Paper: Moving from Chance to Strategy

Who do superintendents believe is ultimately responsible for school safety in their district? Do they believe there is a commonly accepted framework or playbook to guide them, as leaders of the district? These are some of the questions we have been discussing with PreK-12 superintendents to better understand their role in school safety. 

Our research found that the processes involved with school safety span across disciplines and practices of the district. It is the work of the superintendent to weave together the various efforts and skillsets into a cohesive whole. To aid superintendents in their efforts to prevent school violence, we developed a framework for school safety, visualized in the continuum above.

 

We found that a district’s safety protocols and capabilities all fall somewhere along a continuum.  The ‘X’ on the continuum represents an incident. On the left side of the continuum is the work a district can do before an event, and on the right side of the continuum is what the district should plan for following an event.  The superintendents and school safety experts we speak with have validated this as a helpful mental model for assessing and coordinating the district’s various initiatives.
 

It is the job of schools to foster a sense of belonging in all kids. The scope of school safety, therefore, starts well before an incident takes place: with connection and relationships. We need a change in mindset from reaction to prevention. Please download our report for more.