How LoRa Technology Enables Reliable School Emergency Communication
LoRa technology gives schools reliable emergency communication that works without Wi-Fi or cell service. Here’s how it works and why it matters for K-12 safety. Most school communication systems were built for day-to-day operations. Email, intercom, and mobile apps all work fine when everything is running smoothly. Emergency situations, though, don’t always cooperate with normal […]
How Punch Rescue Connects to 911
When someone presses their Rescue Card, here’s how Punch Rescue gets the right information to 911, fast. Our primary integration: RapidSOS Our core 911 integration is built on RapidSOS, a network connected to every 911 center in the US, over 6,000 centers, directly into their dispatch systems. When an alert is triggered, we send the […]
Panic Button Compliance: Meeting Your State’s Alyssa’s Law Requirements
Alyssa’s Law requires panic buttons in schools across multiple states. Here’s what K-12 administrators need to know about compliance requirements and next steps. If your state has passed Alyssa’s Law, or is moving toward it, you’ve probably already noticed that the requirements come with real specificity. It’s not enough to have a communication plan. The […]
Punch Rescue Is Now Available Through TIPS Cooperative Purchasing
Punch Rescue is now available through the TIPS cooperative purchasing contract, simplifying how K-12 schools procure emergency communication infrastructure. Procurement is one of the less obvious points of friction common within school safety planning. A district will identify a need, evaluate their solutions, and then enter a waiting game. Vendor approval processes, budget justification cycles, […]
Real-Time Visibility in Emergency Systems: Why It Matters for School Safety Leaders
Real-time visibility in emergency systems helps staff monitor devices, track panic button alerts, and prove preparedness. See what’s needed in infrastructure. Most conversations about school emergency systems focus on what happens when an alert is activated. But it’s equally important to question how anyone knows the system is ready and running before emergencies happen. Real-time […]
Network Independence: What It Means for School Emergency Systems
Network independence means emergency systems work when Wi-Fi and cellular fail. Learn why it matters for school panic buttons and wearable emergency buttons. If you ask a vendor whether their emergency communication system is network independent, most will say yes. What that claim actually means varies widely, and the difference matters enormously when conditions degrade. […]
Hardware-Integrated vs. App-Based: Understanding the Trade-Offs
Compare hardware-integrated and app-based panic button systems for schools. Learn the trade-offs in reliability, coverage, and emergency response performance. School safety leaders evaluating emergency systems face a major choice between hardware-integrated infrastructure or app-based software solutions. Both approaches have advocates. Both claim reliability. But they make very different assumptions about what reliable functionality means during […]
Pennsylvania School Safety Legislation Tracker
Track Pennsylvania school safety legislation and panic button requirements. Learn about Alyssa’s Law proposals and emergency infrastructure compliance standards. Pennsylvania hasn’t passed Alyssa’s Law yet, but school safety leaders shouldn’t wait for mandates to think about emergency communication infrastructure. With over 500 public school districts and ongoing legislative discussions about panic alarm requirements, Pennsylvania represents […]
The Rescue Card Platform Is Here
Punch Rescue announces the commercial availability of its unified emergency communication system — built for real conditions, not ideal ones. The Rescue Card system is now commercially available. Punch Rescue offers this unified emergency communication infrastructure for K-12 schools, healthcare facilities, and corporate campuses. It combines wearable panic button hardware, a dedicated LoRa mesh network, […]
Why Apps Aren’t Enough: Building the Emergency Infrastructure Schools Actually Need
After years deploying panic button apps to schools, we learned speed and reliability are critical. Here’s why we built Punch Rescue’s emergency communication infrastructure. First we built a panic button app. Then we learned what emergencies actually demand, and redesigned everything. As CEO of Punch Technologies, Greg Artzt spent years building and deploying the PunchAlert […]
When School Safety Systems Fail: What Research Shows
In October 2025, New York City became the first city in the nation to pilot a direct-to-911 panic alert system across 51 public schools. The announcement drew significant attention for good reason. What made the initiative notable was the program’s unique tech. When seconds count and stress is at its peak, the kind of system […]
The Shared-Network Problem: What K-12 Safety Administrators Need to Know About Emergency Communication Infrastructure
When panic button systems depend on the same network everyone else is using, a crisis can silence the very tools designed to address it. A Road Race Changed How America Thinks About Emergency Networks On April 15, 2013, two bombs detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In the minutes that followed, cell […]