Visitors to Wake schools could soon be required to show ID, have a chaperone
Visitors to Wake County schools would need to show identification, submit to a background check and be chaperoned throughout their visit to the school, under a draft protocol presented Tuesday by the Wake County Public School System.
The school system is coming up with its own Rules and Procedures policy to coincide with its launch July 1 of a new visitor management system.
The visitor management system and visitor rules are part of the school district's response to a 2019 security audit of its schools. They're being implemented at the same time school threats and public mass shootings are rising nationwide and while the school district plans five more physical security upgrades that it's keeping confidential.
On Tuesday, the Wake County Board of Education’s policy committee decided to continue discussing the rule changes at a future safety and security committee meeting. The school system can move forward with the rules without school board approval, but officials are seeking feedback from the board before finalizing them.
Board members' discussion Tuesday veered off into a larger discussion about establishing what Board Member Chris Heagarty called a "baseline" of school security.
The school system does not currently have a systemwide set of rules for visitors, though it does already have a visitor policy. That policy requires visitors to check in with their school’s front office.
The new visitor management system is a technology that requires visitors — including parents and volunteers — to enroll in the system when they arrive at a school. Then, they must show ID and submit to a short background check. The check would include a review of whether the visitor is on a sex-offender registry or has custody or trespass orders relevant to their attempt to visit. Those on the sex-offender registry won't be allowed in the school past the office. The district has access to updates lists for the registry and custody and trespass orders.
Then, a school administrator would verify the reason for the visit, provide the visitor with a sticker signaling they have passed through the system, and send an employee to accompany the visitor while they’re at the school.
"We want to make sure that they go where they say they’re going," Russ Smith, the school system's senior director of security, told board members Tuesday. “We’re not just giving free roam or free access to the building."
Volunteers, who already must pass background checks, would not need to be escorted throughout the school.
The technology would be located in different places, depending on the school. For schools with a double-door system — often called a security vestibule — the system would be located between the two sets of doors. For schools with only a single set of doors, the system would be located inside of the school office.
Board Member Sam Hershey said he was concerned that asking visitors to go to an office in a single-door school would be ineffective. He suggested more rules for those schools, rather than expected an office staff member to intercept every visitor who may bypass the office.
"We’re asking for short-staffed places to deal with a lot of things at once," Hershey said.
Visitors who are simply picking up and dropping off a student would need to sign into the system but would not need to wear a badge while they are in the building. The district had originally proposed they would not need to sign in, citing the limited capacity of administration during that time. But board members recommended the district add the requirement to ensure the school kept track of who was entering the building.
First responders would not need to use the visitor management system before entering the building.
Principals would need to be able to waive the sign-in requirement for large events at schools, Smith said, when it's impractical to check more than 100 or so people into a school before the event.
"They need to have a little bit of flexibility for certain events," Smith said.
It will also need a backup plan for when visitors come to school without an ID, he said.
Before July, the school system will send out a notice of parents and guardians about the new rules and visitor management system, Smith said.
