SITE ASSESS is a free, secure mobile application (app), designed specifically for education agencies, that allows personnel to walk around buildings and grounds and examine their safety, security, accessibility, and emergency preparedness. The app gives users a choice of conducting a site assessment at a K-12 school or an institution of higher education (IHE), and then directs them to the selected section, which is optimized for that setting. This site assessment app generates a customized to-do list that may be used in the short term and long term to address facility improvements, prompts teams to share pertinent information with first responders, and contains relevant resources on several education facility and preparedness topics. The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools, is Your National School Safety Center and developed SITE ASSESS to do the following:
- Store images directly within the app;
- Provide critical information about potential threats and hazards, which may be used by the planning team as it develops the site’s emergency operations plan;
- Allow teams to add customized questions to and delete preloaded questions from the site assessment for their use, taking into account state and local requirements;
- Export data into a Word document for record keeping and submission to leadership or into an Excel worksheet for data aggregation and analysis;
- Equip practitioners with information and knowledge about fundamental site assessment topics, such as Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and universal design;
- Collect information that will aid IHE personnel with fulfilling Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requirements; and
- Complement and support mitigation, prevention, protection, recovery, and response activities.
Neither the REMS TA Center nor the U.S. Department of Education will see, collect, or store any data that users enter into SITE ASSESS, except for the basic contact information that is collected upon initial registration. All information entered into the mobile app is stored on the mobile device and not on the REMS TA Center’s or U.S. Department of Education’s Website or server. As such, the U.S. Department of Education and the REMS TA Center are not responsible for any damages resulting from the loss or theft of that information. Please note that certain optional mobile app features may transmit data.