American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers (AAADM) has joined PASS, the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools. Founded in 2014, PASS is a nationwide organization that brings together representatives from education, public safety, and industry to promote effective use of proven security practices in K-12 school environments.

Kathleen Carroll, a longtime advocate for the automatic door industry at both the state and federal levels, championed AAADM’s involvement with PASS. She emphasizes that automatic doors play a critical role in enabling safe and inclusive access for all — students, staff, and visitors, including individuals with disabilities — without compromising school security. These doors can be fully integrated with existing security systems and offer options such as remote activation to support lockdown procedures or controlled entry. By balancing accessibility and safety, the automatic door industry is uniquely positioned to support PASS’s mission of creating secure, inclusive learning environments.

PASS’s most popular publication is its “Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools.”  Carroll is looking forward to working with PASS to update these guidelines with useful information about the steps schools can take to incorporate automatic doors in a manner that promotes safety for people inside the building as well as access for people with legitimate needs to get inside to attend classes or perform their jobs.

The Guidelines document is robust, running more than 80 pages long. Its best practice recommendations are divided by inward-moving perimeters, starting with district-wide, then grounds and parking lots for individual schools, building exteriors, and, finally, classrooms. Within each section of the guide, there is an access control component. It is here that AAADM could likely make the most impact, particularly as it pertains to building exteriors and interior classrooms.

Carroll believes that some school administrators are reluctant to add automatic doors to their buildings because they believe it will compromise safety. In her view, AAADM is uniquely positioned to clear up this misunderstanding and provide helpful information on how automatic doors can be utilized to serve both access and safety goals.

“Accessibility is still an issue in many K-12 school buildings,” said Carroll. “This impacts not only students, but also school employees and anyone else who uses the school. Think of grandparents hoping to attend a basketball game in the gym.”

In addition to updates to the Guidelines document, Carroll is also eyeing the development of a white paper on the topic of automatic doors and schools, which would be made available via the PASS website.