Schools throughout California are focusing anew on strategies that can help ensure students and staff spend their days in a safe school environment.
Governing boards can do much to help. Specifically, they can:
- Establish safety as a priority and communicate a clear vision for safe school environments
- Make sure the necessary organizational structures are in place, such as budget, curriculum, policies, training, and partnerships
- Hold the system accountable for implementing the vision and goals, providing the needed support
- Speak out on behalf of the community’s children and schools the leaders elected to represent them
To help, CSBA offers a number of School Safety resources, many of which are drawn from CSBA’s updated guide, “Safe Schools: Strategies for Governing Boards to Ensure Student Success.” Copies of the guide are available in print or on a pre-loaded flash drive, courtesy of the Ford Foundation. Contact Betsy McNeil at 800-266-3382 or bmcneil@csba.org.
Features on the School Safety Web page include action steps, sample board policies, a checklist for updating school safety plans, crisis communications strategies, campus security measures, crisis response, best practices and links to CSBA publications and other organizations’ safety resources.
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