Two laws that address emergency communications recently went into effect: Kari’s Law and Ray Baum’s Act.

Ray Baum’s Act, effective December 6, 2019, ensures that precise location information is dispatched with all 911 calls. If a 911 caller is unable to speak to the answering dispatcher, the dispatch center can locate the origination point of that call and send assistance to that location.

As of February 16, 2020, all enterprise phone systems are required to comply with Kari’s Law which requires callers to be able to dial 911 directly, even if the phone network requires a prefix like 9–or 8 here at UNCG–to get an outside line. Under Kari’s Law, dialing 911 bypasses all extraneous line-access requirements.

UNCG ITS Voice Services system is in compliance with both of these new Federal rules.