SCHOOL SAFETY

For VADIR information, please go to:
 http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/sss/SDFSCA/uvir/home_uvir_vadir.htm

Creating and maintaining safe learning environments is everybody's business. While schools remain among the safest places for our students, one incident of violence or disruption of learning is one too many! The New York State Education Department is committed to promoting safe and healthy learning environments where students are secure in their pursuit of educational success.

To address issues of school safety and violence prevention, the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act (SAVE) was passed by the New York State Legislature and signed into law by Governor George E. Pataki on July 24, 2000. Project SAVE culminates the work of the Task Force on School Violence chaired by Lieutenant Governor Mary Donohue. The New York State Board of Regents approved Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to ensure compliance with the new legislation. This site provides resources to assist schools in the development and maintenance of safe school environments.

New York State Center for School Safety:

Website: http://nyscenterforschoolsafety.org
This site has resources for schools and communities as well as information about training opportunities.

Field memo - Enrollment of Youth Released from Residential Placements -- Project SAVE requirements for enrollment of youth upon release from residential facilities.     MSWord format    HTML format

Field memo from September 2001 on School Safety Plans

District-Wide School Safety Plan:Technical Assistance Chart - MSWord format

Relevant Regulation - CR 155.17(e)(1)

The Government Accountability Office releases testimony regarding: Emergency management: Status of School Districts' Planning and Preparedness. (.pdf format only)

Emergency Response

NEW NCES REPORT - Crime, Violence, Discipline and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2003-04.  This report provides a first look at select findings from the 2003-04 SSOCS data. Focusing on the three themes emphasized in the survey, descriptive statistics are provided on: the frequency of criminal incidents at school, the use of disciplinary actions, and the efforts to prevent and reduce crime at school. To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007302

The National Consortium of School Violence Prevention Researchers and Practitioners has recently prepared a Position Statement on School Shootings and Four Elements of a Successful Strategy to Provide Safer Schools. (.pdf format only)

School Transportation Security Awareness Training:  The School Transportation Security Awareness, or STSA, program was developed by us in conjunction with the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, the National Association of Pupil Transportation and the National School Transportation Association to provide much needed security awareness information and training to the school transportation industry.  STSA focuses on terrorist and criminal threats to school buses, bus passengers and destination facilities.  It is designed to provide school bus drivers, administrators, and staff members with information that will enable them to effectively identify and report perceived security threats, as well as the skills to appropriately react and respond to a security incident should it occur. STSA topics include:

• Terrorism Defined
• Who Are Terrorists?
• Define And Identify A Security Threat
• Define And Identify A Security Incident
• Potential Weapons And The Probability Of Use
• Joint Planning Between Organizations
• Leadership Begins At The Top

The STSA program consists of a 24-minute DVD of a simulated school bus hijacking and Web-based, self-study modules offered in both English and Spanish.  The program was designed so the information can be obtained in a classroom setting or by individual self-guided study on-line.  The STSA Internet Training Facilitator's Guide and additional group instructional resources can be downloaded from the web site by clicking the supplemental information tab.  Although the DVD contains valuable information in its own right, it is intended to augment the on-line training modules.

We invite you to register your district/organization by clicking the "Sign-up Your District" button on the STSA web site (www.STSAtrain.com).  Once registration has been completed, a district ID code will be assigned, and each member of your district/ organization will be able to access the on-line training at any time.  Registration also affords you the ability to order additional DVDs on-line. We offer STSA at no cost to any school division and school transportation entity that requests it.  We appreciate the opportunity to assist you in enhancing school transportation security.

School Violence Bibliography: (provided for dissemination by FBI Albany)   In the aftermath of the Dawson College shooting in Montreal in September 2006, the FBI Office of Law Enforcement Coordination (OLEC) worked with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA) to create an electronic bibliography (see below) on targeted school violence resources. Although FBI staff have not thoroughly vetted the bibliography, we nonetheless commend it to your use - it identifies public domain documents produced by reliable entities such as the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Secret Service.  Please note that an FBI monograph entitled, "The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective," is available under Reports and Publications at www.fbi.gov.  The monograph was developed from the concepts and principles developed by the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG), National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) in nearly 25 years of experience in threat assessment, ideas generated by a 1999 NCAVC symposium on school shootings, and in-depth review of 18 school shooting cases.

Field memo from June 2004: Submission of current Code of Conduct for your district, Charter School, or BOCES

Codes of conduct on school property - Education Law – Chapter 16, Title II,  ARTICLE 55,  § 2801

Relevant Regulation - CR 100.2(l)