The importance of policy and process in an effective school safety strategy

By Brandon Faber

Published on Mar 28, 2024

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A school safety strategy typically starts with the physical security of the location. However, for maximized effectiveness, a sound, layered strategy needs to go well beyond this. In this post, we’ll explore the importance and role of policies and processes to a safe and secure strategy.

Policy defines the ‘’what’’ and the process defines the ‘’how.’’ They work together to help people understand how things are to be managed, and what their role and actions need to be before, during, and after a security event. This helps ensure there will be a minimal adverse effect in a security incident.

“Without policy and process, all the physical security investment is likely ineffective.”
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Scott Lord
Technical Committee Co-Chair – PASS

It’s important that schools at the district level define the policies they need to implement to maintain their safety strategy consistently across the whole district. For example:

Policies relating to the level of physical security required and related maintenance and serviceability testing needed,
What type of response processes are needed by each school, including notification and alerting procedures for an incident,
Information and awareness requirements for facility, staff and students,
Intruder drill and practice requirements,
Classroom door lock specifications and locking status requirements.

Additionally, individual schools are likely to have their own policies related to localized requirements. For example: designated assembly areas, classroom concealment requirements, and reunification methods for emergency response given the specific design of the campus.

Subordinate to each policy are the individual processes required to fulfill that policy. Processes (or procedures) can be grouped into the following broad categories:

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Processes for before or external to an event

These are all the processes needed for everyday activity to ensure maximum awareness and preparedness to react to a critical event should it happen, and the ability initiate a security response at the earliest indication. They may also relate to an event not specifically at that school, for example how the district might need to lock down for a situation adjacent to, but not specifically on a school district’s property.

It’s crucial to prioritize processes and their rehearsal (drills) to maintain a strong focus on safety for all participants, including faculty, staff, and students. Early threat detection is key, emphasizing the need for heightened awareness and a clear understanding of response protocols in the event of a detected threat.

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Processes required during a security event

Information and its accuracy are of paramount importance. When an event is detected, a prompt and accurate notification process is crucial to initiate the appropriate response procedures. Precious time can be lost if information is inaccurate or doubtful, so well-defined processes need to involve all points of contact.

Finally, when the threat has been neutralized, the “all clear” notification is to only be given by law enforcement in command of the scene. This is done to avoid misinterpreting an event that is still unfolding, or extending a situation of anxiety longer than it needs to. The ability to communicate accurately helps isolate the focus, avoids potentially life-threatening mistakes, and more quickly achieves the goal of mitigating loss and speed of resolution. This necessitates adherence to proper procedures, ensuring that everyone comprehends their roles and engages in regular practice to maintain familiarity.

When faced with an emergency, individuals typically resort to either fight, flight or freeze responses. While flight, the instinct to remove oneself from danger, is generally favored, there are scenarios where a fight reaction, involving concealing individuals to mitigate their risk of being targeted, becomes necessary. Understanding the criteria for making such decisions is crucial for all parties involved. The objective of each process during this phase is to minimize loss of life and injury to the greatest extent possible, followed by swiftly gaining control of the emergency and securing the scene in the shortest time frame possible.

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Processes after a security event

Loss of life and injury resulting from a critical incident is tragic and unconscionable. Nevertheless, each event, as difficult as it might be, presents an opportunity for learning and improvement. Debriefs and thorough investigations are crucial to analyze and quantify those learnings and turn them into positive change nationwide.

Furthermore, it’s also important to study and learn from incidents that occur in other school districts so that opportunities to learn and improve aren’t missed.

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Maintenance

The key to effectiveness is a conscientious culture in both long-term and daily security and safety in every school community. This is driven and maintained by open discussion, briefings, drills and rehearsals, and ongoing, age-appropriate training on a disciplined cadence. All stakeholders in the community need to be involved to support schools.

Audits of readiness and compliance with policies and procedures need to be done regularly, and appropriate penalties imposed for non-compliance. For example, leaving an unattended exterior door propped open so a fellow student can sneak in the building after showing up late for class.

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Summary

Implementing and adhering to effective policy and process is integral to an effective school safety strategy and lies at the center of a culture of preparedness. Policies and processes should cover every area of school safety to include (but are not limited to) areas such as:

What defines an emergency situation?
How is miscommunication avoided?
What initiates an emergency situation?
What is the role and responsibility of the school administrator, staff, security guards, faculty, students, law enforcement?
What are the procedures for concealment within the classroom?
Who is responsible for the classroom door being locked?
What are the procedures for concealment when not in the classroom?

Taking the time to develop, implement and maintain effective policies and procedures is every bit as important as focusing and investing in physical security. Both are crucial to developing the most effective school safety strategy possible and maintaining a positive school climate.

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Getting Help and Resources

For additional resources on addressing school safety, you can review guidelines and materials from our partners at Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS).

You can also get in touch with us directly. We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.

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Learn more about our complete School Safety Program