Original URL: http://life.familyeducation.com/school-safety-month/parents-and-school/36167.html

Conducting a School Safety Assessment

A school safety assessment is a strategic evaluation and planning tool used to determine the extent of a school safety problem. It also may focus on a much broader or comprehensive area of school safety or other school climate issues. Conducting an annual safety assessment is a crucial starting point for any effort to make a school safer and more productive.

An assessment could address gangs, weapons in school, drug or alcohol abuse, schoolyard bullying, compliance with local and state laws, community support, student attitudes and motivation, or a variety of other emerging school climate trends.

A school safety assessment, in broadest terms, is a comprehensive review and evaluation of the educational program of a school or district. Various issues are examined to ascertain how they affect school climate, school attendance, personal safety, and overall school security. The safety assessment includes:

• A review of student discipline problems, policies, procedures, and practices at both the school site and district level;
• An evaluation of the school safety plan and the planning process;
• An assessment of the school/law enforcement partnership and the relationship with local community leaders and resources;
• A review of crime prevention efforts regarding environmental design;
• A review of employee recruiting, selection, supervision, and training criteria pertaining to school safety;
• An assessment of student activities and extracurricular programs;
• A review of the crisis response plan;
• An assessment of the educational plan and its support for a positive school climate.

Advance work

In preparation for the assessment process, several resources should be gathered for the assessment team to review. These materials include:

• All security and safety-related policies of the district;
• A floor plan of school buildings;
• A site plan showing campus boundaries and access points;
• School crime reports for the previous year;
• Known safety and security concerns of the staff and students;
• The school's file of previous news coverage;
• The school's log of police calls for service;
• Student handbook and teacher handbook;
• Disciplinary files;
• PTA newsletters that address safety and security;
• Labor contracts for classified and certified staff.

Collecting data
Data collection for a site assessment has four components. The first involves reviewing school crime reports. Every school should have a comprehensive and systematic school crime reporting process where written records about school crime incidents are maintained and analyzed. The report should provide for some means of crime analysis to determine what incidents may be linked to other incidents and situations that may be occurring on the campus. Such records can serve as valuable student management tools.

The second component is a site review. Sample questions that you might use in an assessment process include the following 20 questions, which are designed to get the evaluation process started. School administrators likely will want to develop their own evaluation tool.

1. Has your community crime rate increased over the past 12 months?
2. Are more than 15 percent of your work orders vandalism-related?
3. Do you have an open campus?
4. Has there been an emergence of an underground student newspaper?
5. Is your community transiency rate increasing?
6. Do you have an increasing presence of graffiti in your community?
7. Do you have an increasing presence of gangs in your community?
8. Is your truancy rate increasing?
9. Are your suspension and expulsion rates increasing?
10. Have you had increased conflicts relative to dress styles, food services, or types of music played at special events?
11. Do you have an increasing number of students on probation at your school?
12. Have you had isolated racial fights?
13. Have you reduced the number of extracurricular programs and sports at your school?
14. Are parents withdrawing students from your school because of fear?
15. Has your budget for professional development for staff been reduced or eliminated?
16. Are you discovering more weapons on your campus?
17. Do you lack written screening and selection guidelines for new staff at your school?
18. Are drugs easily available in or around your school?
19. Does your annual staff turnover exceed 25 percent?
20. Have you had a student demonstration or other signs of unrest within the past 12 months?

Student insights A third component involves surveying teachers, students, parents and staff members about their perception of behavior and safety issues. The survey also should provide for open-ended input. Questionnaire models are available from state departments of education in Texas, California, South Carolina, and Florida.

The fourth and perhaps most important component is to talk with students individually and in focus groups. Typically, students will not report their victimization to teachers, school administrators, law enforcers, or parents. If adults want to find out what is going on, they must ask.

The following questions are excellent ice-breakers: Are there areas of the campus you avoid? What type of initiation rites exist for incoming students? Are drugs easily available on your campus? Have you ever seen a weapon at school?

The important thing is to get some dialogue going and establish a climate of trust. Students will offer some incredible insights--not only to the problems but also to their solutions.