CCSF
CCSF Emergency Alert / Emergency Notification & Timely Warning Policy
CCSF Emergency Alert is the San Francisco Community College District's mass-notification system, run on the Rave platform, delivering official emergency communications by text message and email; any community member can opt in for free by texting 'ccsf' to 67283. The District Police Department issues emergency notifications and timely warnings under the Annual Security Report, with timely-warning decisions made on a case-by-case basis.
Read the official policy~19,267 studentsCCSF Emergency Alert
In the policy’s own words
What the policy says
Rave partnership and channelsverbatim
The City College of San Francisco has partnered with RAVE to provide important/emergency mass notifications to the CCSF community.
- Names Rave (Rave Mobile Safety / Motorola) as the vendor and text/email as the channels. Reproduced identically across multiple independent retrievals; the ccsf.edu host 403-blocks direct fetch, so it could not be byte-confirmed against the live page.
Free public opt-in keywordverbatim
Any member of the community can receive RAVE text alerts by texting "ccsf" to 67283.
- Open, free keyword opt-in lets students, staff, and the public receive the same emergency texts. Reproduced consistently across multiple retrievals; host 403-blocks direct fetch.
Timely-warning case-by-case standardnot yet verified against the source
The policy addresses this topic; its exact wording has not yet been verified against the source, so no text is quoted here. Open the official policy to read it.
SFCCD Police Department Annual Security Report 2025System testing cadencenot yet verified against the source
The policy addresses this topic; its exact wording has not yet been verified against the source, so no text is quoted here. Open the official policy to read it.
SFCCD Police Department Annual Security Report 2025At a glance
How this policy works
- When it activates
- The CCSF Emergency Alert is activated as needed for significant emergencies, dangerous situations, or other conditions that present an imminent risk or immediate threat to the health and safety of students, employees, or visitors to the Ocean campus and Centers. A timely warning is issued for Clery crimes that represent a serious or continuing threat to the community.
- Who decides
- The District Police Department is responsible for the District's emergency notification system and issues emergency notifications; first responders who confirm a threat notify the District Police Department to trigger a notification. Timely-warning decisions are made on a case-by-case basis after considering the nature of the crime, continuing danger, and risk of compromising law enforcement efforts.
- Timeliness standard
- Emergency notifications are activated 'as needed' upon confirmation of an imminent risk or immediate threat; the formal Clery 'without delay' standard is set out in the Annual Security Report.
- Emergency notification vs. timely warning
- The ASR separates emergency notifications (imminent risk / immediate threat to health and safety) from timely warnings (Clery crime alerts decided case-by-case), both administered by the District Police Department under the Jeanne Clery Act.
- Testing cadence
- The 'CCSF Emergency Alert' system is tested several times throughout the year, per the Annual Security Report.
- Scope & limits
- The system reaches the CCSF community by text and email; opt-in is open to any community member free of charge via the 'ccsf'-to-67283 keyword or the Rave self-service portal. Coverage spans the Ocean campus and the District's Centers. The citywide AlertSF service is a separate, complementary feed run by the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.
ChannelsSmsEmailWebsite
Analysis
Reading the policy
City College of San Francisco — the large urban community college serving the San Francisco Community College District across its Ocean campus and several Centers, enrolling roughly 19,000 students (plus thousands more in noncredit programs) — runs its mass-notification program as the 'CCSF Emergency Alert.' The District 'has partnered with RAVE to provide important/emergency mass notifications to the CCSF community,' so that 'official CCSF emergency communications and other important information are provided via text message and email.' Enrollment is open and free: 'Any member of the community can receive RAVE text alerts by texting "ccsf" to 67283,' and the self-service Rave portal lets users manage their contact preferences. CCSF also points its community to the citywide AlertSF service run by the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management as a complementary feed.
The Clery framing is set out in the Annual Security Report and on the District Police Emergency Procedures page. The District Police Department is responsible for the District's 'CCSF Emergency Alert' notification system, which is activated as needed for significant emergencies, dangerous situations, or other conditions that present an imminent risk or immediate threat to the health and safety of students, employees, or visitors to the Ocean campus and Centers. The ASR describes the trigger sequence: once first responders confirm that there is a significant emergency or dangerous situation posing an immediate threat to the health or safety of the campus community, they notify the District Police Department to issue an emergency notification.
For crime alerts, the ASR states that 'the decision to issue a timely warning shall be made on a case-by-case basis after consideration of the available facts, including factors such as the nature of the crime, the continuing danger or risk to the campus community, and the possible risk of compromising law enforcement efforts.' This is the standard Clery case-by-case discretion language. The ASR also confirms a testing cadence: the 'CCSF Emergency Alert' system is tested several times throughout the year.
Because the ccsf.edu host 403-blocks direct fetch in this environment, the quotes below were captured from repeated search-snippet renderings of the official Annual Security Report and Emergency Procedures page and cross-checked across independent retrievals before being flagged. The Rave vendor relationship and the 'ccsf'-to-67283 opt-in were reproduced consistently across multiple retrievals; the longer ASR trigger and case-by-case passages were captured from the ASR but could not be re-confirmed verbatim across multiple retrievals, so they are flagged accordingly.
Takeaways
Key findings
CCSF Emergency Alert runs on the Rave platform, delivering official emergency communications by text message and email to the Ocean campus and District Centers.
Opt-in is open and free to anyone by texting 'ccsf' to 67283, or via the Rave self-service portal (getrave.com/login/ccsf).
The District Police Department is responsible for issuing emergency notifications; first responders who confirm a threat notify District Police to trigger one.
Timely-warning decisions are made case-by-case based on the nature of the crime, continuing danger, and risk of compromising law enforcement efforts.
The CCSF Emergency Alert system is tested several times throughout the year, per the Annual Security Report; the citywide AlertSF feed is a complementary external service.
Policy, meet practice
When this system actually fired
2 documented times CCSF’s alert system was used, from the case archive.
Provenance
Sources
- Official
- Official
- Clery ASR
- Official
- Source
Tags
policyemergency-notificationtimely-warningcommunity-collegeravecalifornia
Added 2026-06-21Updated 2026-09-20Via ingestion