In this featured piece by EHSLeaders, Terry Swanson, president and CEO of Singlewire Software, examines the gap between how K-12 schools aspire to operate and how they actually run day-to-day. Drawing on the 2026 Safety & Operational Readiness Survey — an independent study of more than 500 K-12 staff conducted by Researchscape on behalf of Singlewire — the article shows why front-door investments, hall-pass procedures, dismissal, and emergency response so often fall short of intent. It lays out a practical framework facilities and security leaders can use to close those gaps.
Key Takeaways
- The central problem isn’t a lack of priority — it’s the persistent gap between what schools prioritize and what they can actually do on a busy afternoon.
- Front-entrance security is nearly universal as a goal but rarely a reality: 86% call it a top or high priority, yet only 16% believe their front entrance is completely secure.
- Staffing is now the top barrier: the share of staff citing too few people to monitor entrances jumped from 30% in 2025 to 46% this year.
- Security gaps reach well past the front door: more than half name outdoor areas as the least secure part of campus, nearly 75% still use analog hall passes, and only 14% use a digital system to coordinate dismissal.
- Tools are unevenly distributed by role: teachers are far less likely than administrators or security staff to have panic buttons or real-time student-location visibility, and that gap defines a school’s true response time.
Original Article
Here are three principles for facilities and security leaders working through their next planning cycle:
1. Treat the building as more than a perimeter. Front-door investments only pay off when paired with single-point-of-entry enforcement, consistent visitor verification, and protocols every staff member and guest actually understands. Audit each control against the operational reality on a Tuesday afternoon, not against the design on a floor plan.
2. Extend security strategies to wherever students and staff are. If more than half of staff name outdoor areas as least secure, the campus perimeter belongs in the same conversation as the lobby. The same logic applies inside: Any space where students move without being accounted for is a blind spot in building safety, whether it’s a hallway, a stairwell, or a pickup lane.
3. Equalize visibility and capability across roles. Solve for the staff member with the fewest tools, not the most. If administrators have mounted panic buttons but teachers don’t, the gap defines your response time. If security staff have real-time student-location data but classroom teachers don’t, the gap defines your accountability. Closing those distributional gaps will often produce more measurable improvement.