A slow, error-filled law enforcement response to the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, raised additional concerns about the effectiveness, training, and coordination of law enforcement. Researchers and school psychologists have stressed the importance of simple lockdown procedures that could be used to respond to a variety of concerns beyond active shootings. Critics of such tactics say they may lead to confusion during an actual crisis and increase the chances a student is harmed—physically or emotionally—during training. But officials in other districts like Atlanta say that, while the AI screeners may not be 100 percent effective at keeping weapons out, they have served as a deterrent, leading to fewer weapons confiscated after they were installed. The Urbana, Ill., school system, reported consistent false alarms with common items like water bottles, slowing down screenings. “There are some kind of sick people out there,” Andrew Lavier, the principal of Alamosa high school in Alamosa, Colo., said after his school was targeted by a swatting call in 2022.
School-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports
- The district team has identified many factors that could cause an emergency in our schools and facilities within the district as well as factors that need to be considered when responding to an emergency.
- These policies and procedures are for responding to implied or direct threats of violence by students, teachers, other school personnel, and visitors to the school, including threats by students against themselves, which includes suicide.
- The District has created age-appropriate handouts that will be given to all school-aged children during the first full week of school.
- When a school district is in remote session, non-instructional services may still be required to report to work to perform critical services related to their area of expertise.
The required members for the District-Wide School Safety team must now include bus drivers and monitors. Ideally, this should be part of Educational Management Information Systems at national, subnational and local levels. Multi-hazard risk assessment is the foundation for planning for Comprehensive School Safety.
Rolling out a district-wide safety platform is easier when you have champions in your corner. Yet, many districts select and implement safety tools —ranging from visitor management systems to mass notification platforms—without district-wide coordination. When it comes to school safety, the stakes are too high not to have buy-in from everyone. This handout provides an overview of school safety in ESSA’s provisions relevant to decision-makers.
See who Mesa Public Schools has hired for this role
The organization’s Safe and Sound Institute runs regionalsummits, workshops and training sessions with national experts to engage andconnect all stakeholders in a school district in the process of improvingschool safety. While the student was eventually charged with false reporting of an incident, the school community was overwhelmingly grateful for the coordinated effort led by the district’s multidisciplinary team. Officers stocked shelves, distributed care packages and checked in on students, providing much-needed connection and bridging communication between schools and community throughout the shutdown. One team that understands and embodies this level of trust works together in the 14,000-student Frederick County, Va., district. Feeling empowered, she sought to bring school safety to the forefront for her elementary school and district. So how should schools build and manage multidisciplinary safety teams?
The district has contracted with an external information and technology company to provide district internet monitoring security services used to alert district personnel of suspicious inquiries or dangerous threats. The high school has implemented a proactive approach with Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports program. The high school has co-curricular advisors for programs including Teen Outreach. After school clubs (such as the Boys and Girls Club or Club Kids, as an example) participate in offering before and/or after school programs. Through these efforts, the Safe Places program for after school homework assistance was begun. Based on this needs assessment, members of the district Drug Advisory Council implemented a Focus on Youth Initiative (FYI).
District Staff Response to Situations of Potential Violence in School
At the direction of the Board of Education, the School Superintendent appointed a District-wide School Safety Team and charged it New Jersey ARP ESSER Funding Information with the development and maintenance of the District-wide School Safety Plan. Niskayuna Central School District has designated the Superintendent of Schools as the district’s Chief Emergency Officer (CEO). It also means preventing and eliminating discrimination in the administration of student discipline. This document was supported from funds provided by the TIES Center grant supported by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S Department of Education (#H326Y170004) and the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports cooperative grant supported by OSEP and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) of the U.S.