A California school safety plan’s development takes a great deal of time and commitment. The more staff members involved, the better the plan. Every staff member, both classified and certified personnel, can provide key insights.
However, the more detailed the plan, the longer it takes to complete. As such, one of the most challenging aspects of development is creating and sustaining the motivation to get the task completed.
This is when total staff and student engagement is most vital.
Engaging Your Staff and Students—A Boost Beyond a Physical Focus
In order to totally immerse staff and students into a better school safety plan, school administrators must look beyond physical school barriers, such as metal detector entrances or video monitoring, and pursue the tools that successfully influence the socio-emotional wellbeing of their student population.
There’s been a positive shift in the focus of both state laws and school boards:
- From physical violence to social/emotional learning
- From supportive services to preventive services
- From outdated manual-only procedures to automated real-time systems
“We still have a misunderstanding of school safety, which most think of as the physical safety of students,” said Patricia Campie, AIR’s (American Institute for Research) principal researcher who leads school safety studies. “But the more important and more difficult thing is understanding the social and emotional safety of children.”
This optimistic direction in studies on social and emotional safety stems from the positive results experienced by hundreds of school systems nationwide.
Fortunately, ScholarChip has streamlined these tools in an all-in-one solution. Learn five simple ways that schools nationwide have leveraged positive school climates, created safer environments, and exceeded their safety goals—and how you can begin to boost your California school safety plan today.
#1. Innovate and Leverage Technology to Your Advantage
A school administrator’s role is to protect their number-one asset: students and staff.
We’re all privy to the fact that businesses use technology to not only protect their assets with monitoring systems but also create wellness solutions for their employees.
Leveraging the right technology and incorporating these systems and strategies into your California school safety plan will keep your school safe, innovative, and compliant, in addition to protecting your data.
The most significant technologies identified by the AIR and the Department of Justice joint studies include employing entry control equipment, ID technology, and campus safety alarm and protection systems. Other technologies identified by these studies are anonymous tip lines, tracking systems, mapping schools and bus routes, using violence prediction technology, and social media or student accountability monitoring.
Remember, automation provides accuracy and real-time results, so it’s recommended that schools always choose the best automated security and operation service provider, one that places prevention and intervention and data security as their top priority in overall asset protection. With these experts, your staff can be effortlessly trained and engaged as their daily tasks are made easier.
#2. Implement an ID Badge Policy
Easily identifiable ID badges are essential to your California school safety plan due to the benefits of smart card reader technology and how each ID badge influences a safe—and friendlier—school climate.
Smart card reader technology will give you and your staff a more accurate, faster, and more secure approach to California school safety. Again, automation and real-time data are vital here.
Automated ID Management integrated with your SIS and HR software gives you the freedom to know and track “who is who” and where they are at all times—in the building, in class, in the cafeteria, in the auditorium, and even on the bus.
Along with enhanced school security, you empower your staff and students with the ability to foster personal connections and streamlining day-to-day operations for everyone. Through smart card technology and optimized ID badges, you can, among other things:
- Encourage students and staff to learn names.
- Build self-esteem by calling students by name.
- Keep students from feeling “invisible.”
- Gain secured (and easily monitored) entrance to extracurricular events.
“For most students, this is their first experience with a personal ID. Learning how to navigate society using a personal ID has far-reaching effects,” says researchers from the California Department of Education’s ongoing studies. “Keeping track of their ID badge and protecting the information it contains are among the first lessons a student learns. This is a lesson that will follow them beyond the school walls and into adulthood.”
#3. Bully-Proof Your Classrooms
California’s legislation and CDE’s shift in focus from physical violence/gun violence to bullying/verbal abuse is experiencing a remarkably positive result in recent years.
Notably, the reforms have led to a 30% drop in suspensions since 2011, according to the California Department of Education. Practices such as restorative justice, which emphasizes conflict mediation over punishment, have been embraced as alternatives to traditional discipline.
How can your California school safety plan harness the ultimate tool toward bully-proofing each classroom?
The answer: the prevention and intervention through social/emotional learning systems.
The ABE (Alternative Behavior Educator) is quite simple to use and streamlined to include staff, students, and your number-one stakeholders: their parents. You can provide everyone with accuracy for both decision-making and rewards.
Examples of ABE’s Bully-Proof Advantages
ABE provides interactive software that emphasizes the importance of responsible behavior. Most of all, it empowers teachers and administrators with the tools to combat dropout rates, disproportionality, number of referrals, and ISS/ OSS assignments.
Involve Parents and Staff and Give Students a Voice: ABE has helped hundreds of school administrators nationwide to develop resources for depressed or stressed students while giving these students a “voice.” Studies have shown that engaging and involving each student in their own challenges and solutions, paired with an impactful referral/reward system, increases their chances of communicating with the right staff about their issues. ABE is the foundation of that exact success—automated and accurate.
Protecting Your Students’ Confidentiality and Economic Status
As noted in the California Senate Bill 265 by Senator Bob Hertzberg, it is now illegal for California schools to withhold lunch from students who have outstanding school lunch debts. As a school administrator, you can meet this mandate and enhance your California school safety by implementing Smart Card ID technology.
Prevent Lunch Shaming: As an all-in-one solution that incorporates ABE, data security, and the benefits of automation, Smart ID technology has proven itself to be crucial in the prevention of lunch shaming. It provides confidentiality to each and every student when making purchases, no matter their economic status.
“Bully-proofing” your school is the law, not an option.
#4. Maintain Secure Door Access
A lockdown procedure that can both secure students and staff and build confidence (not fear) in a school administrator’s students/community is another powerful tool in California school safety.
Arming your staff with one of the greatest weapons to fight against security issues involves a secured camp. As California assembly bills target school modernization and the requirement for locked doors, Smart Card reader technology should be your aim.
When your students are a part of the security process and understand how it works, as a school administrator, you will help develop and nurture a positive school climate.
ScholarChip’s all-in-one solution integrates an automated, real-time advantage that provides your school with an innovative visitor management system and mobile monitoring strategy through an even more secure technology platform.
Opportunities are increasing! Recent California senate and assembly bills have mandated the state to provide specific funding and reimbursements for such school modernization. Therefore, now is the time to enhance your safety plans.
#5. Know Your Population—in Real Time
It is not enough to simply have accurate attendance; you need to streamline the attendance process to boost your security team results and education and clinical staff duties.
As a result, ScholarChip’s all-in-one solution provides real-time reports, which helps your staff make decisions and maintain control of the premises.
Strengthen Your Visitor Management System: The new California Senate Bill 390 requires all security teams (both full- and part-time officers) to complete specific training for the school years to come. Good news! ScholarChip’s system alleviates training challenges and provides ABE and visitor management accuracy to help you meet and exceed your school security plan goals.
Arm Your School with the Best Tools
Emergencies can happen at any moment. While no California school safety plan can ever be completely safe or immune, for every situation, there are simple steps that will improve your school’s chances to prevent and handle them effectively.
There are too many statistics surrounding negative student behavior in the classroom and school, but your school does not have to become one of them. Teachers and principals are often faced with the challenges of negative behaviors and need ways to address them.
ScholarChip’s technology and behavioral adjustment techniques help improve student behavior through positive learning, help school administrators build a bully-proof environment, and can avoid negative behavior concerns from occurring.
Are you ready to work with ScholarChip to help create the ideal school climate for your students’ success—both now and in the future?
To learn more about how ScholarChip’s all-in-one solution can boost your California school safety through ABE and integrated technologies, schedule a 1-on-1 strategy session with one of our solution specialists today!
