The Fayette County Board of Education has approved the purchase of a crisis alert system for the county’s public schools.

Approved Nov. 18, the $740,000 purchase of the Centegix Crisis Alert System will be funded with $720,000 from a state grant, with the remaining $20,000 coming from ESPLOST (education-special purpose local option sales tax) funds budgeted for safety and security.

The Centegix system allows all staff members to initiate an alert quickly and reliably from anywhere on the school campus.

A badge to be issued to staff will provide a way to alert other staff or to send a campus-wide alert. The system provides real-time locating on computers or mobile devices.

The staff alert for a given room or area for in-school responders can be used to signal medical incidents, discipline issues or fights, drug overdoses, physical threats or custody situations, according to Centegix.

The campus alert by identified personnel can be used for a lockdown, lockin, lockout, suspicious activities, severe weather or tornadoes or community law enforcement matters, Centegix said.

Data supplied by Centegix noted that 18 million students nationwide are injured at schools annually, 68 percent of school nurses manage a life-threatening emergency each year and 24 percent of high school students report being in a physical altercation.