Case Study: Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children achieves FERPA-ready, 99%+ uptime network performance with Ubiquiti UniFi

Building a FERPA-Ready, Scalable Network for Specialized Learning on UniFi Network

Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children, a Pittsburgh-based institution serving blind and visually impaired students, needed a more reliable and scalable network to support remote learning, campus connectivity, and strict FERPA/HIPAA requirements. Its aging HP Enterprise/Aruba setup and limited internet speeds were causing constant performance issues, including Zoom calls that could barely support a few users; the school turned to Ubiquiti’s UniFi Network platform to modernize its infrastructure.

Ubiquiti helped deliver a full campus upgrade with fiber internet, Bigleaf SD-WAN, UniFi switches, 200+ access points, and centralized gateway management, plus VLAN segmentation and web filtering for compliance. The result was 99%+ uptime, zero dead zones, simpler management from one dashboard, and significantly lower costs, with the school avoiding a six-figure traditional-vendor buildout and recurring licensing fees.

Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children

Lance Kirby

Owner and IT Director