School Door Security

Jon Jones ● Oct 1 ● 17 min read

In today’s day and age, the top priority for any educational facility is keeping students and staff safe and secure. Educators may find that school door security planning involves a unique set of challenges. With many people entering and exiting throughout the day, it may seem difficult to implement a school security system that provides physical security without interfering with the learning environment. But, Monarch is here to help educators who strive to keep their learning environments safe.

Monarch recognizes that each school has its own set of issues, goals, and limits. After all, each educational facility has a unique design, setting, population, and other site-specific issues that call for varied degrees of flexibility and complexity to meet their particular demands. At Monarch, we will collaborate with you to build, deploy, and maintain an integrated security system for your school by implementing school door security measures to control access to the building. With our help at Monarch, you’ll be able to concentrate on what really matters: creating a learning environment that encourages the future’s creators, innovators, and leaders to advance.

Security Challenges at Schools

As schools grapple with today’s challenges, it is important to partner with experienced security professionals who can help assess risks and implement effective solutions. By staying ahead of the curve, schools can keep their students, faculty, and staff safe from harm with advanced school door security. Consider some of the following security challenges faced by schools that must be addressed with a comprehensive school door security approach:

• Gun Violence: In the wake of recent gun violence in schools, faculty must consider upgrading their security systems to include surveillance cameras, alarms, sensors, and door controllers.
• Theft & Vandalism: According to the National Education Association (NEA), a school is three times more likely to be broken into than a business. Additionally, the NEA estimates that more than $1 billion is lost to vandalism each year in schools. Thus, it’s important to deter and capture these crimes with surveillance cameras that are part of your security system.
• Unlawful Intrusions: Ensure safety and security in schools by implementing a security system that includes door controllers and readers to prevent intrusions.
• COVID-19 Safety: With schools returning to in-person operations, faculty should ensure safety through continuous monitoring of students with surveillance cameras and sensors.
• Physical Altercations: The NEA reports that 900 educators are threatened every hour of every school day. Furthermore, every hour, over 2,000 students are physically assaulted on school grounds. Keep your students and staff safe from fighting and bullying with environmental sensors that can detect excessive noise and movement.
• Vapes: Keep your students safe from the dangers of nicotine and addiction by implementing security systems with environmental sensors that can detect vaping.

Building a Security System for Schools

It is critical to address the most significant issues faced by schools such as unlawful entrance, vandalism, and school shootings while developing a school security system. But there should also be security measures in place at schools to guard against common problems like theft and physical altercations. It is also important to guarantee the safety of places like restrooms, storage facilities, and teacher lounges. At Monarch, we’re here to help you build a security system that is the best fit for your educational facility.

Security Cameras

Security cameras are a critical part of school security systems. After all, schools are often sites of bullying, theft, vandalism, and even intrusions. Consider the following benefits of having school security cameras.

Protection of Students and Staff

• School security cameras allow faculty to monitor everyone who enters and exits school gates, making it easier to recognize intruders and prevent unwanted people from entering school grounds.
• With security cameras installed as part of your overall security system, it is easy to keep an eye on public locations like parking lots that can often be sites of poor behavior and/or crime.
• The presence of security cameras on campus can enhance overall student experiences by discouraging behaviors like bullying, vandalism, and theft. Overall, security cameras enhance your security system and the feeling of safety so that students and staff feel comfortable in their learning environment.

Resolution of Incidents

• With video footage and intelligent search filters at their disposal, administrators can rapidly locate recorded footage of significant incidents and effectively handle student conflict or behavioral issues.
• In an emergency, school staff and authorized users can submit live video footage instantaneously, significantly reducing the time it takes to contact the authorities and parents. This single feature enhances your security system by miles.

Deter Threats Proactively

• Deter threats like vandalism and theft with the use of security cameras that are wisely placed throughout school grounds.
• Improve your understanding of what is going on on school grounds by using AI analytics that are available with Verkada security systems.
• Without having to actively monitor school security cameras, you can be notified of unusual activity such as cars or individuals appearing on campus after school hours.
• In other cases, school security cameras can be utilized to help teachers and instructional aides predict misconduct and potentially prevent it.

Explore Our Options

Design and Features

Verkada offers technology that is secure and easy to use for educators. The set-up is simple: once a device is installed, it is online and fully operational within just a few minutes. Moreover, the security devices offered by Verkada do not depend on NVRs. So, you can store up to 365 days of quality footage locally. Furthermore, you can store clips in the cloud indefinitely, so you can easily share archived events when needed. Additionally, the devices of Verkada update automatically, making it easier for you to focus on your job.

Benefits of Verkada Security Cameras

Consider adding cameras to your school door security measures to experience the following benefits:

• Secure remote access: Access your security cameras to monitor the facility at any time on any of your devices.
• Live access feeds: One can easily monitor access-based activity.
• Floor plans: Quickly respond to incidents with real-time motion plotting. With floor plans, you could also click into any device in order to view the footage of that specific device.
• People and Vehicle Analytics: Verkada offers advanced search filters. You could search for individuals by clothing color or search for vehicles by color, make, or even license plates.
• Time lapse: Watch a day of footage in under 30 seconds with timelapses.
• Live links: You can share secure access to footage or camera feeds with authorized users via SMS or link. You could also limit the duration of time that viewers can access the footage. Of course, you can also easily add, edit, or even revoke user access.

Additionally, Verkada offers security cameras that are thoughtfully designed. The cameras have a durable design, firmware signing, and can detect tampering. There are several models to choose from including the dome series, the bullet series, the fisheye series, and the mini series. Choose the security cameras that fit your needs and ensure school door security. Verkada offers school security cameras that come with the right design and features to ensure the safety and security of staff and students.

Improve Your School Door Security System with Verkada Cameras

We offer a variety of options for your school door security system including: the Verkada Indoor Dome Series, the Verkada Outdoor Dome Series, the Verkada Bullet Series, the Verkada Mini Series, and Verkada Fisheye Series.

The Verkada Indoor Dome Series

The Verkada Indoor Dome Camera is designed for indoor, high-traffic areas. It is the perfect general-purpose security camera for your school entry/exit points and hallways. There are three versions of this camera: CD42, CD52, and C62.

	CD42	CD52	CD62
Image Resolution	5MP	5MP	4K
Type of Lens	Fixed, with 3x Zoom Digitally	Zoom, with 3x Optical and Digital Zoom	Zoom, with 3x Optical and Digital Zoom
Standard Retention	Up to 365 Days	Up to 365 Days	Up to 90 Days
Standard Storage	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB
Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes
IR Range	15m	30m	30m

The Verkada Outdoor Dome Series

The Verkada Outdoor Dome Series is both weather- and tamper-resistant; as an administrator, you won’t have to worry about students messing with the camera’s capabilities. Moreover, its capabilities function well even in areas with limited bandwidth and connectivity. This is perfect if you want to monitor the parking lot of your business and if you want to capture key license plates. There are three versions of this camera: CD42-E, CD52-E, and C62-E.

	CD42-E	CD52-E	CD62-E
Type	Outdoors	Outdoors	Outdoors
Image Resolution	5MP	5MP	4K
Type of Lens	Fixed, with 3x Zoom Digitally	Zoom, with 3x Optical and Digital Zoom	Zoom, with 3x Optical and Digital Zoom
Standard Retention	Up to 365 Days	Up to 365 Days	Up to 90 Days
Standard Storage	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB
Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes
IR Range	15m	30m	30m

The Verkada Bullet Series

The Verkada Bullet Series is ideal for long range, outdoor surveillance. It is built to withstand harsh environments. Regardless of where your school is located, you’ll be able to depend on this camera. The Verkada Bullet camera is available in two lens types: wide angle and telephoto. There are four versions of this camera: CB51-E, CB61-E, CB51-TE, CB61-TE

	CB51-E	CB51-TE	CB61-E	CB61-TE
Type	Indoor and/or Outdoor	Indoor and/or Outdoor	Indoor and/or Outdoor	Indoor and/or Outdoor
Image Resolution	5MP	5MP	4K	4K
Type of Lens	Zoom, with up to 3x Optical and Digital zoom	Telephoto Zoom, with 8-20mm focal length	Zoom, with up to 3x Optical and Digital zoom	Telephoto Zoom, with 8-20mm focal length
Standard Retention	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB
Standard Storage	Up to 365 Days	Up to 365 Days	Up to 90 Days	Up to 90 Days
IR Range	30m	50m	30m	50m
Audio	–	–	–

The Verkada Mini Series

The Verkada Mini Series offers both flexibility and enhanced resolution. The Mini Camera is a compact size that can fit any space, anywhere indoors! If you wish to conserve space, then this is the camera for you. There are three versions of this camera: CM41-S, CM41, and CM41-E.

	CM41-S	CM41	CM41-E
Type	Indoor	Indoor	Outdoor
Image Resolution	5MP	5MP	5MP
Type of Lens	Fixed, with up to 3x Digital Zoom	Fixed, with up to 3x Digital Zoom	Fixed, with up to 3x Digital Zoom
Standard Retention	Up to 90 days	Up to 365 Days	Up to 365 Days
Standard Storage	Up to 385GB	Up to 2TB	Up to 2TB
IR Range	N/A	15m	15m
Audio	–	Yes	–

The Verkada Fisheye Camera

The Verkada Fisheye Camera provides a panoramic view of the entire property – both indoor and outdoor. This camera allows for total surveillance coverage – which is critical to protect your school doors. The Fisheye Camera comes in one version: CF81-E. It is both an indoor and outdoor camera with an image resolution of 12MP. It has a fixed type of lens that has the ability to digitally zoom up to 3x. The maximum storage capacity available is 2TB. It can store up to 90 days of footage. It has audio. Lastly, it has an IR range of 20m.

Access Control

Access control is becoming an increasingly significant component of school security systems, with more educational facilities and campuses relying on it to maintain security during and after school hours. Essentially, access control allows schools to determine who can enter and access certain areas of the school. This is important considering just how many visitors come to schools (e.g., parents, prospective students, maintenance, guest speakers).

Additionally, access control allows individuals to track who is entering and leaving specific areas and when. Access control also keeps unauthorized personnel away. Furthermore, access control enables employees to move around quickly to maximize efficiency with keycards.

There are many ways to control access to a school – and Monarch can help you determine which approaches you’d like to employ for your school door security system.

Verkada’s AC41 Door Controller

With Verkada’s AC41 Door Controller, clients may bring plug-and-play ease to managing doors and access throughout their business. In other words, as soon as you install the AC41 Door Controller, it is ready to use within minutes! Our Access Controller can easily integrate with any existing door hardware and readers in your school.

With our Command platform, you can easily manage your doors once they are connected to the network. On the Command platform, you can effortlessly manage building access, scheduling, and users. You also save time adding users on the platform since employees are seamlessly configured, onboarded, and offboarded. This is because of the integration with active directory platforms.

Additionally, you can easily connect your Access Controller with your cameras using Verkada Command to provide real-time video analytics on access-related events. Thus, you are able to not only view what is happening at your business’ points of entry, but also take proactive action for any significant occurrences. The door controller, then, is an essential for your school door security system.

Verkada’s AD32 Door Reader

The AD32 Door Reader is yet another device that allows you to control access to your school entry points. This door reader supports low and high frequency card formats as well as mobile devices that have the Verkada Pass app. Furthermore, the AD32 Door Reader comes in two different options: the Mullion Mount Plate and the Single Gang Mount Plate. Both options allow for customized installs.

The Single Gang Mount Plate is a common card reader format that can replace existing reader mounts or be used on traditional installations. The thinner Mullion form factor has a sleek design and can be used in smaller spaces such as door frames.

Learn More About Access Control

Access Control Key Features

With Verkada devices, business security is made easy! Consider the following key features of Verkada’s access control:

• Seamless Video Integration and Analytics
• Infinite Scalability
• Cloud-Based Software and Management
• Integrate the Access Controller with Any Existing Cards and Readers
• 10-year Warranty on Hardware
• Verkada’s Pass App: Touchless Access Capability with Bluetooth

Access Control for School Door Security Systems: The Uses

As an administrator at your school, you can feel secure knowing students and staff are safe with Verkada’s Access Control for the school door security system. Consider the following benefits of implementing access control at your school:

Insight on Building Access Activity

• Our access control system handles visitor credentials and ensures that visitors like maintenance workers and parents only have access to specific areas. This prevents theft and vandalism.
• Access control allows faculty to control who can enter and access certain areas of the campus.
• Faculty can track who is entering and leaving specific areas and when.

Intrusion Detection

• School safety door locks deter potential crime by allowing only those with authorized credentials to unlock the door, especially at night and on weekends when the school is closed.
• Access control is also crucial for identifying intrusions when they do happen. You can filter for door events like tailgating, holding the door open, forcing the door open, and people of interest.

Asset Protection

• Misconduct is common in areas such as teacher’s lounges, storage areas, and faculty offices. Schools can prevent students and visitors from entering restricted areas by installing door lock systems that require authorized credentials.
• Safeguard library, gym, and science and computer lab equipment with controlled access school door locks. Only authorized students or faculty will be able to gain entry into these areas by using access controlled school door locks. Prevent vandalism and theft with this measure.

Verkada’s Door Controller Follows Regulations

Verkada meet the following guidelines for door locks in schools:

1. without opening the door to set the lock, a teacher should be able to control the classroom door lock from the inside;
2. emergency responders must be able to enter a classroom or office without having to obtain a credential for the school door lock systems
3. the school door locks should be easy to use and accessible to everyone, including students with disabilities;
4. door locks must adhere to all building and fire codes in order to comply with school safety regulations.

Verkada’s Access Control devices meet the above requirements while still providing a safe, secure environment for students, staff, and faculty.

Managing Access Credentials

So, how does Verkada’s access control work? You can manage access control on the Verkada Command platform which is where you can access and monitor all of your devices. There are many different features that you may use to secure access control across your school.

First, you can specify the user groups or access levels of your school on Verkada Command. Then, you can design badge templates for each user group or access level. Next, you can print the badges and issue credentials either in bulk or individually. Finally, you can maintain your school’s users and permissions up to date in real time.

What else can be done on Verkada Command to manage your business’ access control? Consider the following features:

• Synchronize Profiles: Synchronize users from SSO systems such as Okta and Azure Active Directory, and natively capture access levels and groups.
• Provisioning with a Single Click: With a single click, employees can be issued bluetooth credentials or a physical ID card.
• Log of Badge Events: On Verkada Command, access a log of badge events to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to secure areas.
• Secure De-provisioning: Instantly and automatically deprovision users from all systems and access points.
• Unlock Doors from Anywhere, Anytime: Users can remotely unlock authorized doors using either the Verkada Pass and Command Mobile apps
• One-Tap Instant Lockdown: Create custom Lockdown scenarios that can be activated with a single tap to immediately secure buildings in the event of an emergency.

How Verkada Works for Schools

At Monarch, we recognize the importance of collaborating with educators, government officials, and law enforcement to provide a secure learning environment for youth. We’ve worked with small, local public schools to large universities, providing us with an understanding of the variety of school-specific needs.

The Roles of IT

With centralized physical management, IT and security teams can readily and remotely access any information needed if they have the authorization.

The Roles of Superintendents and Faculty

District superintendents and school faculty can also remotely monitor the facility because of centralized device management. Essentially, to monitor the school, one only needs to go onto one platform and all the information is there. This allows the faculty to quickly find, share, and even save footage for any investigations thereby saving the district from costs that could disrupt annual budgets. Lastly, one can protect student privacy with a feature that automatically blurs faces.

The Roles of Security

Lastly, those in security roles can reduce emergency response time through proactive monitoring. One also receives realtime updates for unusual behavior, especially after school hours. Finally, to keep students safe from any unwanted intruder, one can easily activate instant lockdown from any device.

All in all, a Verkada security system offered by Monarch guarantees safety and security for everyone involved in protecting students and faculty.

Our Security Systems Updated: Oct 10