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School Safety Mobile App

A cross-platform mobile app providing real-time visibility and accountability for school safety operations, built on Laravel and React Native.

The Vision

Build a mobile tool that provides school resource officers and support staff with real-time, comprehensive visibility of campus building access points, enforces physical verification of door checks, and allows for customizable rules and scheduling.

The Solution

A multi-faceted mobile app that displays a live, interactive map of all school building doors, displaying each door’s status according to pre-defined rules and schedules. Ongoing security rounds are validated through NFC tag scanning, ensuring each door’s status is physically verified, not assumed.

The Results

The new app is currently being piloted in schools across the East Coast, with a broader rollout planned for this year. It provides a clean, intuitive user experience and delivers real-time alerts when doors are opened outside approved schedules or when other policy violations occur.

Client Industry

Safety

Platform

Web, Mobile

Technology
  • Laravel

The Vision

Mission Brief:

Life Check Systems engaged Ravenna to design and build a new native mobile application to extend its existing web-based system, which is widely used in correctional facilities and schools. As mobile usage and flexible workflows became increasingly critical, a native mobile experience became essential to support clients’ real-time safety operations. 

After an unsuccessful attempt with another development firm, Life Check sought a proven, reliable partner capable of delivering a secure, production-ready mobile solution.

Challenges:

The project presented two significant technical challenges:

  1. The complexity of tracking and validating security inspections. The app requires school resource officers (SROs) to physically verify doors by scanning NFC tags, following schedules that can vary hourly, daily, or weekly. Additional verification steps, such as capturing photos or entering notes, are triggered dynamically, requiring a robust and flexible rules engine.

  2. Interior mapping. Standard public map options like Google Maps and Mapbox do not include building elements like doors and walls. To address this, we implemented a custom mapping system using school floor-plan PDFs rendered with React Native Skia to display specific locations. 

Why Ravenna: 

Because of a prior negative experience in which Life Check engaged another firm that failed to deliver a functional app, they requested client references as part of their evaluation process. Ravenna provided references from past clients, who spoke highly of both our technical expertise and communication. This gaveLife Check the confidence to move forward with the project.

The Solution

The Life Check mobile app is the result of a multi-layered solution focused on a deep understanding of the client’s operational requirements. We began by developing a clear understanding of Life Check’s ruleset and mapping the scheduling logic that determines when specific actions are required.

From there, we architected on-device data stores capable of handling real-time updates as door states and inspection requirements changed. The UI was tightly integrated with these data stores to ensure users always see accurate, up-to-date information. Finally, we integrated push and SMS notifications to ensure critical events were delivered to the appropriate staff.

The mobile app integrates seamlessly with Life Check’s existing Laravel-based web application through a purpose-built API.

Development: 

The app was developed using React Native, with a Laravel-based API. Several libraries were used throughout the project, including React Native Skia for custom mapping and visualization. 

Development began with system architecture and a buildout of the core data stores. Once those foundations were in place, we moved to frontend development and design implementation. With the UI and data layers established, we completed the system by integrating notifications and final touches.

Ravenna did an outstanding job developing our mobile app from our existing platform—it's clean, intuitive, and functions exactly as we envisioned. The Ravenna team is detailed, conscientious, and highly responsive throughout the process, delivering on time and on budget. We’ve been extremely pleased with the results and the overall experience. They know what they are doing, and they get it done.

Brandt McMillan Life Check Systems, CEO

The Results

The results for the Life Check mobile app continue to emerge as the project enters pilot programs across schools on the East Coast. 

A correctional facility version of the app is scheduled to launch in mid-2026, with planned adoption across multiple states from Texas to Tennessee. 

Even in its early stages, the app demonstrates clear value: 

  • If a critical door is left open longer than the policy allows, the app immediately notifies appropriate staff and authorities using phone alarms that bypass Do Not Disturb settings. 

  • Real-time alerts enable faster response time, allowing staff to address potential safety issues before they escalate.

  • By tying inspections to physical NFC-based verification, staff cannot simply “check a box,” creating real accountability and improving overall safety with verifiable, time-stamped activity.