Raptor Visitor Management
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
What is the Raptor Visitor Management System?
Raptor is a visitor registration system that enhances school security by reading the government issued photo IDs of visitors, comparing visitor identity information to a sex offender database, reviewing the same identity for any alerts that the school or district may have applied to a person, notifying school safety personnel if a match is found, and then (assuming no match was made) printing a badge for the visitor to wear while on school grounds.
What is the purpose of the Raptor Visitor Management System?
Raptor helps our schools keep unwanted visitors out while helping them track those that have been allowed in. By quickly alerting safety personnel to certain potential threats, it allows school administrators and law enforcement personnel to take appropriate steps to keep the school, students, staff, and volunteers safe. For valid visitors, the system also prints visitor badges that include a photo, the name of the visitor, and the visitors’ destination. Those badges enable personnel within the building to quickly determine if visitors are in areas where they should or should not be.
Why is Lapeer Community Schools moving to this system?
Safety of our students is our highest priority. Raptor will provide a consistent system to track visitors and volunteers while helping keep away people who present a danger to students and staff members. The district participates in third party safety and security assessments through Secure Environment Consultants (formerly Secure Education Consultants) bi-annually, and visitor management was identified as an important area for us to focus on.
Does Raptor have our school emergency plans?
No, we are strictly using Raptor as a visitor management tool to screen visitors to our buildings and maintain accountability for who is in our spaces with our students. While Raptor offers other products for emergency management, LCS is not utilizing those products at this time.
How does it work?
Raptor operates in the following manner:
Identifies a visitor by scanning a government issued photo ID
Checks the visitor’s identity against online sex offender registries.
Checks the visitor’s identity against a custom list of prohibited persons (e.g., someone who has a No-Contact order; an expelled student; anyone whom the building principal has named as not being allowed to come into a school, etc.).
If there is a “match” to a prohibited person, the system sends an “alert” message to pre-designated responders (the building administrators, the PPD, for example), via email, phone, and text, so that one or more can respond and meet with the unwelcome visitor.
If the visitor is permitted on school grounds, Raptor prints a visitor’s badge, with name, picture, date, time, and destination clearly visible for school personnel to see.
What kinds of IDs will work in Raptor?
The systems will accept all state licenses, state identification cards, green cards, passports and some military cards.
What data is collected and stored when a visitor ID is scanned into the Raptor system?
The Raptor scanner collects the ID photo, name, date of birth, and the first four digits of the license number (the other digits are replaced with ***). In the event that two or more visitors have the same first name, last name, and date of birth, Raptor uses the first four digits of the license number to differentiate between them. Only the minimum data needed to accurately identify an entrant is collected (i.e., no address information, no Social Security numbers, no physical characteristic data, etc.). No other data is collected from the ID and no photocopy of the ID is retained.
What if the visitor has no government-issued ID?
Individuals will not be allowed to enter the building without presenting a government-issued ID.
Where do I enter the building?
All visitors will be asked to enter each school building/facility at front/main entrance. When visitors have completed their stay, they will need to check out at the same entry point and return their visitor badge to the Raptor operator for disposal.
Do employees need to check-in every day at their regularly assigned building?
Employees enter the building(s) they usually work in as always. They do not need to check in at the office through Raptor. All employees are required to wear their district ID badges at all times when in district buildings.
Do students need to check-in every day using Raptor at their school?
Students enter the building(s) they usually attend as normal. They do not need to check in at the office through Raptor
What if the person refuses to show identification?
Individuals will not be allowed to enter the building without presenting a government-issued ID.
What is the checkout process for leaving the building?
The checkout process doesn’t involve scanning the card again. The operator would simply find the name of the person who is signing out from a list of visitors in the appropriate tab and click a “sign out” button. This provides a record of entry and departure and time in the building. The Raptor badge should be returned to the operator and destroyed.
Does the district have the right to require visitors, even parents, to produce identification before entering the school?
YES: You need to be sure of who is in your building, why they are there, and if a student is involved (e.g., early pickup) be able to confirm that an individual has the authority to have access to the student.
What do parents who are dropping off or picking up their children in the school do?
If a parent is going to go past the office and walk in the halls, they will need to check in/out through Raptor.
When an “alert” of an unauthorized person seeking admission goes out, how much information is in it?
An administrator will be notified. The unauthorized person will be asked to remain at the front desk until an administrator can assist with the entry request.
What is Raptor’s data retention policy?
Raptor strongly believes that all data belongs to the client. Client data is retained until the client requests in writing that the data be deleted. This deletion can be performed at any time but cannot be undone.
What data from other sources is stored by Raptor?
If the client uses the Student and/or Faculty modules, additional data can be imported into the Raptor system and stored similarly to visitor data. In the case of Students, student directory data including the name, student ID number, and grade level of the student can be imported. However, no student record data is imported (i.e., no test scores, no home address, etc.).
How is the data used? To what purposes am I authorizing its use?
The data is used to ensure that the district/school maintains a log of all visitors and other entry data through the front office and the district/school is able to instantly check that data against two databases:
a database of the registered sex offenders in all 50 U.S. states
a custom database populated by school administrative personnel which can contain entry alerts such as custodial orders, known gang members, etc.
Is the data shared with any third parties? If so, which ones and which data?
No data is shared with third parties.
How is the data protected?
In addition to requiring unique usernames and passwords for each user of the Raptor system, Raptor utilizes firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, host integrity monitoring, and port filtering as well as the latest security processes and procedures to protect all of its systems. All information transmitted to Raptor’s datacenter during the log in/sign in process is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption. Raptor utilizes a Tier-1 datacenter managed by a nationally-recognized provider (Cyrus One).
How is the datacenter physically secured? Do they collocate? If so, is their cage physically secured and how?
Entry to Raptor’s datacenter requires both a datacenter approved photo entry card as well as fingerprint verification of identity. The entry includes a “man-trap” and both of these listed items must be successfully supplied before admission. The datacenter is fully certified and audited under the following standards: SSAE 16 (SOC I type II), PCI DSS (sec 9 & 12), HIPAA, ISO 27001, and FISMA. Raptor’s server cage is locked by key and not shared with any other tenants. Raptor owns and controls 100% of the equipment hosted in our server rack.
There are online reports of a Raptor data breach. What happened there?
We are aware of the reports and have had extensive discussions with Raptor officials over the situation. From a high-level perspective, Raptor did not officially have a “data breach” or “data leak.” Back in December 2023, a security auditor found two of Raptor’s 40 servers were accessible by third parties. Raptor was notified of the issue and it was remediated immediately. Since then, Raptor has hired a third-party forensic investigator to see if data was accessed by anyone before the auditor found the issue. After three phases of investigation, they did not find any evidence that anyone had accessed or breached the data. This included dark web searches and a whole host of other investigatory methods to find evidence of leaks. Internally, Raptor has made its internal security audits even more rigorous with more oversight to make sure this doesn't happen again. No personal identifiable information was ever part of the issue.
I have concerns. How can I ask questions of someone with LCS?
Joe Wood, the district’s health, safety, operations and athletics administrator, will be at the Lapeer Virtual Partnership cafeteria (1220 Lake Nepessing Rd) on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. to take questions and explain anything associated with Raptor.