Aggressive Education Notification System Planned

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) plan for a nationwide notification system is quite aggressive (and impressive). ED intends to notify all K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, and other educational organizations in the nation. That's all of them, not just public schools.

This is a rather tall order, particularly considering the fact that the chosen vendor must develop the database of contacts for all of the schools. At first, ED wants main telephone numbers, then telephone numbers of key officials or designates. Then, the contact information must be digitally mapped, as well as kept in lists, so that notifications can be sent to regions or the nation.

ED wants to send notifications through a number of modes of communication. They include: telephone, fax, cell, TTY, e-mail, pages, fire alarms, campus siren and intercom systems, radio frequency (RF), Short Message Service (SMS), and the web. Telephone, fax, cell, e-mail, SMS, and the web should be relatively easy. The difficulty will notifying a hodge podge of fire alarms, campus siren and intercom systems, and RF systems.

The extraordinary aspect is not what the Department of Education is trying to do. Emergency management and other public safety officials across the country do this all time. The impressive part is the magnitude of the project.

The $570,000 contract was awarded to Emergency Management Telecommunications, Inc. of Melbourne, Florida. We'll watch this closely, as important lessons learned will develop.