Dear Rocket Families,
As you know, the safety of our students, staff, faculty, and families is our top priority at Rochester schools. We are constantly striving to improve our campus safety program, and we are pleased to announce that we will potentially be implementing the Raptor Visitor Management System in all of our schools.
We are starting the implementation of the Raptor system as a pilot program at Rochester Intermediate School for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year. Once the pilot is complete, the District will explore expanding this to all facilities in the 2023-2024 school year. The Raptor system will help us to better screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools. The Raptor system will ensure that we know who is in our buildings at all times and provide us with a safer environment for our students and staff. Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present an ID, such as a Driver’s License, which can either be scanned or manually entered into the system.
We understand that not all parents or guardians may have a US government-issued ID. In such cases, any form of identification will suffice, and the school staff member can manually enter the person’s name and date of birth into the Raptor system. The Raptor system checks the visitor's name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders to ensure that registered sexual offenders are not entering our school campuses without our knowledge. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system. No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded, and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of the visit. Please note that a visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.
We understand that this may cause some inconvenience, but we assure you that the safety of our students is our highest priority, and the Raptor visitor management system will allow us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our District. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Be the Difference,
Dan W. Cox
Superintendent of Schools