NWREL NEWS
New Series Targets “Effective Strategies for Creating Safer Schools and Communities”
A series of school safety guidebooks produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence will be featured at the 2007 National Conference on Safe Schools in Washington, D.C., at the end of October.
The authors of the books, originally published by NWREL in 2003 and newly revised, will present at the conference, which is jointly sponsored by the Hamilton Fish Institute and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
According to NWREL advisor Ira Pollack, who is coordinating the publications, the books “identify several components that, when effectively addressed, provide schools with the foundation and building blocks needed to create and maintain safe schools. Written in collaboration with leading national experts, these resources help local school districts in their comprehensive safe school planning efforts.”
Each guide offers administrators and classroom practitioners a glimpse of how fellow educators are addressing issues, overcoming obstacles, and attaining success in key areas of school safety. They will assist educators in obtaining current, reliable, and useful information on topics that should be considered as they develop safe school strategies and positive learning environments. As emphasized in Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates—a joint publication of the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education—creating cultures and climates of safety is essential to the prevention of violence in schools. Each guidebook retains this message as a fundamental concept.
Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), violence prevention programs must meet specified principles of effectiveness and be grounded in scientifically based research that provides evidence that the proposed program will reduce violence and illegal drug use. Building on NCLB’s premise that all children need a safe environment in which to learn and achieve, these guides explain the importance of selecting research-based programs and strategies. The guides also outline a sample of methods for addressing and solving safety issues schools may encounter.
The series, which will be available on CD-ROM next spring, includes:
- Creating Schoolwide Prevention and Intervention Strategies—Written by University of Oregon researcher and professor Jeffrey Sprague (see pp. XXXX), this booklet is intended to put the issue of schoolwide violence prevention in context for educators and outline an approach for choosing and creating effective prevention programs. The guide covers the following topics: why schoolwide prevention strategies are critical; characteristics of a safe school; four sources of vulnerability to school violence; how to plan for strategies that meet school safety needs; and five effective response strategies. There are also useful Web and print resources listed.
- School Policies and Legal Issues Supporting Safe Schools. This practical guide by Thomas Hutton, Senior Staff Attorney for the National School Boards Association, addresses the development and implementation of school policies that support safe schools. Section 1 provides an overview of guiding principles to keep in mind when developing policies at the district level to prevent violence. Section 2 addresses specific policy and legal components that relate to such topics as discipline and due process, threats of violence, suspension and expulsion, zero tolerance, and dress codes. Checklists are included to ensure that schools attend to due process when developing policies for suspensions or expulsions, search and seizure, or general liability issues.
- Ensuring Quality School Facilities and Security Technologies is intended to help educators and other members of the community understand the relationship between school safety and school facilities, including technology. The guide was written by Tod Schneider, a Eugene, Oregon, school security authority, and addresses everything from crime prevention through environmental design to security technology and safety audits.
- The Role of Mental Health Services in Promoting Safe and Secure Schools, by mental health experts Krista Kutash and Albert Duchnowski, explores the role of mental health services in developing and maintaining safe schools. The guide provides an overview of research-based school mental health models. It also offers guidance for school personnel and others on implementing mental health-related services, including the role that federal, state, and district policies play and the need for community involvement.
- Fostering School, Family, and Community Involvement, by Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor, gives an overview of the nature and scope of collaboration, explores barriers to effectively working together, and discusses the processes of establishing and sustaining the work. It also reviews the state of the art of collaboration around the country, the importance of data, and some issues related to sharing information. Authors Adelman and Taylor lead the School Mental Health Project in the psychology department at the University of California Los Angeles.
For information on the release of the series, and events planned to coincide with the publication, check the Hamilton Fish Institute Web site at www.hamfish.org/. 