The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) School Safety Group, out of the U.S. Department of Justice, recently released Ten Essential Actions to Improve School Safety, which provides action items that schools/school districts can do to help mitigate and prevent violence on campus.
Physical Safety
- Comprehensive School Safety Assessment. The safety and risk assessment plan should be developed by a multidisciplinary/interagency team and should be reviewed and updated annually. This school safety assessment should identify threats with the highest probability of occurring, potential consequences of those threats, and what vulnerabilities the school or district has in regards to those threats. Most school safety plans often fail to include:
- Family reunification.
- Emergency mass notification.
- Identifying mental health resources (ahead of time).
- Monitoring and managing of media released to the public.
- The possibility of a contagion effect (within the school district) following a student suicide or mass casualty attack (anywhere in the nation).
- Campus, Building, and Classroom Security. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for school security and safety, so schools/school districts should first identify gaps in their campus, building, and classroom security. Students should also provide input, rank vulnerabilities, and offer solutions. At a minimum, schools should have:
- AEDs and stop-the-bleed kits.
- Video surveillance.
- Access control systems.
- Building and classroom number systems or other methods to clearly identify locations.
- Classroom doors that lock from the inside.
- Uncluttered and secure spaces in every classroom where if projectiles were fired into the classroom from outside, students would be safe.
- Coverings for door glass and windows that prevent an assailant from seeing into the classroom.
- Drills. Drills help set clear expectations of everyone’s role during an emergency (armed assailant, fire, weather emergency, etc.). Schools/school districts should debrief after each drill to identify areas for improvement and challenges encountered.
- Coordination with Emergency Personnel. Even with a school resource officer (SRO), an active shooter or other critical incident will elicit a response from state and local law enforcement as well as emergency medical services. Joint training, coordination, and advanced planning are essential to ensure the combined response is fast and effective.
- School-Based Law Enforcement. There have been numerous examples of SROs intervening to prevent and quickly mitigate an active school shooting. SROs should be specially trained and selected. Not every school/school district can provide an SRO so they could consider working with local law enforcement, or even a private security company, for support.
Emotional Security
- Mental Health Resources. Supporting the mental and emotional health of students, and possibly preventing violence, is an area schools need to focus on. Schools/school districts should provide students with access to qualified professionals (counselors, psychologists, and social workers) who can identify emerging problems and, if necessary, act immediately to intervene.
- Anonymous Reporting Systems. These systems have been proven effective in not only identifying and communicating potential targeted violence in schools but also identifying suicidal threats. Intervene before violence occurs, and ensure adequate follow up on reported threats.
- Behavior Threat Assessment and Management Team. This team should include multidisciplinary members, including school mental health professionals (such as a school counselor, school psychologist, or social worker), administrators, teachers, and SROs or a member of law enforcement. Once a threat is received (or information about a threat), that information needs to be assessed and managed by the team. Ideally, the team should thoroughly evaluate and validate the information, then develop a plan for addressing the threat(s).
- Social Media Monitoring. While most students post non-threatening social media posts, some posts elicit harm (against the school, against others, against the student themself, etc.). Monitoring social media is a good way to identify threats and at-risk behaviors, including cyberbullying.
- School Climate. Schools should take steps to create cultures that are inclusive, safe, and welcoming, and encourage positive connections between students and staff. Measures to help create a positive school climate include bullying and violence prevention, bystander intervention programs, social emotional learning programs, and training students, staff, and faculty on how to recognize signs of suicide, self-harm and violence.
Read the full report for more detailed information.
How SafeSchools Can Help Improve School Safety
Our free, on-demand webinar presented by Dr. Scott Poland, provides School Violence Prevention Strategies and Lessons from the Frontlines. View webinar recording.
Our SafeSchools Online Training System includes an Emergency Management category and Security category of courses that can help train your staff on important school safety topics, including:
- Active Shooter
- Crime Prevention through Physical Security
- Crisis Response and Recovery
- Emergency Operations Planning: Building the Plan
- Emergency Operations Planning: Implementing the Plan
- Family Reunification
- Incident Command Systems
- Managing the Aftermath of Tragedy
- Safety Basics for Security Staff
- School Intruders
- School Violence: Identifying & Addressing
- Tactical Site Surveys
- Threat Assessment
- Visual Weapons Screening
Other related courses include:
- AED (Automated External Defibrillators)
- Bullying: Recognition & Response
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)
- Cyberbullying
- First Aid
- Self-Injury and Cutting
- Severe Bleeding Response: Wound Packing and Tourniquet Use
- Student Mental Health
- Youth Suicide: Awareness, Prevention and Postvention
Student Courses
Did you know that the SafeSchools Training system also offers courses for students? Course topics cover Bullying & Cyberbullying, Depression, Digital Citizenship, Good Decision Making, Healthy Relationships, Resolving Disagreements, Stress & Anxiety, Youth Suicide, and many more.
Anonymous Reporting System
We also offer our SafeSchools Alert Tip Reporting System, that allows students, staff and parents to confidentially report safety concerns/tips to school administration 24/7/365 via mobile app, text, phone, email, and website. Administrators are immediately notified of every tip, and can easily track and manage incidents in our web-based system. Districts around the country are using our tip reporting system to help identify and address potentially dangerous safety threats and concerns.
- Cherokee County School District
- Fannin County School System
- Monroe Public Schools
- Mason City Schools
For a free trial of SafeSchools Training or SafeSchools Alert, please fill out this form.
Series Includes 22 Expert-Authored Microlearning Courses to Help School Staff Recognize and Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
Tampa, FL – September 16, 2020 – Vector Solutions, a leader in eLearning and performance optimization solutions, has launched a training series for K-12 school districts focused on child sexual abuse prevention. This series supports an overall strategic prevention program, which is becoming the new standard of care held by schools across the country.
Child sexual abuse is a very tragic and prevalent reality, with an estimated 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys experiencing sexual abuse before the age of 18. Additionally, 55-60% of child molestation occurs at the hands of an individual outside the family that the child knows and trusts, with schools even being prime locations for abusers to target children.
Available through its SafeSchools Training System, Vector’s Child Sexual Abuse Prevention in Schools Series includes content authored by child sexual abuse prevention expert, Diane Cranley, and helps prepare K-12 school staff to recognize and interrupt attempts at child sexual abuse before they happen. Each short microlearning course effectively engages the learner so they retain the knowledge. Courses are broken down by grade levels to help identify the unique characteristics of sexual grooming at different age ranges at the Elementary, Middle, and High school levels.
“Training our teachers and school staff to recognize the signs and interrupt potential child sexual abuse before it happens is one of the most important things we can do to help protect students,” said Vector Solutions Executive Vice President Alex Berry. “This very important series features expert-authored content that focuses on sound principles to help empower educators to be part of the solution against child predators.”
With its 22 expert-authored microlearning courses, Vector’s Child Sexual Abuse Prevention in Schools Series helps teachers and school staff and administrators prevent sexual abuse before it happens by:
- Educating the school community on signs of abuse in children and risky behaviors in child molesters that are apparent before abuse happens
- Raising awareness of the risk of sexual abuse in and through schools
- Keeping the subject top of mind and engaging the school community
Course author Diane Cranley consults with district leaders, insurers, risk pools, and county departments of education to create an environment where child molesters virtually cannot succeed without being caught and therefore won’t want to work.
According to Cranley, “Organizations that have implemented long-term strategic prevention programs which include this type of training have seen a significant decrease in the number of abuse cases as well as the duration and severity of the abuse. Child sexual abuse is predictable and preventable when we surround kids with knowledgeable and outspoken adults.”
Vector Solutions is hosting an upcoming free webinar with Diane Cranley to provide additional information about the courses, including tips on how to educate and empower school district leaders to develop a prevention strategy that will lower the risk of student sexual abuse in both in-person and distance learning environments. Visit https://www.safeschools.com/child-sexual-abuse-prevention-webinar/ to register for the webinar.
To schedule a demo or learn more about the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention in School series, visit https://www.safeschools.com/staff-training-child-abuse-prevention/.
About Vector Solutions
Vector Solutions, a leader in eLearning and performance optimization, delivers award-winning SaaS solutions to help organizations and individuals operate at the highest level and prepare for more challenging workplaces and environments. Providing industry-focused solutions that connect content and technology, its unique product set includes learning management, continuing education (CE), compliance training, workforce scheduling, safety management and more. Its extensive online and mobile learning library features carefully curated world-class content to meet the unique needs of professionals in the industrial, engineering, education, and public safety industries. Reaching more than 19 thousand clients and 14 million users worldwide, Vector’s missions is to serve everyday heroes by delivering intelligent software solutions that empower them to make safer, smarter, better decisions. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. For more information, visit www.vectorsolutions.com. Follow us on Twitter @VectorPerform and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/VectorPerformance.
About Diane Cranley
Diane Cranley is a child sexual abuse prevention consultant and the author of 8 Ways to Create their Fate: Protecting the Sexual Innocence of Children in Youth-Serving Organizations. She is also the Founder and President of TAALK (Talk About Abuse to Liberate Kids), a federally approved, nonprofit agency dedicated to breaking the silence that surrounds sexual abuse. Diane works with insurers, risk pools, County Departments of Education, and school districts to create a brighter and safer tomorrow for our children. Visit www.dianecranley.com to learn more information about Diane and her work.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a month devoted to suicide prevention awareness. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn, and racial unrest across the country are taking a toll on the mental health of Americans, the focus on youth suicide prevention has never been more important. According to new data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is now the second leading cause of death amount high school-aged youths 14-18 years old.
Youth Suicide by the Numbers
Data highlighted in the CDC report indicates that during 2019, approximately one in five (18.8%) youths had seriously considered attempting suicide, one in six (15.7%) had made a suicide plan, one in 11 (8.9%) had made an attempt, and one in 40 (2.5%) had made a suicide attempt requiring medical treatment. And students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual were more likely to report a suicide attempt during the past year, with prevalence estimates highest among students who reported having sex with persons of the same sex or with both sexes (54.2%); and students who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (46.8%).
One of the most staggering statistics in the CDC report is the dramatic increase in suicide rates among teens: “During 2009–2018, suicide rates among youths aged 14–18 years increased by 61.7% from 6.0 to 9.7 per 100,000 population.”
While teen suicide is a public health crisis, and a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention involves more than just the school community, the CDC recommends that schools can play an integral role in suicide prevention by:
- Creating safe spaces for students
- Reducing stigma
- Promoting help-seeking behaviors
- Training adults to recognize and respond to signs of suicide
How Vector Solutions’ SafeSchools Programs Can Support Schools’ Suicide Prevention Efforts
Our mission is to help create safer and more inclusive schools. We have a variety of programs that can be incorporated into you overall suicide prevention program to support both school staff and students.
Free Webinar: Youth Suicide: Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention in Schools
We recently hosted a webinar with youth suicide and school crisis expert, Dr. Scott Poland, on Youth Suicide: Prevention, Intervention, and Postvention in Schools. Watch this free webinar recording and share with your school staff.
Staff & Student Training
The SafeSchools Online Training System includes a variety of expert-authored courses dedicated to helping your staff and students prevent incidents of suicide, including:
Staff Training
- Student Mental Health
- Youth Suicide: Awareness, Prevention & Postvention
- Self-Injury and Cutting
- Making Schools Safe for LGBTQ Students
- Making Schools Safe and Inclusive for Transgender Students
- Bullying and Cyberbulling
- Youth Suicide Risk
- Depression Awareness
- Stress and Anxiety
Anonymous Tip Reporting
We also offer our SafeSchools Alert Tip Reporting System that allows students, staff, and parents to confidentially report safety concerns, including concerns about the health and well-being of peers, to your administration 24/7/365 via mobile app, text, phone, email, and website.
For more information on how Vector Solutions’ SafeSchools programs can support your school or district prevention efforts, contact us at 1-800-434-0154 or request a free trial today.
Guest Blog Post by Diane Cranley, Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Expert
As the coronavirus began to advance across the country early in the year, almost every state and US territory ordered or recommended schools close to all in-person classes to mitigate the spread of the virus.¹ Educators quickly turned to technology as the new vehicle to deliver classes, but this urgency created safety and security exposures with little time and few resources to assess and mitigate the potential risks of student sexual abuse.
While the coronavirus demanded a quick response and continues to demand attention as the new school year begins, it’s crucial to proactively review the risks distance learning created. An effective risk assessment and mitigation process for student sexual abuse and molestation through distance learning should look at both external and internal risks.
External Risks
External risks include students being exposed to inappropriate materials after being sent to a specific website or social media app to view an assignment, a sexual predator accessing a virtual classroom, and the hacking of home webcams. There are also external risks not directly associated with sexualizing children such as the capture, exploitation or theft of student personal data.
Internal Risks
Internal risks related to sexual abuse and molestation are also a significant concern. Nearly 10% of high school students surveyed said they were sexually abused on a school campus.² So, we know there are bad actors who gain access to students through our schools. Of course, most district employees are good people with good intentions, but the truth is there are child molesters who walk among us and we don’t know who they are. And they will attempt to exploit this newly sanctioned extensive use of electronic communication with students.
Student Sexual Abuse Prevention
So, in order to protect students from sexual abuse and limit district liability, districts must assess risk and create boundary policies with the assumption that child molesters are present. Adhering to boundary policies will also minimize false allegations against employees with purely good intentions.
Eighty percent of child sexual abuse happens in a one-on-one situation.³ Though this statistic relates to contact sexual abuse, most verbal and visual sexual abuse and desensitization also happens in one-on-one situations. Before the pandemic, child sexual abuse prevention experts would have recommended restricting electronic communication between employees and students to what is necessary to meet academic needs, avoiding social media interactions, and using only district provided technology platforms. But “what is necessary” has been drastically changed by the virus and distance learning and our boundaries should change to reflect and mitigate the increased risk.
Steps to Mitigate Risk and Limit Liability In a Distance Learning Environment
Districts can take the following important steps to mitigate risk and limit liability. Districts should:
- Make every effort to vet, approve, and provide all necessary distance learning technology platforms that mitigate internal and external risks.
- Provide students and parents guidelines for safety during distance learning assignments and on-line interactions with employees.
- Develop, communicate, and enforce staff-student boundary policies that limit one-on-one interactions with students in-person and on-line and reflect behavior expectations. Here are some key boundaries to consider:
-
- Employees should utilize district approved and/or provided technology platforms to interact with students and parents whenever possible.
- One-way and two-way written communications with students should be accessible to administrators and parents including but not limited to texts, emails, chats, and direct messaging. Use group messaging if necessary.
- Verbal and visual on-line interactions with students should be done in a classroom or small group setting, not with individual students.
- Employees should not personally provide technology to students to facilitate distance learning or for any other reason.
- Employees should keep student interactions focused on meeting academic requirements. Avoid interactions that are overly personal or sexual in nature.
As districts struggle to determine when it will be safe for students and teachers to return to the classroom, it is imperative that they also provide a safe environment for students on-line. Even when in-person classes resume, hotspots may occur causing the need for an immediate return to distance learning. Preparations for safe distance learning is the new norm for the foreseeable future.
About the Author – Diane Cranley
Diane Cranley is the author of 8 Ways to Create their Fate: Protecting the Sexual Innocence of Children in Youth-Serving Organizations and a child sexual abuse prevention consultant. Diane guides district leaders to create an environment where child molesters virtually cannot succeed without being caught and therefore won’t want to work. She is also the Founder and President of TAALK (Talk About Abuse to Liberate Kids), a federally approved, nonprofit agency dedicated to breaking the silence that surrounds sexual abuse. Diane is working with insurers, risk pools, County Departments of Education, and districts to create a brighter and safer tomorrow for our children. Diane is also the author of the SafeSchools Training Child Sexual Abuse Prevention in Schools Course Bundle.
To learn more about the new course bundle for school staff, please contact us at [email protected] or request a demo online.
1 Nicole Chavez and Artemis Moshtaghian, “48 states have ordered or recommended that schools don’t reopen this academic year,” CNN, May 7, 2020, accessed August 15, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/18/us/schools-closed-coronavirus/index.html.
2 Charol Shakeshaft, “Know the Warning Signs of Educator Sexual Misconduct,” Kappan Magazine (February 2013): 9-11, 13.
3 Howard N. Snyder, Sexual Assault of Young Children as Reported to Law Enforcement: Victim, Incident, and Offender Characteristics, A NIBRS Statistical Report, National Center for Juvenile Justice (2000): 10, 15, NCJ-182-990.
Prince George’s County Public Schools
Located just minutes away from Washington, D.C., Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is one of the nation’s 25 largest school districts, serving more than 136,500 students and 20,000 employees in 206 schools and centers.
The district began using Vector Solutions’ SafeSchools Online Training System in 2017 for all of its employees to provide staff professional development in key safety and compliance topics. Before adopting SafeSchools Training, PGCPS did not have a uniform way to assign and track safety training for several thousand employees across hundreds of locations. District administrators knew they needed to find a training solution that would be efficient, convenient, and cost-effective. In their first year of using SafeSchools Training, staff members completed almost 335,000 courses. To date, PGCPS has over 1 million course completions.
Expanding Staff Professional Development with Special Education-Related Courses for Paraprofessionals
After a successful first year of utilizing SafeSchools Training, the district’s Department of Special Education added the Exceptional Child course library to their SafeSchools Training subscription to provide online special education-related training to 1,400 paraprofessionals. The Exceptional Child course library provides online, evidence-based special education-related training to all staff who support students with exceptionalities, and can be used as a stand-alone solution or added to SafeSchools Training.
PGCPS paraprofessionals completed almost 8,000 Exceptional Child courses during the 2018-2019 school year! The district expanded their Exceptional Child subscription for the 2019-2020 school year to provide access to the courses for nearly 11,000 instructional staff.
As the district heads into their fourth year partnering with Vector Solutions, they are again expanding the use of the Exceptional Child content by extending their subscription to include the new Parent Course Collection. A parent is an important part of the special education team, which includes school staff. These courses are designed to help parents and guardians understand the special education process.
To learn more from Prince George’s County’s successful implementation of SafeSchools Training and Exceptional Child, including best practices for implementing a paraprofessional PD plan, read the full success story.
Cyberbullying has been a growing concern for educators and parents for quite some time. Due to the current pandemic, millions of kids are most likely spending an unprecedented amount of time online. This raises a lot of safety concerns from both parents and educators. According to Natasha Tiwari, a psychologist, these unique times “are ripe for encouraging cyberbullying.”
Cyberbullying by the Numbers
A 2018 study from Pew Research found that 59% of teens had experienced some form of cyberbullying (42% offensive name-calling, 32% spreading false rumors, and 25% receiving unsolicited explicit images).
A new study from Comparitech found:
- Kids reported being bullied 82.8% at school, 32.5% on the school bus, 19.2% on social media sites/apps, 17% at a physical location not on school grounds, 11% through text messages, 7.9% through video games, 6.8% on the internet (not via social media), 3.8% through phone calls, and 3.3% through email.
- The age breakdown of kids who had been bullied was 47.7% 6-10 year olds, 56.4% 11-13 year olds, 59.9% 14-18 year olds, and 54.3% 19 and older.
- 10.5% of parents surveyed had witnessed their children being cyberbullied.
A new survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that one in four Americans experience severe online harassment, so unfortunately online harassment is an issue for all ages, not just school-aged kids.
Stomp Out Bullying has a page dedicated to cyberbullying during COVID-19, and includes recommendations for parents.
How SafeSchools Can Help
Check out our Cyberbullying Prevention Safety Tip video for tips to help keep your school safe. We also have a previous blog with tips on how your school can help control cyberbullying.
The SafeSchools Online Training System includes a variety of expert-authored courses dedicated to helping your staff and students prevent incidents of cyberbullying, including:
Staff Courses
Student Courses
- Bullying & Cyberbullying (Grades 6-8)
- Bullying & Cyberbullying (Grades 9-12)
- Digital Citizenship (Grades 6-8)
- Digital Citizenship (Grades 9-12)
Our SafeSchools Alert Tip Reporting System allows students, staff and parents to confidentially report safety concerns, like cyberbullying, to your administration 24/7/365 via mobile app, text, phone, email, and website.
TAMPA, FL, Aug. 04, 2020 — Vector Solutions, a leader in eLearning and performance support solutions for the world’s most critical industries, is launching a series of COVID-19 online training courses to help keep students and staff healthy and safe as school districts prepare to reopen their campuses for the upcoming school year.
Available through Vector’s award-winning SafeSchools Training System, the customizable course series’ expert content and intuitive features provide essential training staff and students need to help them understand and follow CDC recommendations to keep themselves and others healthy as they return to school, or prepare to learn from home. Through this COVID-19 training series, administrators at K-12 schools will be able to:
- Easily deliver concise, relevant training to the individuals who need it
- Document that training was delivered and completed
- Provide resources that are specifically designed for students
- Customize training with their own school/state-specific information
- Deliver and track new COVID-19 or reentry policies
- Deliver training now as they are returning to learning, but also utilize for reinforcement throughout the school year
“Safety on campus has never been as important or more complex than it is now as our school districts face important decisions about reopening amidst the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Vector Solutions CEO Marc Scheipe. “These dynamic courses are customizable and easy to administer and will equip students and administrators with the information they need to stay safe and healthy on campus as well as protect the health and safety of others around them.”
Courses for staff and administrators at K-12 school districts cover the following COVID-19 topics:
- Coronavirus Awareness
- CDC Guidelines for Making & Using Cloth Face Coverings
- Cleaning and Disinfecting Workplaces
- Managing Stress & Anxiety
- Preparing Your Household
- Reopening Your Organization
- Transitioning to a Remote Workforce
Customizable, engaging courses for students in Grades 6-12 are delivered featuring peer presenters and include the following topics:
- COVID-19 Awareness
- Handwashing
- Face Coverings
- Social Distancing
These affordable courses can be set up in a customized SafeSchools training system quickly so administrators can get this essential training out to those who need it most. To schedule a demo or learn more about these COVID-19 course offerings, visit https://www.safeschools.com/staff-student-covid19-training/.
About Vector Solutions
Vector Solutions, a leader in eLearning and performance support, provides award-winning SaaS solutions for the architecture, engineering, construction (AEC), industrial, facilities management, public safety, IT, and education industries. Its brands, including RedVector, Convergence Training, TargetSolutions, and SafeSchools, deliver continuing education (CE), training, technology, and performance management solutions using the latest innovations in learning and technology to create safer, more capable, more compliant organizations. Its extensive online and mobile learning library offers over 9,000 courses written by over 420 subject matter experts and reaches more than 13 million professionals worldwide. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. For more information, visit www.vectorsolutions.com Follow us on Twitter @VectorPerform and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/VectorPerformance.
Ensuring the safety and health of your school community has never been more important or more complex. Many school officials are concerned about how to adjust their school safety/security and emergency preparedness plans to address COVID-19.
While COVID-19 has created many new challenges, requiring rapid adaptations, there are steps that schools can take now to plan, evaluate, implement, and test efforts before re-opening. These steps will help schools be better prepared to make adjustments, should adjustments be required after students return to school for in-person classes.
Strategies to Help Ensure School Safety
Michael Dorn, SafeSchools Training author and international school safety expert, offers the following strategies to help schools reopen safely this fall:
- Develop and/or improve safety communications and channels. The ability to rapidly communicate with a school community (staff, students, parents, etc.) is increasingly important.
- Create policies that allow the superintendent/board members to deviate from pre-established board policies to specifically address COVID-19 health risks. Similarly, review all school safety/security and emergency procedures/policies to see if any conflict with COVID-19 prevention measures. Identifying challenges now can provide districts/schools with more time to address those conflicts.
- Conduct pre-mortem exercises to detect issues that could arise in the fall. These types of exercises help to spot opportunities for improvement, before an issue occurs. Internal personnel often have insider knowledge that outside experts may miss.
How SafeSchools Can Help
The SafeSchools Online Training System offers a suite of COVID-19 courses for both staff and students. You can also easily customize any of the staff or student courses with your own state, local, or district-specific information and resources. Do you have new COVID-19 or re-entry policies you need to distribute to your staff? Upload your policies to our system, and assign them to staff. The system automatically documents users’ review and acceptance.
Interested in learning more about our COVID-19 courses, or how SafeSchools Training can help your school or district distribute important COVID-19 policies and/or procedures? Fill out our Free Trial form.
Social Emotional Learning is More Important than Ever
Survey results published earlier this summer by America’s Promise Alliance indicate that teens are experiencing collective trauma caused by the changes in their immediate circumstances, combined with the uncertainty about the future as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the key recommendations the survey report outlines to support student mental health is to prioritize social emotional learning. The survey findings highlight the need for a renewed focus on ensuring students (and the teachers and families who support them) have resources to address their social, emotional, and cognitive well-being.
In addition, a new guide on reopening schools developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and 40 other education groups, highlights that regulating emotions, managing stress, empathizing with others, and maintaining relationships—all social-emotional skills—will be key to helping students overcome the trauma and challenges brought on by the pandemic so that they are in a state-of-mind to learn come fall.
New Student Courses Help Educators Address Social Emotional Learning
SafeSchools Training’s new collection of courses for students cover essential student wellness and social emotional learning topics and help educators facilitate important discussions with their students. The new collection of courses for grades 9-12 will be available in time for back to school and includes the following courses focused on student emotional and mental well-being:
Stress & Anxiety
- Stress and Anxiety: There’s a Difference
- How Stress and Anxiety Affect the Body
- The Causes of Stress and Anxiety
- Stress and Anxiety Relievers
Depression
- What is Depression?
- What Causes Depression?
- How Depression Affects Your Health
- Strategies for Combating Depression
Good Decision Making
- Types of Decisions
- Six Elements of a Good Decision
- How to Avoid Decision Traps and Biased Thinking
- The Good Decision Process
- How to Build Good Decision Making Habits
Healthy Relationships
- Why Healthy Relationships Matter
- Building a Give-and-Take Relationship
- Becoming Self-Aware through Mindfulness
- Healthy Communication in Relationships
- Understanding Your Emotions
Resolving Disagreements
- Why It’s Important to Resolve Disagreements
- The Anatomy of a Disagreement
- How We Resolve Disagreements
- Resolving Disagreements Effectively
- Challenges and Pitfalls in Resolving Disagreements
Similar courses for grades 6-8 will be available in 2021.
The expert-authored, video-based course modules are highly relatable and focus on the impact the topics can have on students personally or the people they care about. Peer presenters, animations, and live-acted scenarios help students visualize and apply what they’re learning. Each module comes with a lesson plan, discussion questions to help you talk with students about these important topics, and facilitated group activity ideas.
Other student courses currently available for both grades 6-8 and 9-12 include: Alcohol, Drugs, and Vaping; Bullying & Cyberbullying; Digital Citizenship; Sexual Harassment; and Youth Suicide Awareness. And our COVID-19 course bundle includes: COVID-19 Awareness; Face Coverings; Handwashing; and Social Distancing.
To learn more about our student training, please contact us at [email protected], 1-800-434-0154, or request a demo online.
On-Demand Webinar with Dr. Kellie Gray-Smith
Self-care strategies have always been important tools in educators’ toolboxes as they manage and meet the expanding needs of their students, often with constricting budgets. With the mandated closing of in-person learning for most school districts around the country due to COVID-19 threats, the social emotional needs of students and teachers have become top priorities. Self-care has become even more important as educators manage their own families’ needs while providing remote learning to their students and responding to parents’ questions and concerns. Given that most states are re-opening with ongoing concerns and questions about staying as safe as possible amid COVID-19 threats, school districts are preparing to re-open as well when school begins.
This webinar presented important self-care considerations and trauma-informed strategies for educators as they prepare to address their own and their students’ emotional and physical needs upon returning to school, whether virtual, in person, or a blend of these two options.
Complete the form below to view the webinar recording.
About the Presenter – Dr. Kellie Gray-Smith
Dr. Kellie Gray-Smith is a licensed psychologist and a licensed specialist in school psychology and has practiced for 18 years in large, diverse, urban and suburban public school district settings. She also maintains an active private counseling practice in which she treats emotional-behavioral disorders that include anxiety, mood disorders, ADHD, oppositional defiant and conduct disorders, and other conditions that have an onset during childhood and adolescence. In both school-based and clinical settings, Dr. Gray-Smith works with students and staff who have experienced various forms of trauma, suicidal thoughts and/or attempts, along with other life stressors and has helped students and staff acquire effective self-care and coping skills to manage their life stressors. Dr. Gray-Smith is also the author of several courses in our Exceptional Child special education-related course library.
