Cedar Rapids schools stress consistent emergency protocols, roll out CrisisGo and pilot cell-phone limits

Janessa Carr, Safe and Secure Learning Environment Administrator for the Cedar Rapids Community School District, said the district’s top safety priority is uniform emergency procedures across buildings and “making sure we have clear, established emergency protocols across all of our buildings.”

That focus underpins a broader push the district described to reduce physical aggression, standardize responses to incidents and expand a digital crisis-management tool called CrisisGo. The district is also piloting approaches to limit student cell-phone use during instruction and said the Executive Director of Behavior Support role was created under a consent agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Why it matters: district officials said inconsistent building-level procedures and rising instances of physical aggression since the COVID-19 pandemic have made a single, districtwide foundation for safety more urgent. Officials said clearer protocols, training and technology will help staff respond more quickly and keep students in class — a stated goal tied to academic outcomes.

Carr said the first step is a “foundational layer of safety,” meaning consistent emergency protocols and training for staff and students across the district’s more than 30 buildings. Ryals Parker, Executive Director of Behavior Support, said some categories of disruptive behavior have remained steady but “we have seen an increase in some physical aggression,” a trend the district linked to the post-pandemic period.

On technology and reunification: Carr described CrisisGo as “like an emergency alert system” that allows administrators to notify staff with the press of a button, take electronic attendance during drills or emergencies, and track which students or staff have checked in. She said the tool can speed reunification after an emergency by issuing QR codes to parents or guardians who arrive to pick up students and by giving staff live information about student and staff locations.

Current status: CrisisGo is accessible to all district staff; buildings are using it for drills and internal emergency communications. Carr said the district wants to open CrisisGo notifications to parents this fall but will reserve parent push-notifications for higher-level incidents rather than routine administrative holds. Carr emphasized staff can access CrisisGo on district-issued devices even if they do not install it on personal phones.

On cell phones: Carr and Parker said some schools are piloting strict classroom policies, including cell-phone lock boxes, while others require students to keep phones put away. Carr said, “cell phones do need to be put away during instruction time,” and Parker added that social-media conflicts that begin outside class often continue during the school day and “are contributing to some of the issues we’re seeing in our buildings.” The district said it will watch state and federal guidance as it develops consistent Cedar Rapids procedures.

Safety continuum and on-the-ground tools: Officials described safety as a continuum that can include behavioral supports, anti-bullying work, school resource officers (SROs) and metal-detection measures. The district uses handheld metal detectors at the middle- and high-school level as part of targeted safety or reentry plans, and officials said SROs plus regular coordination with the Cedar Rapids Police Department (meetings twice a week) help the district be proactive when community conflicts involve students.

Building design and behavior supports: Officials said newer school buildings often allow staff to separate and deescalate students more easily than older layouts that concentrate classrooms around shared spaces such as cafeterias. Parker described a hierarchy of responses, noting the district has worked to reduce restraints and crisis calls and is now addressing broader categories of physical aggression.

What leaders say they want: Carr framed the work as foundational to instruction: when basic safety needs are met, staff can teach and students can learn at higher levels. Parker said reducing behavior incidents is “the work that had the biggest impact on student learning” because students who spend more time in class can receive academic interventions.

Looking ahead: District leaders said they will continue piloting cellphone policies, expand CrisisGo parent notifications in the fall, and pursue renovation or design changes where space constraints make deescalation harder. No formal votes or board actions were recorded in this conversation; the program was presented as informational and descriptive of current district practices.