Join Us: Become a PASS Partner!

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, PASS relies on a coalition of organizational partners to support use of its tools and resources and communicate its vision and mission. Solutions providers working daily to meet the needs of schools around the country are key partners in this effort.

Our Vision

PASS supports efforts by communities throughout the United States to provide and sustain an effective level of safety appropriate to each district and K-12 facility, recognizing that making schools safer is both achievable and urgently needed.

Our Mission

We aim to provide school administrators, school boards, and public safety and security professionals with information, tools, and insight needed to implement a layered and tiered approach to securing and enhancing the safety of school environments based on local needs, nationwide best practices, and effective utilization of available resources.

To effectively work together in support of these objectives, it’s important to establish mutual expectations to ensure our partnerships will support the vision and mission of PASS.

What you can expect from PASS:

PASS is committed to preparing and supporting PASS Partners to work constructively in the K-12 environment by providing:

  • Periodic updates to the Safety and Security Guidelines, Checklist, and other resources to ensure they are current and as relevant as possible to K-12 needs.
  • Eligibility for participation as partner subject matter experts on the PASS Advisory Council tasked with ensuring the above, as well other supporting activities, subject to approval by the PASS Board of Directors.
  • A well-maintained, professional website, including a listing of PASS Partners with their logos.
  • PASS-related collateral in electronic form and permission to use (unaltered) PASS materials as well as PASS images and logos by request.
  • On-site and web-based training for your personnel regarding how to use PASS resources.
  • Support for your events – (electronic) collateral and in-person presenters (depending on availability).

Partner Expectations:

  • Partners should be able to articulate and present to school safety and security stakeholders:
    • PASS’ vision and mission.
    • The basic concepts in the PASS Guidelines, including its:
      • Layered Security Model.
      • Safety and Security Components.
      • Tiered Best Practices.
      • PASS Checklist.
      • Various ways in which utilization of the Guidelines are recommended.
  • Partner shall use the PASS logo and presentation materials per PASS trademark use conditions.
  • Partners must subscribe annually and complete PASS Partner training at the level of their choice to ensure that personnel working with schools understand the PASS Partner program and its materials.
  • Maintain a designated point of contact (POC) for PASS partnership and related communications.
    • POC will go through the PASS training and make the training available to other staff members serving the K-12 market.
  • For-profit firms must be members of the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA), the Security Industry Association (SIA), the Door and Hardware Institute (DH), or other named PASS Partner associations in order to be eligible to be PASS Partners. This indicates a baseline of professionalism and capability to meet expectations for PASS Partners by demonstrating compliance with terms and conditions of membership in such organizations, including any applicable code of ethics requirements (for NSCA and SIA, for example).
  • In working with end-users, PASS Partners will support the PASS “tiered approach” by
    • Encouraging schools to (generally, and to the extent practicable):
      Implement the best practice recommendations presented in the PASS Guidelines across each of the safety and security components as local needs and resources allow.
    • Ensure that basic protective measures are being implemented if more advanced measures are sought.
    • Ensuring PASS tools and resources are presented “as is” without modification, when used, and provided by partners at no cost to end-users.
    • Refraining from representing specific products as “PASS approved,” but explaining, where appropriate, how a product may fulfill a PASS recommendation.
    • Refraining from recommending use of practices, equipment, or technology in contradiction of PASS recommendations.
    • Refraining from suspending/denying access to solutions/systems resulting from financial issues between the district and the partner.
  • Partners are encouraged to use the PASS Partner logo and link to www.passk12.org on their websites.
    • PASS does not endorse products or solutions. Partners agree that marketing materials, presentations, and communication of PASS Partners do not imply or communicate that PASS endorses any product or solution.
  • Partners will refrain from fielding media inquiries on behalf of or as spokespersons for PASS, unless granted permission by the PASS Board of Directors.
  • PASS reserves the right to reassess partnership status based on ongoing MOU compliance.
    • Process:
      • A firm’s partnership proposal (signed MOU and partnership questionnaire) is reviewed by the PASS Compliance Committee.
        • The Compliance Committee will verify references and overall compliance with the MOU and make the recommendation for approval to the PASS Technical Committee.
        • The Technical Committee will vote on approval and send for approval to the PASS Board of Directors.
  • A firm’s partnership proposal (signed MOU) is ultimately subject to approval by the PASS Board of Directors (within a reasonable time frame), before it can be represented as a PASS Partner.
  • Partners must maintain a PASS Partner training subscription, chosen from the available options that best meet their needs.
  • Maintaining partner status is conditioned upon meeting the terms of the MOU, subject to review by the committee on an ongoing basis.
  • PASS may alter the terms of this MOU after it is signed, providing 30 days’ notice to partners to review and accept changes. For donation or tax purposes, the PASS EIN is 85-0960120.

Partner Application

If you support our core principles and agree to the expectations set forth above, you can become a PASS Partner by signing below and emailing the signed form, along with your organization’s logo in EPS format, to Tom LeBlanc at tleblanc@nsca.org. By signing below, you grant permission to publicly list your organization as a PASS Partner.

If you do not have logo ready to upload, once you have full access to the portal, you will have another opportunity to provide us your logo.
Accepted file types: eps, psd, jpg, jpeg, png, tiff, Max. file size: 256 MB.
Primary Contact(Required)
You will be added to our general email list and contacted about partnership opportunities.
Technical Contact(Required)
You will be added to our general email list and sit on our advisory council.
Please acknowledge that you have read and understand the requirements of a PASS member as described in the MOU:(Required)
Accounting POC (for lapse of renewal)(Required)
Would you like to participate in a PASS K-12 committee?(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.