Since the 911 SAVES Act of 2021 (H.R. 2351) was reintroduced by Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) on April 1, over 30 additional members of Congress have signed on as cosponsors of the bill, bringing the total to more than 80. A Senate companion bill (S. 1175) has also been introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). 

Now is the time to urge our members of Congress to cosponsor the 911 SAVES Act, and we need your help. Please help us advocate for this change by joining our grassroots campaign and sharing it with your colleagues. It's imperative that we recognize the essential and challenging service that 9-1-1 professionals provide.

You can find the current list of cosponsors here to see if your representative supports reclassification. A list of current sponsors of the Senate bill can be found here.

Contact NENA's Government Affairs Director, Dan Henry, if you have any questions.

i3 version 3 was published in July 2021, alongside numerous other standards that were completed or will be completed around the same period. Version 3 brings numerous new features and fundamental changes to the overall architecture; chiefly, one of these is a move from SOAP / XML to REST / JSON for programmatic interfaces and data structures, which means that even functions that do not have any feature changes or additions may have a completely new interface. This means that many interactions that have been tested at previous events need to be re-evaluated at NENA's 10th NG9-1-1 Industry Collaboration Event (ICE).

Alongside i3v3, many other standards were also published at around the same time, and many are directly incorporated into i3. Considering that this presents a "next generation" of NG9-1-1, the ICE Steering Committee has chartered the 10th ICE to focus on testing implementations of new and updated features in i3 version 3, as well as other specifications that i3 incorporates or relies on.

Click here to learn more.

Training Adult Learners & Cultivating Adaptability as a CTO
Wednesday, August 25 | 3PM Eastern (live) or On-Demand
FREE for NENA Members | Click here to register!

As a CTO, you’re asked to train different types of learners; this can often be difficult. Every student brings something to the table, but how do you leverage that? How do you meet the needs of your students in the time that you have to train? What can you do to become an even better trainer? Join us for this hour-long webinar where we’ll discuss:

• Learning styles and different types of adult learners;
• New training techniques to engage your audience and provide them with a valuable learning experience; and
• How you can become a more adaptable and well-rounded training officer.

Can't attend on the 25th? Register now and you will receive an email after the live presentation with instructions for accessing the on-demand webinar archive.

Presenter: Chris Swiatek, ENP – Northwest Central Dispatch System

CEUs: Attend this webinar and receive one-half ENP re-certification point towards the ten-point maximum for NENA courses in the Professional Development CEU/Course Credits section.

Webinar Access Info: Dial-in and web-access details provided automatically via email upon registration.

Questions? Contact Amanda Tegtmeyer with the NENA Education team.

08.23.21 | SOP Development: Refining & Enhancing Your 9-1-1 Center | ILO* | Register 
08.24.21 | Advanced Police Dispatching | ILO* | Register 
08.26.21 | Recruit, Hire, Retain, & Promote for Success | ILO* | Register 
08.27.21 | Leadership in the 9-1-1 Center | Castle Hayne, NC | Register 
08.30.21 | (5-day course) | Center Manager Certification Program (CMCP) | Appleton, WI | Register 
08.30.21 | (3-day course) | Center Training Officer (CTO) Program | Colorado Springs, CO | Register 
08.31.21 | Advanced Police Dispatching | ILO* | Register
09.02.21 | Quality Assurance: Achieving QA/QI in the PSAP | ILO* | Register
09.09.21 | Tactical Dispatch for the Telecommunicator | ILO* | Register
09.13.21 | (3-day course) | Center Training Officer (CTO) Program | Helena, MT | Register
09.14.21 | Serving Equally: Removing Bias-based Inequities from 9-1-1 | Castle Hayne, NC | Register 

*ILO stands for Instructor-Led Online

Recent regulatory activity in North America has had a strong emphasis on combatting nuisance calls, including robocalls and calls with illegitimate caller identity spoofing. The spoofing of critical information, like caller identity, associated with emergency calls and callback calls will negatively impact public-safety communications and emergency response.

The NENA Spoofing Mitigation Information Document addresses operational as well as technical impacts associated with applying information spoofing mitigation techniques to 9‑1‑1 calls and emergency callbacks in an all-IP environment. In addition, this document provides background on regulatory drivers behind the specification of spoofing mitigation activities, describes use cases in which the application of spoofing mitigation techniques may assist Public Safety agencies in detecting and mitigating Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) and swatting attacks, and identifies open issues related to information spoofing that still need to be addressed.

Having adjudicated all comments, the NENA Standard for Emergency Incident Data Object (EIDO) is now considered "stable." Per NENA IPR & Antitrust Policy, Section 4.5.1 "Stable Form Notice" is being issued and can be viewed here.

The number of ENPs continues to increase – clearly indicating the value of becoming an ENP in today’s 9-1-1 environment.  Invest in yourself and your career by joining those who have become 9-1-1 leaders in their PSAPs, as well as at chapter, state, and national levels.

Now is the time to sign up for the October testing window.  You have a choice of going to one of many nearby testing centers, all conforming to COVID precautions, or testing remotely. The next examination period will be in January, with applications due by December 10. 

In collaboration with state and local 9-1-1 leaders across the nation, the National 911 Program recently introduced an interactive map of state-level 9-1-1 data.

The map incorporates self-reported data from states and territories across the nation, providing the most comprehensive overview of 9-1-1 system structure, call volume, staffing and progress toward NG9-1-1. These data help 9-1-1 systems benchmark progress over time, compare progress with similar systems and provide legislators, public safety leaders and the public with an interactive summary of state 9-1-1 system characteristics.

Much of the data is derived from the 911 Annual Report, though additional voluntarily submitted data is also included to provide the most complete picture of 9-1-1 across the nation.

The current version of the map displays data from the 2019 data and will be updated with 2020 data when the next annual report is released later this year.

Implementing 988 for Mental Health Emergencies & NG911 Training Tips for Ops and IT Staff
Tuesday, September 14th — 12:00 P.M. ET
Register here!

Join this webinar for an update on the status of 988, the nation’s three-digit number for mental health emergencies, and the Washington, DC, Office of Unified Communications’ (DC-OUC) approach to NG9-1-1 training for their operational and IT staff.

Implementation of 988
In 2019, the FCC staff – in consultation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and the North American Numbering Council – released a report recommending the use of 988 as the three-digit code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Dr. John Draper and Dr. Richard McKeon will share information on the implementation of 988 as the uniform number for mental health emergencies, provide an update on its status for meeting the July 16, 2022, timeline, and what 9-1-1 needs to know to prepare.

NG9-1-1 Training
Like many public safety entities today, the DC-OUC is planning for a full transition to NG9-1-1. As part of this preparation, the Office recognized the need to train not only operational staff on NG9-1-1, but their information technology staff, as well. This session will provide an overview of the comprehensive training that has been developed to meet these needs.

Implementing Telemedicine in EMS and the 911 Communications Center
Hosted by NHTSA’s Office of EMS on September 22 at 2pm ET / 11am PT
Register here!

No one could predict the speed at which COVID-19 changed healthcare, including the acceleration of telemedicine. For EMS and 9-1-1 systems, telemedicine has enabled safer triaging of possible COVID patients, avoiding unnecessary and expensive visits to the emergency department, and getting patients the right care at the right time.

But not every EMS agency or 9-1-1 emergency communications center is familiar with telemedicine or knows how to take advantage of these new tools and implement them in their agency. Even for those who are, figuring out how to fund these programs and get reimbursed adds an additional challenge.

To help address that gap, the Federal Interagency Committee on EMS collaborated with EMS leaders from across the country to create the "Telemedicine Framework for EMS and 9-1-1 Organizations," a 45-page guide explaining how agencies can use telemedicine to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient care.

In this webinar, you’ll hear from people who were involved in the creation of the Framework and who have helped implement telemedicine in an EMS system. They’ll highlight some of the challenges faced by EMS and 9-1-1 organizations—and how to use the Framework to help find solutions.

NENA is seeking volunteers to re-convene the Interface Specifications Development Workgroup. The workgroup will write a policy for contributing and managing code repositories for various NENA deliverables. The workgroup will write two versions of an administrative policy that:

Deliverable 1

• Sets rules overall for NENA repositories
• Sets a policy for creating a new repository
• Sets a policy for updating the repository (e.g., NENA Document Required, Expert Review, Specification Required, First Come First Serve, etc)
• Sets a policy for managing a repository
• Sets a policy maintaining API definitions and schemas in a repository

Deliverable 2

• Sets rules for maintaining registries in a repository
• Sets rules for maintaining a NENA master glossary in a repository
• Sets guidelines for using code repositories for document version control
• Sets technical rules for maintaining online NENA Master Glossary entries

It is expected that this work will incorporate significant portions of IETF RFC 8874. This workgroup will pilot document version control using a code repository and will write initial drafts of documents in markdown. The workgroup will meet infrequently, such as monthly or quarterly. In lieu of attending frequent (e.g., weekly) meetings, participation in group mailing lists is REQUIRED as a condition of membership in this workgroup.

Click here to join this WG.