School violence leaves severe marks on students. But what would happen if we implemented solutions to behavior and school violence issues? Student outcomes would undoubtedly improve in a safer, stable learning environment.

Indelible Marks on Today’s Students

School shootings have left deep scars throughout our country. And recent numbers don’t lie:

• May 6, 2019 – Highlands Ranch, Colorado – one dead, eight injured
• May 18, 2018 – Santa Fe, Texas – 10 dead, 13 injured
• February 14, 2018 – Parkland, Florida – 17 dead, 17 injured
• January 23, 2018 – Benton, Kentucky – two dead, 18 injured
• December 7, 2017 – Aztec, New Mexico – two dead

What are some of the student behaviors as after-effects of school violence? These can include:

• Nightmares
• Headaches
• Resistance to returning to school
• Sleeping problems
• Fear
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Confusion
• Increase in impulsive or aggressive behaviors
• PTSD

Students shouldn’t have to live in fear and experience the after-effects of school violence incidents. They and their families need to know their schools will provide school violence solutions to improve their positive outcomes, both in and out of the school environment.

Your Role as a School Superintendent

Violence has been a prominent issue that school districts have been facing, more so in recent years. As a result, the public has begun a massive outcry, demanding better security in schools.

You realize the critical need for school security and some ways to implement solutions, changing any current safety measures you have in place. However, funding issues may be blocking the necessary changes, owing to budgetary constraints in your district. You have to investigate ways to make it happen.

Consider these as some steps for your schools:

• Grants.gov is the U.S. government’s central portal for finding grant opportunities.
• The Department of Education offers several different grants for everything from individual schools to state education agencies.
• The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP). This was created through the 2018 enactment of the STOP School Violence Act, which Congress authorized to provide $33 million in grant assistance for security improvements annually through 2028.
• The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Comprehensive School Safety Initiative program is awarding up to $50 million in grants, with no matching required, to organizations researching ways to make schools more secure and students safer.

The NIJ is interested in supporting projects likely to provide credible and objective knowledge that schools may use to more effectively prevent and respond to school shootings and other incidents involving mass violence.

Here are examples of school funding successes:

• Philadelphia School District received $3.8 million from the state budget.
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that The School Safety and Security Committee established within the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) approved $40 million in school safety grants to 234 school entities.
• The Michigan State Police awarded $25 million under the 2019 Competitive School Safety Grant program to 135 public schools, 20 charter schools, and nine intermediate school districts/regional educational service agencies.

So make it happen.

Good News for Your Schools

There are now proactive school violence solutions that work to build significant positive outcomes for your district. The solutions use smart technology services available from ScholarChip. ScholarChip enables:

• Teachers to manage student behavior in their classrooms.
• Staff to monitor students in school buildings.
• Staff to monitor visitors coming into your buildings.

The ScholarChip school violence solutions

Disruptive students reduce student learning time. Increasing negative behavior can also escalate into more serious behaviors with the potential of those students becoming violent as time progresses.

ScholarChip Alternative Behavior Educator (ABE)

ABE is a behavior intervention program that gives principals, teachers, and administrators specific data-driven reports surrounding behavior management of a student and flags possible at-risk students.

ABE teaches better behavior through the use of games, videos, and activities that are tailored to particular types of bad behavior so students can enjoy learning to modify their actions and behave more appropriately. ABE reinforces student progress with rewards for good behavior. It provides an online way of positively recording and monitoring a student’s career for greater success.

ABE allows students to gain the skills that are individually identified as an area needing remediation. Not only do teachers find it very helpful, but the students are actively engaged.

And without the need for constant discipline, there’s more teaching and learning time. This shapes the overall performance with students and their school.

ScholarChip smart ID cards – One Card

In a time when a student’s whereabouts are critical, there’s a need to become more proactive with your safety and security.

ScholarChip’s smart ID card, One Card, is assigned to each student and staff member. Containing a unique identification number that has embedded chip, One Card makes automated attendance quick, easy, and cost-efficient. All your students do is tap their cards at the mobile kiosks at their school entrances, cafeterias, auditoriums, and gyms. It makes students accountable for their whereabouts and attendance easily documented.

When equipped with door and desk readers, teachers have accurate classroom attendance every time. It’s easy to determine who is absent and act accordingly. When bus readers are used, everyone is accounted for. One Card creates accountability for students that leads to increased performance.

One Card enables you to control your building and door access privileges, which in turn improves student safety. When students feel safe at all times, there are positive outcomes in them as well as their behaviors.

ScholarChip Visitor Management

How many school violence incidents have occurred when third-parties have entered school premises?

Who are those third-party visitors? They are usually vendors, delivery personnel, volunteers, and individuals who are picking students up. In some instances, you can have hundreds of visitors throughout your school campuses.

ScholarChip addresses these concerns with Visitor Management, a solution that tracks those third parties who enter your schools. Visitor Management helps you keep at-risk visitors out and lets you know who’s in your schools in real-time.

There is automated driver’s license scanning as well as known sex-offender checking against databases. Visitors get easily printable badges upon arrival. When leaving, the barcodes are scanned to indicate their departure. If they’re repeat visitors, they’re given a fob so they don’t consistently have to go through the visitor check-in process again.

All of this dramatically improves student safety since third parties are known when they are on campus and when they’ve left.

Critical Need for School Violence Solutions

Today’s students need to know they are protected from potential violence while at school. ScholarChip provides school violence solutions that reduce incidents to keep children safe. Students are protected so they can learn in a safe environment with positive outcomes.

To learn more about how you can improve school safety outcomes with a safety solution in place, schedule a 1-on-1 strategy session with one of our specialists today!

ScholarChip is an all-in-one platform solution that helps schools proactively address student behavioral challenges, student safety, and chronic absenteeism, so they can prevent school violence before it happens. To learn more about the many solutions ScholarChip provides, or to get free recommendations, feel free to request a 1-on-1 call with one of our school violence prevention experts here.