Author: Amelia MuellerAmelia Mueller is the North Central Texas Emergency Communication District's communications coordinator. Her responsibilities include managing NCT911.org and its social media platforms, creating educational content, managing the public education program, and more.

Transcript

Let’s talk about some complex state legislation that probably affects your school.  

The first is Kari’s Law.  

Your school’s campus is made up of multiple buildings, floors, classrooms, and offices, which are all connected by a multi-line telephone system.  

When someone wants to reach an outside line on one of these phones, they have to dial a prefix digit, like 9.  

Unfortunately, that also applies when dialing 9-1-1. 

Some students, staff members, or visitors may not know that an additional digit is needed to dial 9-1-1, which could delay a response during an emergency.  

So, Kari’s Law requires these phones to have direct dialing to 9-1-1. 

Kari’s Law also requires that 9-1-1 receives a dispatchable location, which just means that the 9-1-1 call taker knows the street address, floor level, or classroom or office number of the emergency. 

The other legislation is the Ray Baum’s Act. 

Ray Baum’s also requires you to have a designated person who is notified when a 9-1-1 call is made. This is usually a security guard or receptionist.  

All businesses in Texas must be compliant with Kari’s Law, or have a waiver on file, as of September 2016.  

So, what do you do now? 

Contact your multi-line telephone provider to find out your road to compliance. 

Also visit NCT911.org/karislaw to learn more about Kari’s Law and the Ray Baum’s Act so that you can keep your students safe.  

Whenever there is a discussion of Kari’s Law, there is usually a mention of the Ray Baum’s Act. This act talks about FCC requirements for a variety of organizations and buildings that utilize multi-line telephone systems, like those found in businesses, hospitals, and schools.

Ray Baum’s is named for the lawyer Ray Baum, who served on a congressional staff and advocated for the telecommunications industry throughout his career. Though he passed away in 2018, the act was named to honor his accomplishments in furthering telecommunications goals all over the country. 

What does the Ray Baum’s Act require?

The total act touches on a lot of topics involving communications standards, but what should interest you as one of the businesses listed above is Section 506. This section discusses emergency services mandates directed at the FCC to require organizations that use a MLTS to include a “dispatchable location.”

What is a dispatchable location?

According to the FCC, dispatchable location includes the “validated street address of the 911 calling party, plus additional information such as suite, apartment, or similar information necessary to adequately identify the caller’s location.” Currently, when a student, patient, or office worker calls 911 on a phone that utilizes a MLTS, the 911 public safety answering point will receive the address that is registered with the system. Therefore, if a campus is made of multiple buildings, 911 would receive the registered address, which may not be the location of the caller. By requiring a dispatchable location, not only will 911 know the correct street address, but it will also receive the floor level and/or suite number.

Are you compliant?

To become compliant with Section 506 of the Ray Baum’s Act (and Kari’s Law for that matter), you can start by connecting with your 9-1-1 authority. If your business is located within the NCT9-1-1 service area, you can connect with us about Ray Baum’s compliance by visiting this resource page.

If you took a road trip across the state tomorrow, you would expect 911 to be available should you encounter an emergency at any point. Whether you’re in Austin, El Paso, or deep inside the Hill Country, you know that those three digits will be there for you no matter what, but that wasn’t always the case. The history of 911 in Texas started in the 60s, but what did it take to get those three digits available to Texans everywhere? 

1967

In the late 60s, the Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice announced that they would create a single number for reporting emergencies. Before this, citizens who needed help from a police officer, fire fighter, or paramedic had to look up the 10-digit number of their local law enforcement office or fire station in the phone book. This, naturally, led to a delayed response, more lives lost, and more property damaged.

1968

The three digits “9-1-1” were selected as the national emergency number in 1968, and it was announced through a press release from AT&T. For some areas, making the transition from the 10-digit numbers to 911 wasn’t easy. Citizens were hesitant to put their trust in a new, unfamiliar system, especially those who lived in rural areas and were used to calling up their neighbors who also acted as a local firefighter or police officer.

With concentrated public education efforts that focused on building trust and identifying false assumptions, Texas citizens came to appreciate the value of a three digit number for all emergency services. This didn’t happen overnight and efforts to push out 911 state-wide continued into the 70s and 80s.

1987

Though 911 had been around for two decades, many primarily rural areas still didn’t have access to a three digit emergency number. To remedy this, in 1987 the Commission on State Emergency Communications (CSEC) identified a solution by having Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs) form 911 programs in regions that were not already covered by a 911 district. 

NCT9-1-1 began as one of these programs, originally called the North Central Texas Council of Governments 9-1-1 Program. In December of 2018, the NCTCOG 9-1-1 program became the North Central Texas Emergency Communications District (NCT9-1-1), which allowed the staff to provide services that were more personalized to the communities they served. 

911 in Texas is provided by a variety of different 911 authorities, including regional emergency communications districts (like NCT9-1-1), emergency communications districts (like the Tarrant County 9-1-1 District), municipal communications districts (like the city of Dallas), and regional planning associations (like the communities found in the Capital Area Council of Governments). 

2021

Today, 911 has come far. All Texas communities can expect to have access to 911 thanks to the efforts of legislators, public safety professionals, and other influential people who were passionate about providing superior emergency services. Now the 911 industry is looking into new opportunities such as Next Generation 911, which provides cloud-based systems, accessibility programs like Real Time Text and text-to-9-1-1, maps founded on GIS data, and so much more.