Growing the Toolbox: Evaluating Varied School Safety Approaches

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

For over a decade, the NIJ has invested in nearly 100 evaluations of strategies to keep students, teachers, and staff safe at school. Some have investigated standalone and/or comprehensive programs that aim to improve school climate, student behavior, and student mental and behavioral health. Others have focused on practices such as using anonymous tiplines or behavioral threat assessment tools or examined the impact of school resource officers (SROs). This panel presents robust results for various school safety approaches. First, we will discuss an implementation and outcome evaluation of the Positive School Safety Program, which provides non-instructional school staff with trauma-informed behavioral management skills to interact with students in locations where they spend unstructured time (e.g., hallways, cafeterias). Second, we will present the results of two follow-up studies from the University of Virginia’s behavior threat assessment model, replicated in Florida and examined longitudinally in multiple states. The final presentation provides results from two recently completed NIJ-funded studies taking mixed-methods approaches to understand the quality and perceived impacts of SRO training as well as the effect on students when SROs are or are not removed from schools.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Correlates of Crime / 36. School Experiences

Individual Presentations

• Implementing and Evaluating the Positive School Safety Program (PSSP) for School Climate Staff - Naomi Goldstein, Drexel University; Nivedita Anjaria, Drexel University; Ana Cienfuegos, Drexel University; Emily Perkins, University of Pennsylvania / Drexel University; Nicholas Hare, Drexel University; Ann Chandler Tune, Drexel University

• Impact and Long-term Outcomes of School Threat Assessment - Dewey Cornell, University of Virginia; Jennifer Maeng, University of Virginia

• Impact of School Resource Officers and their Training - Trevor Fronius, WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center; Ashley Boal, WestEd

Chair

• Jennifer K. Grotpeter, National Institute of Justice

Discussant

• Justin Heinze, University of Michigan