S-05 Solutions · K-12 districts
A lockdown roll call by teacher, even with the network down.
LOCKDOWN reaches every staff tag and phone in the building, and each teacher answers by name, so the front office sees which rooms have the order. Cover4 is a staff lane beside your panic-alert provider and 911, and we are integrating with 911 dispatch through RapidSOS so confirmed incidents reach dispatchers with the building and room.
For: district safety and operations directors, school principals and front offices, and district technology teams.
01 The lockdown gap
In a lockdown, the office cannot see which classrooms have the order.
PA and phones
A PA cannot hear back. Phones need cell or Wi-Fi, which can fail at the worst moment.
No proof of receipt
Nobody can show which teachers had the order, or when. Alyssa's Law panic-alarm requirements were in place in 13 states by August 2026; qualifying systems link to 911 call centers. Cover4 is building that link through RapidSOS.
The result
The office and responders guess which rooms are secure.
Sources: Make Our Schools Safe; Stateline, September 2, 2026.
02 A silent panic in room 214 Illustrative
One HELP, one LOCKDOWN, a roll call by teacher.
- 01
Silent HELP
A teacher sends a silent HELP from the app. Bench
- 02
Office sees it
The control center shows who sent it and the nearest node, at once.
- 03
Lockdown
To every staff tag and phone in the building. Per-building orders: Twin
- 04
Each room answers
Teachers answer by name; silent rooms are flagged with the reason.
- 05
Parents
Broadcast-only updates in the district app. No replies, no chat. Planned
03 Deployment
One school building first, measured before any district-wide plan.
| Who | Staff only. Student phones are restricted in many states, so no student device is involved. |
|---|---|
| App | Staff keep the staff or panic-alert app the district uses. Cover4 runs inside it through the SDK. |
| Network | Nodes on the school's wired network, powered over Ethernet where available, with Cover4's battery radio network as backup. |
| Staff tags | For staff without a phone, such as custodial and cafeteria staff. The tag alerts and confirms by itself. |
| Measured in the pilot | Coverage of the building, a timed drill marked DRILL, and the exported drill record. |
| Coverage for an elementary school and a high school is measured in the pilot; we do not quote node counts before a walk test. | |
04 What you keep, what Cover4 adds
Cover4 is the offline lane beside a compliant vendor's product.
You keep
- Your panic-alert provider and its link to 911.
- Your PA, intercom, fire alarm and radios.
- The staff app your teachers already use.
Cover4 adds
- Orders to staff that arrive when building Wi-Fi and cell are down.
- A by-name staff count: who confirmed, who was not reached, and why.
- HELP with a typed message, placed at the nearest node, with a reply from the office.
- A tamper-evident record of orders, replies and drills. It supports documentation; it does not by itself make a district compliant with a state panic-alarm law.
05 Proof and security
Measured on the bench; a school building is the next test.
| Stage | Date | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Bench | 2026-10-26 | STOP confirmed by name in 3.1–4.6 s, tap included, on phones never paired and with Wi-Fi off. |
| Bench | 2026-10-30 | HELP with typed text from a never-paired phone, Wi-Fi off, reached the operator; the operator's reply appeared on the phone. |
| Bench | 2026-11-01 | With the phone's Bluetooth off, a staff tag's button confirmed an order by name. |
| Not yet shown | open | Any test inside a school building. |
Only the district can send
Orders are signed at the school's control center. Devices reject anything it did not sign.
HELP is encrypted
HELP messages and replies are encrypted end to end between the staff phone and the control center.
No student data
Staff only. No student devices and no tracking. Security details
- The 911 link is being built: we are integrating with 911 dispatch through RapidSOS. Until it ships, your panic-alert provider carries the 911 call.
- Not yet tested inside a school building.
- On iPhone, a force-quit app or Bluetooth switched off stops phone alerts, and lock-screen delivery awaits Apple's approval for the app.
- The SDK is not yet inside a partner app. Designed to FCC Part 15.247, not yet certified.
One school, staff only, one scheduled drill.
Run alongside your current alerting. You receive the by-name drill record and a measured coverage map of the building. We ask for the safety or operations director and one person from technology, and start with a walk of the building.
partners@getcover4.com