School safety is everyone’s responsibility, each and every day.
As the people who work in schools, we have a moral, ethical, and professional responsibility to the children entrusted to our care.
All school faculty and staff members have the potential to be the “first first responder” to a crisis event. While help will subsequently come from administrators and emergency responders, teachers and staff are most likely to be the first to encounter a safety situation and make the critical early decisions about what to do.
By completing the on-demand, self-paced content units in School Safety 101, you will acquire critical knowledge and skills related to violence prevention, school climate and culture, and school-based crisis response.
School Safety 101 - On demand, self-paced online training
Making your school a safer place begins with School Safety 101, an asynchronous collection of learning units that is offered online and on-demand. The content, instruction, and assessments are housed entirely on a third-party learning management system. Register and pay an instructional fee to gain immediate access to the training units that are completed on a schedule you determine.
In the six units that comprise School Safety 101, you will acquire content and skills related to:
Assessing risks and vulnerabilities
Strategic supervision
Visitor screening and engagement
Access control
Communication planning
Crisis response protocols including active shooter response
Complete School Safety 101 independently at your own pace and receive a certificate of completion when you finish.
A look at School Safety 101 units:
Thinking Differently About School Safety
To make our schools safe, educators must expand their thinking and perceptions about school safety beyond active shooter response to include a comprehensive, all hazards, education-focused approach to school safety issues.
Assessing Risks and Vulnerabilities
Many vulnerabilities, hazards, and threats exist in a school setting. Explore the difference between man-made, natural, and technological hazards and discuss how vulnerability assessments can identify and mitigate risks.
Prevention & Preparation: The Building Blocks of School Safety
School safety is not just about response. Planning and preparing for the inevitable crisis event and working to prevent violence requires knowledge and capabilities in the critical building blocks of school safety:
Increasing Student Disclosures – Violence prevention and student support require authentic disclosures from students.
Strategic Supervision and Student Support - An engaged and approachable teaching and administrative staff is critical for student supervision, building positive relationships, and improving school climate.
Visitor Screening and Engagement – Effectively screening and engaging with visitors is a powerful violence prevention measure.
Tools of the Trade – Violence prevention and crisis preparation are enhanced when the right tools are used in daily operations.
Access Control – Providing appropriate levels of access control is crucial in mitigating threats and preventing violence.
Communication Concerns – Timely and effective communication to internal and external stakeholders is central for effective preparation.
Effective Crisis Response
School stakeholders must know how to effectively implement all hazards response procedures when crisis events occur, including best practices in active shooter response.