
New Construction
New Emergency Equipment
Changes in Room Information
Staging Area Updates

1.Building Maintenance

There are several reasons maintenance can be an important factor in school safety. For one thing, HVAC systems can be vital to air quality control. Leaks of chemicals or unmaintained gas heating systems can lead to emergencies in themselves. Even something as simple as a roof leak can lead to disastrous effects if combined with a room full of electronics.

Whenever there is significant maintenance completed in a building on your campus, there may be information that needs to be updated in your nSide map. Things like HVAC systems, water main shut-offs, and emergency equipment should all be labeled on your map. When you click on the icons that indicate the location of these systems, there is a menu that pops up on the left where you can keep track of maintenance and update information if any parts or units are replaced.

2.New Construction

Another building change to consider is new construction. Schools often get new additions, whether it is a new classroom building, a new sports facility, or even a new parking lot.

Each new addition to a campus has the potential to affect the Emergency Operations Plan, and there will be many safety considerations that need to be documented.

Whenever there is new construction of any kind on campus, this will require an updated set of floor plans. In order to add new construction to the nSide map, you will need to send nSide a copy of the new floor plans at help@nside.io.

Once nSide has a copy of the new floor plans, they can add the new structure(s) to your nSide map and add any relevant emergency equipment, HVAC, or camera details. Notify nSide at help@nside.io of any new construction so that we can keep your maps as updated and accurate as possible.

3. New Emergency Equipment

Whenever a new utility, camera, or piece of emergency equipment is added to your campus, these also need to be added to your map. Knowing where emergency equipment is located can save seconds or even minutes in an emergency situation. On a relatively large campus, most faculty and staff members will not automatically know where these things are located. Having these details accessible on the map makes it easier for your faculty and staff to navigate a difficult situation.

Examples of emergency equipment include, but are not limited to:

AEDs (Automated External Defibrillator): for use when someone experiences sudden cardiac arrest
Emergency Eye Wash (usually in science labs or near cleaning chemicals)
Emergency Lighting Equipment
Emergency Phones
EpiPens
Fire Alarms
Fire Extinguishers
Fire Pull Stations
Fire Department Connections (or hydrants)
First Aid Boxes
Key Boxes or Key Cards
Roof Access
Security Alarm Panels
Panic Buttons

4. Changes in Room Information

In addition to physical structure changes on campus, there are also often personnel changes, as well as rearranging of rooms and departments to different parts of campus. While nothing has changed your floor plans in these situations, it is still important to note these changes on your map.

When there is a personnel change on campus, editing that information in the map is simple but vital. For example, if there is a new teacher in a room, you can simply click on the room in the map and change the name and any other information associated with that teacher. The reason this is important is because in an emergency situation, people like emergency responders may be looking at your map to check locations of certain students, faculty, or staff who may have been affected. If that information is not updated, then a chain of communication is broken, and time may be wasted searching for the correct information.

When we say, “Seconds Matter,” this is one example of how seconds can be wasted in a simple administrative error. Updating your maps takes minimal time and effort, but it saves precious time in an emergency situation.

5. Staging Area Updates

The last change we will discuss is staging areas. Staging areas should be easily accessible and the routes to reach those areas clearly marked on the map. Whenever there are changes to a school’s floor plans or campus arrangement, staging areas could also be inadvertently affected. For example, if a new fence or barrier is constructed between a classroom building and a football field which serves as a staging area, then the evacuation route may be blocked. These small changes can lead to confusion in the event of an emergency. While the staging area may not have changed technically, the route to reach it did. This creates a need for a change on your map.

Whatever changes need to be made to your nSide map, we are always here to help! Please reach out to help@nside.io or use our Live Chat to get assistance with updating your map. For a step-by-step guide on how to update your maps, check out our Knowledge Base article!

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