Rethinking School Safety Together: A Comprehensive Approach to School Safety
- Brandon Bain
- Dec 7, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 8, 2024
This week school communities and safety professionals across America celebrate Safe Schools Week and we at Safe and Sound Schools invite you to take this opportunity to rethink school safety.
Our work with schools, community members, and professionals across the country, is greatly enriched by many and varied perspectives on school safety. Despite many different ideas and views on the issue, we’ve learned that it’s an issue that unites us all. We all want our schools–our children and loved ones to be safe to learn and work at school. But what does school safety mean to you? The truth is that it depends on your lens. Are you a student? A parent? An educator? School staff? A mental health professional? An administrator? A safety professional?
What does school safety mean to you?
Depending on who you are, where you are, and what your experiences have been, you may be concerned with any number of issues from gang violence and bullying, to active shooter and natural disasters. School safety covers a lot of topics–more than ever today. So how do we make sure that we cover all the bases and still keep an eye on the big picture? How do we ensure a truly comprehensive approach? We bring it all together.
We developed a Framework for Comprehensive School Safety Planning and Development just for this purpose. We like to call it the Big Six. Six key categories, or pillars, that all together support school safety.
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(1) Mental & Behavioral Health: Here threat assessment teams and professionals and and school-based mental health providers such as school psychologists, counselors, and social workers work together to develop the programs, plans, services, and resources that support prevention and intervention for the safety of individuals and the community.
(2) Health & Wellness: From allergy and trauma care; to spotting signs of abuse and neglect; to nutrition and physical activity; and stress management and self-care, tending to the health and wellness needs of our school communities helps foster a successful and safe learning environment.
(3) Physical Environment: Elements of architecture, design, CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), security, tools, and technology help to create and enhance our schools in order to naturally provide a safe and supportive learning environment.
(4) Culture, Climate & Community: Fostering a safe and welcoming school culture is a fundamental part of school safety. How does it feel to be in school? Do students, educators, staff, and volunteers feel safe and comfortable enough to learn and grow? Here we explore programs and resources that help develop a positive culture and climate and educate and activate the whole community for the benefit of all.
(5) School Law, Policy & Finance: There are federal, state, and local codes and laws that schools must abide by to ensure the physical safety and civil rights of students and staff. Then there’s the funding and financial planning required to provide for the trainings, tools, programs, and physical improvements that support our school safety efforts. These are the rules of the road and the tools to plan for the journey.
(6) Operations & Emergency Management: From everyday operations such as transportation, arrival, and dismissal to emergency operations such as evacuation and reunification, school communities must examine the full spectrum of crisis prevention, mitigation, response, and recovery operations and the people involved to ensure safety for everyone, every day.
We created this framework to help you rethink school safety, and help you realize how you and so many others are a part of it. Where do you fit? What can you offer? Where will you start? Who will you invite to join you in working for a safer today and tomorrow?
As you rethink school safety, you will have many more questions than answers. One thing is for certain, it takes all of us together to ensure that our schools are truly safe and sound.
Safe and Sound Schools
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