Ensuring the safety and security of students, staff and all stakeholders in a school environment is always top priority for district leaders and school safety/security teams. Since the Nebraska State Board of Education’s adoption of the Safety and Security Standards in 2016, the Safety and Security Office at NDE, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, has been actively educating school safety teams across the state. This ongoing process involves understanding and implementing best practices, requirements, policies, security measures, and protocols related to school safety. ESUs are available to provide support to districts in this area in a variety of ways.
During the 2023-2024 school year safety teams in the ESU 10 service area were invited to attend a Security and Safety Review Workshop. School Safety teams analyzed and updated current district plans. Members from NDE’s School Safety and Security Office were invited to provide an overview of how safety planning, threat assessment, standard response protocols, and crisis response methods work together to create a system of safety and security for all students and staff. District safety teams were also given opportunities for Individual planning sessions and conversations throughout the school year along with updates provided in the School Safety Smore.
The Safety and Security Office of NDE outlines comprehensive guidelines of best practices and requirements to help schools establish effective safety and security measures. The complete document can be found here: Guidance and Support. Safety and Security Standards are also recognized and categorized into four classifications.
-
Prevention - Aimed at preventing incidents.
-
Preparedness - Readiness for any threat or incident a school may encounter.
-
Response - Intended planning to respond to an incident.
-
Recovery - Designed actions to return the climate and environment to pre-incident conditions.
Districts in the ESU 10 service area can anticipate ongoing support across all four classifications, as new initiatives are introduced by the NDE and UNL Public Policy Center. Moreover, ESU 10 is actively planning additional services to further enhance support for school safety teams. I look forward to sharing our planning results and outcomes in the near future.