Mapping For Schools (SCORMAP)

The National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center – Southeast Region (NLECTC-Southeast) has developed a new technology for school incident analysis known as SCORMAP. This technology uses the principles of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to allow school administrators the ability to track information on all students.

Until recently, one of the major hurdles to mapping in schools was the duplicate, classroom-above-classroom nature of school construction. GIS could not be utilized because of the multiple levels located within the building. NLECTC-Southeast, in partnership with the Savannah River Technical Center (SRTC), has been able to develop a method of overcoming this problem. By integrating a combination of Computer Assisted Drawings (CAD) and GIS, NLECTC-Southeast and SRTC have developed a method of displaying multi-level areas in a three-dimensional layout. By doing this, each classroom on a floor becomes a separate, identifiable unit with the capability to be displayed graphically on a computer screen. Additionally, each student’s desk becomes his or her “anchor point” for identification purposes. By establishing this relationship through the use of data linking, SCORMAP is able to graphically display information about an individual student or all students. This makes it possible for decision makers to visually examine the different aspects of a school’s makeup so that better decisions can be made. This type of display will be valuable in assisting the school administrators in making informed decisions affecting their school.

SCORMAP is currently being installed in school systems in Alabama and Florida for further field demonstration and verification.