The 2012 attack by a lone gunman on Sandy Hook Elementary School in which 20 students and six adults were killed changed forever the way schools handle their security. Since then school systems all over the country have upgraded their security on many levels.

Since the Sandy Hook gunman gained entrance into the school by breaking a front entrance window, one security measure a number of school districts have included in their overall security upgrade is installing safety and security film on all entranceways and first floor windows.

Although safety and security film does not stop bullets it is shatter resistant. This means an intruder can’t easily break the glass and enter the building giving police precious time to arrive on the scene and quell any threat.

After Sandy Hook, a number of states offered grants to public school districts to upgrade their security. Connecticut and Virginia were two of the first states to do so. In 2014, Connecticut gave security improvement grants totaling $21.8 million to more than 70 school districts. The previous year, the state gave $21.1 million to more than 110 school districts.

More recently, Michigan State Police issued $25 million in safety grants to 188 school systems. Some of the schools will install safety and security film  on their entranceways and first-floor windows.

Commercial Window Shield has been one of the industry leaders in installing safety and security window films in schools around the country. Shortly after Sandy Hook, the company was hired by Hartford, Glastonbury and Simsbury school districts to protect the windows and entranceways in their schools.

The Hartford project, which included 16 buildings in one of the state’s largest school systems, was completed in three phases over two years. Once Commercial Window Shield was hired for Phase 1, its ability to expertly install the safety and security window films without disturbing classes and completing the project on time, opened the door for the company to be hired for phases two and three.

To date, the company has protected the glass in more than 330 school buildings in nine states. Elsewhere, the company has completed safety and security film installation projects at Geneva, Minooka and Lake Zurich school districts in suburban Chicago; Calvert and Carroll County [Md.] Public Schools; Mechanicsburg and Bath Local Schools, near Lima, Ohio; Hewlett-Woodmere Public Schools, N.Y.;  Norfolk and Henry County in Virginia; Beaverton, Ore.; Lansdale, Pa. and Katy and Rockwell schools districts in Texas.

The Katy Independent School District project is notable because its one of the country’s fastest growing school systems. Katy, located in suburban Houston, is adding 5,000 students a year and is up to 75,000 students total, placing it in the top 50 in the country.

For Katy, Commercial Window Shield installed 15-mil safety and security film with a Dow 995 wet glaze attachment system to the doors and windows in the main entrance vestibules in 55 school buildings. This followed the company being  the lowest – and most experienced – of five bidders on the project. Funding for the project was part of a $748 million bond approved by voters in 2014.

School officials were so pleased with Commercial Window Shield’s work on Phase 1 they executed a previously agreed upon option in the original contract to retain the company for Phase 2.

In Phase 2, the company also installed 15-mil safety and security film with a Dow 995 wet glaze attachment system to the doors and windows in the main entrance vestibules of an additional 17 school buildings, or 72 buildings total. It became one of the country’s largest fragment retention window film installation projects for schools to date.