E911 vs. NG911: What Schools Need To Know

“E911 is 911 on a legacy system. The main features are the callback number and the caller’s location,” says Harriet Rennie-Brown, executive director at the National Association of State 911 Administrators. Both features help to ensure timely and effective emergency response.

NG911 goes further. “It uses public safety-grade IP, ESInet, or Emergency Services IP Network,” she says. “It still brings in caller location and the caller’s callback number, but now that it’s on IP, it can carry more data.”

With NG911, “you actually send a payload of data,” says Mark Fletcher, northeast regional director of NENA.

That feed can include details that help emergency responders to know where they are headed and what kind of situation they’re going to find when they get there. “This is who I am, this is where I am, this is what’s going on,” Fletcher explains. “Here are some video camera feeds, here’s a floor plan of the building, and here’s a web URL to get into an interactive control panel where you can unlock doors, page over the PA system and take complete remote control of my building.”

MORE ON SCHOOL SAFETY: Visitor management systems give schools access control.

How Can Schools Navigate New 911 Technologies?

Schools can only move to NG911 when their local 911 systems have gone digital, and states are at varying degrees of adoption. “In Michigan, about 90% of the 911 centers are IP based,” while other states are still in the early stages, Rennie-Brown says.

To gear up for NG911, “you can work with your local emergency response center to make sure you have information in a way they can use it,” she adds. For example, this might mean formatting location data in a way that can be easily consumed by first responders.

Schools can also preload that location data, along with other relevant information, into local first responder systems. This helps to ensure that when NG911 does arrive, such data is readily available.

What Technologies Support a Move Toward NG911?

NG911 needs digital telephony, and it is capable of working with technologies that integrate vital building-level information into the communications infrastructure. “The school IT team needs to look at their building alarm systems, building door controls and video cameras,” Fletcher says.

“Those all need to be standards-based, with open APIs, so that some aggregation unit can correlate all the information, assemble an emergency services payload and then send that to public safety,” he adds.

IT teams can also look at their location databases to ensure they can feed into first responders’ computer-aided dispatch systems. “That’s going to be separate from 911” but can inform NG911 functionality once the local 911 center is digitally equipped, Rennie-Brown says.

In anticipation of next-generation capabilities, K–12 schools can start adapting their infrastructures now — and there are immediate benefits to doing so. “If you’re talking about educational settings, a digital phone system is much easier and more flexible for things like changing room numbers,” she says.

EXPLORE: More K–12 schools adopt IP phones for flexibility and savings.

Overall, “everybody should be working toward Next Generation 911-compatible data in their networks,” Fletcher says. “As they build out their IP networks, they should really consult with a 911 specialist who can help them assess the technology they have and the technology decisions they make going forward.”