Helping districts improve school safety is one of our top priorities. But we’re also focused on providing busy school leaders with solutions that streamline cumbersome administrative processes and save valuable time. The TeachPoint Educator Evaluation and Professional Development Tracking solutions, now part of the Vector Solutions family, can help you manage growth and performance and improve educator effectiveness in your district.

Here are a few ways the TeachPoint PD Tracking Solution can help you increase efficiency and eliminate the paperwork:

• The central office can utilize a dashboard to create and manage all PD events and attendee registration, as well as approve credits from one central location.
• School principals can easily launch and communicate new in-school PD events, then auto-generate and distribute certificates of attendance.
• Educators and staff can easily view and sign up for available PD events and request to attend events outside of their district/school.
• The central office can gather attendee feedback using pre-built templates or by creating tailored questionnaires.
• Educators and staff can utilize a dashboard to track all their PD credits required for recertification.

You can also easily integrate your SafeSchools Training online safety and compliance training with the TeachPoint Online PD Tracking Solution. Here’s how this new integration will help you streamline PD tracking for all staff:

• Single Sign-On – Employees can easily launch SafeSchools Training courses directly from TeachPoint with a single login.
• Access Hundreds of Online Courses – Access your full library of SafeSchools Training courses from TeachPoint.
• View Training Assignments – Employees can view their list of SafeSchools Training assignments from within TeachPoint.
• Manage PD Transcripts in One Central Location – Course completion data from SafeSchools Training is now accessible within TeachPoint and can be tracked for recertification credits along with other PD activities.
• Built-In Tutorial Courses – The SafeSchools Training system will also include new TeachPoint Tutorial courses which can be assigned to staff to support implementation.

TeachPoint also provides an integrated Educator Evaluation Solution, recently adopted by Boston Public Schools, to help manage the educator and staff evaluation process from start to finish!

Please contact us at [email protected] or 1.800.434.0154 today to schedule a short demo or to request a free trial.

Bullies in the North Hills School District who rely on the silence of their victims to keep up their scare tactics will soon be a telephone call, email or text message away from being busted for their behavior.

Board members voted unanimously recently to purchase the SafeSchools Alert confidential tip reporting system that students, staff and parents can use to report bullies and instances of violence.

“This is a great addition to our district’s safety and security measures,” school Director Allison Mathis said.

The Safeschools Alert system will allow incidents to be reported around the clock.

The system, created by Vector Solutions in Cincinnati, OH was developed to help school districts combat the alarming number of bullying and safety incidents in U.S. schools and the consequences they cause.

Developers note that:

• One in three teens report being bullied and one in two students say they have been cyber bullied.

• 160,000 children miss school each day due to fears of being intimidated or attacked.

• 19,000 bullied children attempt suicide every year.

• 57 percent of students say they would not report an incident if it cannot be done anonymously.

Safeschools Alert will include flyers, posters and other material that can be customized to promote its use as well as interactive tutorials and electronic presentations to help district leadership communicate key features of the system to principals, department heads and other supervisors, according to the company.

The system allows administrators to track and manage the tips that are received so the appropriate personnel can resolve the problems.

We recently hosted a SafeSchools Training webinar highlighting best practices and new courses and features within your system.

Topics covered in the 30-minute webinar include:

• Compliance reports.
• Email notification.
• New course offerings.
• As well as a sneak peek at our new login screen and training area.

To view the recorded webinar, please click here. Simply enter your name and email to begin the webinar. The session begins at the 2:28 mark.

Thanks so much for your time and the opportunity to serve you and your employees. If you have any questions, please reach out to our Client Success team at [email protected].

On May 18, 2018, our education community was again tragically affected. Ten lives were lost and a local community shattered after a 17-year-old gunman opened fire at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas. The attack comes just months after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

In an effort to help with the healing that’s needed right now, we’re making our SafeSchools Training course, Managing the Aftermath of Tragedy, available to any educator, free of charge, for the next 60 days. This course, written by school safety experts Dr. Scott Poland and Dr. Donna Poland, provides valuable information on how to help your school deal with a tragedy, should one occur.

To access this free course, go to www.SafeSchools.com/Cares. Our thoughts are with the students, educators, and families in Santa Fe and the surrounding areas as they begin the healing process.

Corpus Christi ISD employees have until the end of March to complete an online course on active shooter training, Corpus Christi ISD chief of police Kirby Warnke said.

The training covers facts about school shootings, understanding how to reduce the likelihood of active shooter situations, learning evidence-based methods to improve the odds of survival during an active shooter event, and a list actions to take in the event of an active shooter situation.

Warnke said the training, which is part of the SafeSchools Training program suite created by Vector Solutions, is supplementary to a manual for staff and classroom curriculum on crises at schools. The manual was issued after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

The Corpus Christi ISD police department has undergone active shooter training for more than a decade. The district is among the about 150 school districts in the state that has a police department.

One of the reasons the district recently took on SafeSchools Training is to provide employees with factual data on active shooter situations in school settings, Warnke said.

“We’re firm believers in training,” he said. “(The SafeSchools training) helps dispel some myths about school shootings.”

Homicide is the second leading cause of youth ages 5 to18, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s School-Associated Violent Death Study of deaths between 1992 and 2010.

Data from the study indicates that between 1 percent and 2 percent of these deaths happen on school grounds or on the way to or from school.

The leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 14 are accidents, or unintentional injuries, according to data published by the CDC. The second leading cause of death for youth ages 15-19 is suicide, according to data published by the CDC.

A 2014 study conducted by the Department of Justice indicates there were 160 active shooter incidents in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013. Thirty-nine of those active shooter incidents, or 24 percent of them, took place in an educational environment, according to the study.

Twenty-seven of the 160 active shooter incidents took place at pre-K to12 schools, including two school board meetings.

Warnke said the district is compliant with recommendations issued to school districts by Gov. Greg Abbott but is hoping to “exceed state requirements.”

For example, schools are required to conduct three emergency response drills per school year.

“We’re doubling it next year to six drills,” Warnke said.

Abbott’s order was issued in response to the massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

It states school safety audits required by state law must be completed and confirmation of thee audits’ completion must also be filed with the Texas School Safety Center.

Abbott ordered the Texas Education Agency to publish a list of school districts that have not completed their audits.

Warnke said Corpus Christi ISD will not be one of them.

MASON, OH (FOX19) – Several Mason parents are on alert after receiving a school notice saying, “MHS students have shown signs of suicide, and have access to a firearm.”

A few parents say that something seemed a little off when they dropped off their children at the high school Monday morning.

“This morning I actually drove my daughter to school and I noticed the police presence,” said Susan Taylor, a parent in the district.

The Public Information officer for Mason City Schools, Tracey Carson, says they have increased security since the recent Florida school shooting. However, the extra officers were also at the high school following up on two reportedly disturbed students, one of whom had access to a gun.

“We had been getting tips about a student who was at risk for self-harm and who we’d had reports also has access to a firearm. Because the rumors were starting to flow we wanted to share with parents what we could,” said Carson.

That prompted a safety alert, which was sent out to the high school parents saying:

Today we are investigating situations where M-H-S students have shown signs of suicide, and have a firearm.

Carson says there wasn’t a specific threat against the students or the school. The alert still caused a brief panic for some parents.

“I was hoping that nothing would happen at Mason High School. It’s a little scary with everything going on. I just want to make sure that the kids are safe and that nothing happens,” said Amanda Schramm, whose daughter goes to the high school.

The school district has had five suicides since 2008. Carson says they are working to be more proactive to help with prevention.

“In today’s day and age we’re going to look carefully when we see students who are at-risk of depression, or at-risk for suicidal behavior and also take extra steps to make sure our schools are safe,” said Carson.

Carson says that the district’s SafeSchools Alert tip line has been helpful. So far this year it’s helped to resolve 55 incidents, half of which were suicide related, she says.

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — A student brought an unloaded gun to Lee’s Summit North High School Thursday.

According to the Lee’s Summit School District, the district received an anonymous tip on its SafeSchools Alert website that a student may have brought a gun to school.

School administration and the school resource officer immediately made contact with the student.

The district said the student turned over the gun, which wasn’t loaded, to the school resource officer. The student didn’t have ammunition.

The school district said in a news release:

“We are continuing to work with Lee’s Summit Police to investigate this incident; however, at this time it appears that the student did not have any intention to threaten or harm others. In addition to contacting the Police Department, the student is going through our school disciplinary processes. Due to student confidentiality, we cannot share any information about discipline involved.”

The Lee’s Summit Police Department said two juvenile suspects were taken into custody as part of their investigation.

The district praised the person who submitted the anonymous tip as well as assistant principals and school resource officer. It also said the process worked in keeping their students safe.

The Blaine School District has launched an anonymous tip line that district officials hope will make it easier for people to report safety concerns.

The line, called SafeSchools Alert, allows students, parents and community members to report tips on bullying, harassment, drugs, vandalism or any other safety issues confidentially by email, phone, text or website.

“In theory, anonymous lines prompt people to more readily share a concern or make a complaint,” said district superintendent Ron Spanjer at a January 22 school board meeting. “This is a step forward in giving students and community an opportunity to anonymously be in contact with us with information they think we should be aware of.”

The district has received tips in the past, but people did not have a way to do so anonymously.

Lynden school district superintendent Jim Frey said his district began using the SafeSchools Alert system in 2013; Bellingham and other local districts have subsequently signed on.

“We have received tips from the line that we follow up on,” Frey said. “We think it’s important to have a variety of ways for people to bring us information.”

A company called Vector Solutions developed SafeSchools Alert to facilitate reporting of bullying and other safety issues.

In the state-wide 2016 Healthy Youth Survey, 29.1 percent of Blaine High School seniors and 22.4 percent of sophomores reported being bullied within the past 30 days. Nearly 17 percent of students surveyed said they weren’t sure how to report bullying.

The survey also reported that 9 percent of 12th graders and 5 percent of 10th graders said they had carried a weapon on school property within 30 days before the survey.

The district has already received tips since the line launched last week, said Tina Padilla, superintendent assistant. School officials are notified whenever someone leaves a tip, but the line is not monitored around the clock and shouldn’t be used as an emergency line.

For emergencies, call 911 or to use these other resources:

Volunteers of America 24-hour Crisis Line: 800/584-3578

24-hour Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services: 877/715-1563

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800/273-8255

RICHLAND, WA – After yesterday’s terrible shooting in south Florida, we wanted to check in with our local schools to see if there’s anything new on keeping our kids safe at school.

We spoke with the Richland School District and found out about a new alert system called SafeSchools Alert. The online system was actually presented to the board of directors just a day before the Florida school shooting.

Since students often know what is happening in the school before administration, SafeSchools Alert allows them to alert staff anonymously either through text, the website, email, and phone.

Other schools in Washington already use this alert system. The website even says administrators in Washington received a tip through SafeSchools Alert that a student was bringing a shotgun to school.

Today we spoke with Steve Aagard with the Richland School District, who says a system like this was needed and that students even requested that something be done.

“We’ve heard from student leaders at our high schools that students need a way to contact our principals anonymously,” Aagard said. “So we do have students who come forward in person but some may not feel comfortable. So this is another way for students to contact their principal.”

Aagard says the SafeSchools system should be up and running by March. He also pointed out that this isn’t only meant for things like threats against the school. It can be used for cyber bullying, drugs, domestic abuse, or family and home issues.

Washington State House Bill 2801 actually requires students to have an anonymous outlet to report incidents, so by introducing SafeSchools Alert, the Richland School District is fulfilling this requirement.