The Kingston City School District (KCSD) next week will unveil the Raptor Visitor Management System, a new visitor screening program for use in all district buildings.
“The Raptor Visitor Management System is being introduced in the Kingston City School District to reinforce our commitment to campus safety for both students and staff,” reads a FAQ on the district website. “Knowing who is present in our buildings at all times is crucial for maintaining a secure environment, and Raptor facilitates this process efficiently.”
The Raptor Visitor Management System screens visitors in a kiosk prior to being allowed entry into a building, using a government-issued photo ID — a drivers license, passport, or municipal ID — or other photo IDs if accompanied by a second ID, such as a credit or bank card. The Raptor system checks visitors against the national sex offender database, screens for court-issued custodial orders, restraining orders and other alters that can be customized by each district. It does not check for outstanding warrants or immigration status.
The system also has the capability to allow staff to manually enter concerns about potential threats into the system, notifying local police and school officials.
Once cleared, visitors will proceed to each building’s main office, where they will sign in and receive a pre-printed photo badge to be worn at all times while on campus. The process will be necessary for anyone spending time on the premises, like volunteers, contractors and parents, during school hours. The system will not apply during regular drop-offs and pick-ups, and while people must show their ID to visit a school’s main office, they do not have to go through the Raptor system if that’s their only purpose. Raptor will not be active during after-school activities and events.
The Raptor system collects and stores visitors’ full names, date of birth, and the first four digits of the ID presented, securing that information using safety measures such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, host integrity monitoring, and port filtering. All information stored is encrypted and no data is shared with any third parties.
Raptor is used by over 60,000 schools around the globe, and more than 5,300 U.S. school districts, including the Saugerties Central School District (SCSD) and New Paltz Central School District, both of which introduced it over the past few years.
Saugerties has used Raptor since 2019, and was activated in all district facilities while Kirk Reinhardt was superintendent; Reinhardt has since returned to the KCSD as its deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.
“Student and staff safety is paramount,” Reinhardt said in a 2019 interview while still with the SCSD. “The new system provides schools with a quick and efficient way to continually provide a safer environment for student and staff…I love the Raptor thing and I liked the fact that it actually prints out an ID.”
Grant D. Morse Principal Donald Dieckmann, a member of the SCSD Districtwide School Safety Committee, said that the Raptor system is not a cumbersome addition for those who wish to enter school buildings.
“This new procedure does not slow down the entry process and takes about the same amount of time as the previous method, which was signing in on a sign-in sheet,” Dieckmann said.
In the KCSD, Raptor was approved by the school board in July 2023 as part of an updated safety plan, in part due to its success in other local districts. In June of last year, Superintendent Paul Padalino said the system, and all the district’s safety efforts, were meant to assure safety and security without going too far.
“That’s exactly what we worry about,” said Padalino. “We are trying to strike that balance, and I think that we have to be authoritative, but approachable…And it is really a thin line between having our school buildings look and feel like prisons, but also having kids and families feel that their students are safe inside.”
In the home stretch of the 2022-23 school year, the KCSD saw its notions of safety and security tested in two high profile incidents, the first an allegedly calculated attack on a student in the KHS cafeteria, the second the arrest of an armed man on the M. Clifford Miller Middle School campus; in the latter case, the man did not attempt to enter the school prior to his arrest. While Raptor would not have prevented either of these incidents, district officials have said the system is part of a greater focus on safety, and expect it to be a critical piece of that puzzle.
“The safety and well-being of students remain our utmost priority,” said Padalino in a message posted to the district website last week. “Thank you for partnering with us in this important endeavor.”
The Raptor Visitor Management System is set to be activated in the KCSD on Monday, January 29.
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