“What keeps me up at night is not knowing how many doors I have and who has the ability to go through those doors.” And then she paused thoughtfully to reflect. For that brief moment, everyone in the room could feel the gravity of her words.

I was a technologist at the time, responsible for working with customers on integrating their security technologies: video surveillance, access control, voice communications, and incident management.  On that day, I was in a meeting at a well-known local private school with the principal, the assistant principal, and their school resource officer. I was joined by a team representing physical security, communications, and software solutions, and my role was to help connect the pieces into a broader school safety strategy.

We presented a high-level overview to help shape the discussions, then opened the floor for questions to learn more about their operations and their needs for school safety. What did they use for cameras, radios, software, and system integrations? 

When I asked what they used for access control, the principal asked, “What’s access control?” 

We explained that modern physical access control systems are replacing traditional physical keys with advanced technology to manage permissions, track movements, and secure facilities.

And then she told us how that was what kept her up at night.  They had analog locks and keys.  She didn’t know exactly how many doors they had, if or when they were locked, and who had keys that shouldn’t have them.

Against the backdrop of a discussion about integrations, software, and advanced security technologies, we collectively realized that none of it mattered to her. The real need for this school wasn't a more sophisticated security ecosystem. It was access control.

She wasn’t alone. Many of the principals, security directors, and superintendents I met while in the role were similarly situated. Managing and controlling who had access to the interiors of their schools was no doubt a challenge. 

“There’s a joke we used to have at one of the schools I worked at years ago,” says A.J. Stich, founding principal of The Greater Dayton School in Ohio, “When you became a principal, one of your welcome gifts was a basket of keys.”

The “Key” Challenges

With a basket of keys comes a number of challenges.  “Managing those keys was a nightmare,” says Stich.

The first challenge is that traditional metal keys are easy to duplicate, making it difficult to track who has access to school doors.  While duplicating keys to government facilities, schools, or high-security infrastructure without authorization is illegal and can result in criminal charges, individuals possessing the tools to do this can still easily cut duplicate keys.  “We used to have a local guy who made keys for a living,” says Dr. William Long, Superintendent of the Center Grove Community Schools Corporation in Indiana. “We used to tell him all the time to stop making copies of our keys, but he’d keep doing it even though the key clearly said, ‘Do Not Copy.’”

Restricted, patented, and high-security mechanical keys can help with this problem but are also two to four times as expensive as traditional keys. Additionally, while master keys allow critical operational leaders to open doors across the school or district, losing one can be very expensive.  The result is the replacement of all locks accessible with the master key and the reissuing of the master keys. Depending on the size of the school district, this could be a six- or seven-figure problem to solve.

Another challenge is that for every locked door a teacher or staff member needs to enter, there is another key they have to carry and fumble with. 

When a key is required to enter and exit a high-traffic door, it leads to a third, critical challenge: the propped door.  Propping a door open is a simple solution for school faculty who make multiple trips to and from the school parking lot, rather than fumbling with keys each time. It is also common for gym doors to become unlocked by staff to accommodate school teams coming to and from practice. Unfortunately, they forget to lock them again.

Many times, when a door is unlocked or “propped open,” it can be cracked open just enough that it does not latch and goes undetected by the human eye. This is one of the most significant physical security vulnerabilities in school safety.  Every school leader believes their exterior doors are secured. Unfortunately, an undetected propped door can defeat even the most carefully designed security procedures without anyone noticing.

The Difference Between Managing Keys and Managing Access

Often, when people use the term “access control” in physical security, they think of the physical elements of these solutions: doors with electronic or wireless locks, key cards and readers, and access management software. But the issue isn’t really about replacing traditional keys and locks with new technology.

The real issue is that administrators lack visibility and control over who can enter the building and when. “Access control” is exactly as it is named.  It gives administrators control over who can enter their buildings, where they can go, and when that access changes.

Access control enables schools to not only increase their safety measures but also create a more efficient working environment:

• A teacher’s card credential doubles as their ID and allows them to easily move through every door they need access to, saving them the effort of carrying separate keys and searching for the right ones to open specific doors.
• The credentials of a school district employee can be instantly deactivated when they leave or are dismissed, preventing them from accessing unauthorized entries into the school.
• School leaders no longer need to manage a set of traditional keys, make copies, keep track of who has which keys, and prevent unauthorized copies. They can now manage all of that with a single software interface.
• A lost access card does not lead to the replacement of existing locks, and can be deactivated remotely, with a new one issued within minutes. 
• School security teams know exactly who has entered the school premises and are alerted when specific doors are opened when they shouldn’t be or if one is propped open.  They can also remotely lock a door or doors as needed.

The goal is no longer just to secure doors, but to eliminate uncertainty about who has access and to enable administrators to respond quickly during emergencies.

Overcoming the Challenges of Funding, Deploying, and Managing Access Control

From a funding standpoint, the lowest barrier to entry for procuring access control systems is during the construction of new school buildings.  “We built [The Greater Dayton School] with access control in mind,” says Stich.  Over the last several years, the need to add access control to other parts of the building emerged.  To fund this expansion, Stich and his team learned about a grant opportunity through the Ohio Department of Administrative Services' InnovateOhio Platform, OHID.

At Center Grove Community Schools, Dr. Long took a pragmatic approach. Access control was incorporated into the design and construction of new schools, while existing buildings were upgraded over time through a phased retrofit strategy. One of the biggest considerations for older facilities is that each controlled door typically requires an electric strike: an electronically operated latch that allows authorized users to gain entry with a credential. Since electric strikes also require power at the door, districts should factor both installation and electrical work into their budgets and project plans.

Schools with existing access control systems need to ensure their technology stays current.  “We had an older access control system when I came into the job,” says Lou Cammiso, Director of Safety and Security at Naperville Community Unit School District 203 in Illinois. “After we discovered a security vulnerability with the old system, we prioritized the funding to upgrade our access control to an encrypted solution to prevent hacking into the system.”

K-12 schools considering investing in access control systems but feeling overwhelmed about where to start can begin with the exterior doors that see the most traffic. A small investment can make a significant operational impact.  “At one of the schools I worked at, there were six exterior doors, two of which were the primary and secondary entrances,” Stich says, “By implementing access control at those two doors, we could have eliminated keys that we issued and managed across 80% of teachers and staff.”

Investing in Certainty

“To thrive in school you need to feel safe,” says Cammiso. When I think back to the principal who asked about access control, I realize her concern wasn't really about doors. It was about uncertainty. 

Access control provides the foundational peace of mind required for that environment of safety to exist. By replacing the heavy, uncertain basket of metal keys with digital visibility, school leaders can stop guessing who has access to their buildings. When educators don’t need to worry about safety, they can focus on what matters most: teaching.