Districts are at risk of a wide variety of acts of violence, natural disasters, and technological disasters. As part of the approval process, the Districtwide Safety Plan MUST be made available for public comment at least thirty (30) days prior to adoption by the Board of Education. Project SAVE requires every school in the State of New York to work with local law enforcement officials and members of the community to develop a comprehensive Safety Plan that will limit the damaging effects of a violent incident. The primary goal of Project SAVE is to stop school violence before it happens. The website includes free toolkits for school communities tohelp facilitate conversations and partnerships.
K-12 School Security Guide Companion for School-Based Law Enforcement and School Resource Officers
Emergency housing for essential workers is not considered to be generally required for school employees as opposed to healthcare workers and other critical care employees. Our plan to track such individuals can be found in Appendix C, Essential Employee Worksheets, page 45. It is recognized that as the work environment changes to adapt to the emergency situation and typical work schedules are modified it can become more difficult to track employees especially if they conduct work off site or in numerous locations. Sanitizing lowers the number of germs on surfaces or objects to a safe level, as judged by public health standards or requirements. Testing, medical and quarantine support for may be arranged as needed and available. If someone tests https://www.pa.gov/agencies/education/programs-and-services/schools/school-climate-wellbeing/mental-health/mental-health-resources positive for the pathogen, a Contact Tracer may connect them with the support and resources they may need through quarantine, such as help getting groceries or household supplies, child-care, medical care or supplies.
Prevention/Intervention Strategies
A. The school climate is viewed as an important part of school safety. 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. The District conducts drills and other training exercises to test components of the emergency response. The district has identified school personnel authorized to make decisions during an emergency. In the event of an emergency or violent incident, the initial response to all emergencies at an individual school will be initiated by the Building Principal/Designee. The Department is committed to protecting our students’ wellbeing, and we recognize that a strong foundation in building healthy and productive relationships with others helps students thrive.
The virtual day will follow the same schedule framework as the HS, MS and Elementary School to which the student is assigned. If there are any circumstances preventing full and appropriate participation the student/parent or guardian should let the teacher know. This includes being on time for class, engaging fully through video and audio as directed by their teacher, and presenting themselves in a manner that is in accordance with school expectations. Teachers in grades 6-12 will use CANVAS as their online instructional platform.
- By meaningfully including students with ESN in all aspects of SWPBIS design and implementation, schools can help foster an inclusive culture in which students with ESN are treated with dignity and respect by all staff and peers.
- K-5 virtual instruction includes a combination of both direct instruction with time for independent work and practice (away from the screen) and movement breaks as needed.
- This Emergency Remote Instruction Plan allows school districts to deliver instruction remotely on days in which they would otherwise have to close due to an emergency.
- Greeters are to receive training and be knowledgeable about all emergency codes and building procedures they would need to know to do their jobs.
- Multi-Hazard Emergency Response Action Guidelines in each Building-Level Emergency Response Plan provide guidance on the district’s policies and procedures for responding to direct acts of violence by students, teachers, other school personnel and visitors to the school.
Several District provided instructional technology software programs are available to support instruction along with a wide array of other resources curated by faculty. District policy and procedures are followed to ensure computing devices are made available to students or other means by which students will participate in synchronous instruction. The district will debrief after any incident to make modifications to the safety plan as necessary to improve the effectiveness and reliability of the plan. The school district will work with staff to make reasonable accommodations whenever possible. Schools must follow CDC and/or NYSDOH guidance for allowing a student or staff member to return to school after exhibiting symptoms.
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.