School Safety

What is Raptor? 

Raptor is an online visitor management system that helps our schools keep unwanted visitors out while helping track those who have been allowed in. 

How does it work?

The Raptor system reads the visitor’s name, number, photo, and date of birth from a valid state‐issued identification card and compares it with information found in a registry of sex offenders from all 50 states, including California. If a match is found, it alerts the school administrator. If no match is found, the system prints a visitor badge that includes the visitor’s name, photo, date, and time. 

Why is Cypress School District using this system? 

Student safety is our highest priority. Raptor provides a consistent system for monitoring visitors and volunteers, and it alerts school personnel regarding sex offenders who might present a danger to students. 

Does the Cypress School District have the right to require visitors, even parents, to produce 
identification before entering the school campus? 

Yes. Board Policies and Administrative Regulations require all visitors to register with the school office and authorize district personnel to develop procedures and registration requirements for school visitors. 

What if a visitor refuses to show identification or does not have a state‐issued identification card? 

If a person refuses or is unable to show identification, he/she may be denied entry. The principal, based on previous knowledge of the person and the situation, may make a determination to allow or refuse entry and manually enter the required information into the system. 

What data is collected and stored when a visitor identification card is scanned into Raptor? 

The Raptor scanner collects and stores the visitor’s photo, name, date of birth, and first four digits of the identification number. The remaining digits are replaced with asterisks (ex: 1234****). 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 identification number to differentiate between them. Only the minimum data needed to accurately identify a visitor is collected. No addresses, Social Security numbers, physical characteristic data, or other personal data is ever collected. No photocopy of the ID is retained. 

How is the data protected?

In addition to requiring unique administrator usernames and passwords, the Raptor system 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. 

Is the visitor data shared with any third parties? If so, which ones and which data? 

Visitor data not is shared with any third parties.