Top 2023 School Security Trends Parents Need To Know5 min read

According to a recent survey, 77% of educational institutions recorded at least one crime on campus in 2019-2020. For parents, the current climate can be frightening. Luckily though, school security is becoming more robust and future-forward.

Here we’ll look into the top security trends for 2023 that parents need to know before your child starts another semester. Don’t miss out on these essential security tools and technologies.

Cloud-Based Systems To Reduce Costs

If your child’s campus hasn’t yet switched to a cloud-based security system, their security spending might be unnecessarily high.

On-premise security systems can be less cost-effective for educational institutions for the following reasons:

• On-premise systems require maintenance – with an on-premise security system, you must allocate time and resources towards maintaining the servers, ensuring the system is fully updated and operational. 
• On-premise systems require complex wiring systems – if a school employs an on-premise security system, it will need to use complex wiring systems to connect its security features across buildings, sites, and rooms. When the school needs to expand its campus, fitting a new security system can become more complex with an on-premise system and requires extra effort to establish these complex wiring systems.

A cloud-based security system can resolve these issues by offering the following benefits for a school’s security strategy:

• Over-the-air updates – with a cloud-based system, the school will not need to allocate time, energy, and resources towards managing, maintaining, and updating its security system. Instead, they can save time and easily handle system faults with over-the-air updates and troubleshooting. There’s no need to wait for a service engineer to come out and improve your system.
• Wireless capacity – there’s no need for complex wiring systems with a cloud-based security system. Instead, all security devices communicate and interconnect via BlueTooth, WiFi, and cellular communication.
• Mobile access credentials – is your child’s school still using keycards and fobs for on-site access? With a cloud-based system, they can completely eradicate the need for keycards and fobs. Instead, staff members, students, and contractors can access the site using mobile access credentials. When new students and staff members must be onboarded onto the system, your security staff and system administrators can onboard and offboard them remotely – all the student needs to do is download access credentials to their mobile device via a mobile application.

Increased Security With Remote Management

If you’re worried about your children’s safety at school, cloud-based security technologies can help you to feel more confident in the school’s security practices.

Cloud-based security technologies speed up security response times by enabling remote management. Your school’s system administrators and security staff can manage security remotely in the following ways:

• Disabling access credentials – if a student’s keycard, fob, or phone is stolen, your school can act quickly to ensure the access credentials are disabled, preventing an unauthorized user from entering the school with stolen credentials.
• Remote operation of door locks – with a cloud-based access control system, your security staff can remotely operate door locks, initiating lockdown procedures in an emergency, allowing visitors to enter the building, and ensuring doors are locked during the day.
• Security alerts – with remote security management, your school’s staff will be able to receive security alerts on their mobile devices, ensuring they are consistently up-to-date and aware of any security incidents on campus. This feature allows them to act quickly, hastening the efficiency of security response protocols. 
• Visibility – a cloud-based security system allows security staff and system administrators to remotely view security data from anywhere using a mobile application or cloud-based control center.

Integrating Security Systems Together

With cloud-based security systems come open API integrations that allow security professionals to integrate security systems for a more cohesive security strategy. When it comes to secure data management, hosting your security systems on disparate platforms can lead to data silos, making it more difficult for security teams to retrieve data and resolve security incidents.

Here are some of the top examples of the benefits of integrating security tools:

• Smart building management – your school can save money and reduce its carbon footprint by integrating IoT building management systems like HVAC, heating, and lighting with access control. When rooms are unoccupied, the IoT devices will switch off to conserve energy. When a space becomes occupied, they will switch on again for the user’s convenience.
• AI and analytics for surveillance – your school can integrate AI with school surveillance cameras to ensure all security threats are detected. Security staff can only monitor the video feed at some times, which means they may miss potential security incidents. AI and analytics scan your security camera data, detecting threats like guns, unauthorized entry, and more. You can also integrate facial recognition with your cameras to ensure no unauthorized personnel is on site.
•  Integrating cyber and physical security systems – if you implement data analytics for your cybersecurity strategy, integrating cyber and physical security systems will allow you to ensure that your school responds to cybersecurity threats with physical security processes. In the modern age, cyber and physical security are intrinsically linked, meaning disparate cyber and physical systems are no longer suitable.

Summary

In the current climate, parents must stay informed about security at their children’s educational institutions. If you’re looking to improve campus security, consider suggesting the security tools listed in this article or opting for educational institutions that already employ these technologies.