School Safety Resources

A guide for parents to help them advocate for school safety in their communities. It covers the fundamentals of school safety and provides real world examples of why each practics matters. 

The K-12 School Security Guide (3rd ed., 2022) provides a comprehensive doctrine and systems-based methodology to support schools in conducting vulnerability assessments and planning to implement layered physical security elements across K–12 districts and campuses. The primary focus of the guide is on protection and mitigation measures and strategies schools should consider in their broader school safety enterprise.

Together we are key to violence prevention in schools – when we all pitch in, our communities are safer.

“Improving School Safety Through Bystander Reporting: A Toolkit for Strengthening K-12 Reporting Programs” offers simple strategies and guidance K-12 schools and school districts can use to implement and enhance safety reporting programs and encourage bystander reporting among students and other members of the school community.

Highlights from this guide include the following tips:

• Make reporting accessible and safe for the reporting community.

• Create a positive climate where reporting is valued and respected.

• Make reporting a part of daily school life.

• Encourage bystanders to report concerns for the wellness and safety of themselves or others.

• Follow-up on reports and be transparent about the actions taken in response to reported concerns.

Stand with Parkland – The National Association of Families for Safe Schools was proud to have been among the advisors for this project. The guide is designed to help school leaders create tailored, customized approaches that meet the needs of their unique communities and is applicable to schools and school districts at various levels of maturity in their approach to reporting.

Stand with Parkland was once again pleased to present during 2023’s National Summit on K-12 School Safety and Security. To learn about the information discussed during this year’s summit, click the image to the left to access the event’s official resource guide.

“Threat Assessment is the best practice for preventing targeted school violence. The averted attacks in this report confirm what the National Threat Assessment Center’s research has found on school attacks, specifically that students display a variety of observable concerning behaviors as they escalate toward violence. In order to identify, assess, and intervene with students who may pose a risk of harm to themselves or others, schools and communities should develop multidisciplinary threat assessment programs…”

Some highlights in this report:

• Targeted school violence is preventable when communities identify warning signs and intervene.

• Students are best positioned to identify and report concerning behaviors displayed by their classmates.

• School resource officers (SROs) play an important role in school violence prevention.

• The role of parents and families in recognizing concerning behavior is critical to prevention.

A collaboration between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Education built with input from the Stand with Parkland families, SchoolSafety.gov provides one-stop access to federal school safety resources, programs, and actionable recommendations to create a safe and supportive learning environment where students can thrive and grow. SchoolSafety.gov aims to help schools prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergency situations.

On March 9, 2018, Governor Rick Scott signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act into law. This law established the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to analyze information from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and other mass violence incidents and provide legislative recommendations and system improvements to help mitigate the impacts from and prevent future school shootings. This is their final report. 

On March 9, 2018, Governor Rick Scott signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act into law. This law established the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to analyze information from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and other mass violence incidents and provide legislative recommendations and system improvements to help mitigate the impacts from and prevent future school shootings. This is their initial report. 

The U.S. Secret Service has a longstanding tradition of conducting threat assessments as part of its mandate to ensure the safety of this Nation’s highest elected officials. Their National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) is dedicated to expanding the field of violence prevention by closely examining the targeted violence that affects communities across the United States. As part of this mission, NTAC has maintained a particular focus on the prevention of targeted school violence. For 20 years, the Center has studied these tragedies, and their report, titled Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence, supports past Secret Service research findings that indicate targeted school violence is preventable.

In March 2018, President Donald Trump appointed U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to lead the Federal Commission on School Safety. The Commission was charged with providing meaningful and actionable recommendations to keep students safe at school. These recommendations include a range of issues, like social-emotional support, recommendations on effective school safety infrastructure, discussion on the minimum age for firearms purchases, and the impact that video games and the media have on violence.

The first step in suicide prevention is awareness — knowing when someone is in crisis. That’s often not obvious, because many people suffer in silence or give no sign that they might harm themselves. As a family member, friend, neighbor, or colleague, you can make a difference by using the Columbia Protocol — also known as Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) — to help determine when someone is at risk for suicide and how to help.

Families must recognize technology is here to stay, whether we like it or not. The reality of today’s students is that their digital reputation or how they choose to represent themselves online is being evaluated and assessed by everyone, including college admissions departments and future employers. The team at Safer Schools Together created this parent guide to help introduce the major social media platforms and games that are either being used already or have the potential to be used by our children.

Please exercise responsible firearms ownership. Whether firearms have been in your family for generations or a recent addition to it, be sure to educate yourself and your entire family regarding firearm safety. Please take the time to make certain your firearms are safely stored where they are not likely to be stolen and where children cannot access them. When children are home and possibly feeling a little bored firearms safety is vital. Responsible firearms ownership will help prevent a devastating tragedy from occurring in your home.