- Designate a school staff member with overall responsibility for the coordination for emergency preparedness, safety, and security.
- Implement a designated and trained interdisciplinary school threat team.
- Provide comprehensive school security focused training for school teachers and support staff.
- Implement an updated Safe Schools Plan or Emergency Operations Plan addressing emergency preparedness and response.
- Train school teachers and support staff on the Incident Command System.
- Implement an anonymous reporting system in place for reporting suspicious behaviors and incidents.
- Employ a well-publicized school ‘See Something, Say Something’ program.
- Develop and implement an effective bullying conflict management program.
- Ensure a regularly updated (every 1-2 years) school security assessment by a competent and skilled assessor.
- Adopt appropriate measures to mitigate identified security deficiencies in a timely manner.
- Employ a standard work order process that includes prioritization for security associated issues.
- Train school employees to recognize school security deficiencies and report them in a timely manner.
- Ensure adequate key management and control policies and procedures, including authorization and recovery of keys and response to loss of keys.
- Conduct a comprehensive school key audit, at least annually.
- Conduct regularly scheduled exterior lighting surveys.
- Conduct an annual school landscaping survey.
- Conduct periodic three-step exterior testing of perimeter school doors and hardware to ensure doors latch and lock properly and the timely repair of any deficiencies.
- Provide school floor plans to local police and other first responders.
- Conduct periodic building tours with local law enforcement and other first responders
- Provide an emergency school locker for responding law enforcement containing breaching tools, a sledgehammer, school floor plans, master keys, etc.
- Provide law enforcement and other first responders with override access credentials for electronic access-controlled doors (due to lockdown).
- Conduct periodic tabletop exercises with school staff, law enforcement and other first responders.
- Conduct lockdown drills and emergency evacuation exercises.
- Conduct active shooter/assailant training and drills.
- Critique existing lockdown drills, emergency evacuation exercises and active shooter/assailant training and drills.
- Provide parents/guardians with re-unification locations.
- Ensure timely response to perimeter door alarms.
- Install a uniform door number on both sides of classroom and other room doors and the windows of first floor classrooms.
- Ensure effective Wi-Fi communications and voice communications (intercom) throughout the entire school.
- Ensure the operational effectiveness of law enforcement and other first responder voice communication systems inside the school.
- Confirm consistent compliance with school visitor access control policies and procedures.
- Maintain control of attendees at school events that restrict access to teachings areas.
- Implement tactics to prevent tailgating on electronic access-controlled doors.
- Have an updated ‘persona non-grata’ list including persons with court-ordered restraining orders.
- Implement a School Security Committee to help support all aspects of school security.
ACPI offers more on this topic and many others in a comprehensive School Security and Design seminar, focusing on the prevention of weapons violence in schools, and School Security Assessments, focusing on conducting effective school security assessments in K-12 schools. For more information on these certification courses visit us at acpionline.com.
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