Mitigation & Prevention

Schools should conduct an assessment to identify all potential hazards that they could face, including both natural events and man-made events.

The assessment should include a review of fights, crimes, and other disciplinary events that have occurred on or around school property. This will help ensure that resources are properly deployed to areas of the school where they are most needed.

School officials should take steps to reduce the likelihood that people or property will be harmed when disaster strikes. For example, if a school is located in a flood zone, officials can ensure that valuable material is kept from low-lying areas.

School administrators should consider the location of special student or staff populations, such as those who have disabilities, to ensure that they are not situated near potentially dangerous or inaccessible areas of the school building.

Safety planning efforts should involve the school custodian or maintenance director. Typically this person has the "full run" of the building and can provide valuable insight into changes that could be made to the school's physical structure to make it safer.

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School District Safety and Security Audits

School District Safety and Security Audit Toolkit (Revised October, 2009)

The October 2009 revised School District Facility Safety and Security Audit Toolkit is now available for download. The audit toolkit consists of two parts, an introduction and the audit checklists. Together these constitute the audit toolkit. The toolkit can be downloaded and printed and also the checklists can be entered and stored electronically.

The introduction contains information about how to begin the audit process at your district facilities. It reviews the purpose of the audit and provides direction about how to set up and conduct an audit. The checklists are a series of excel spreadsheets which provide a format for evaluating a facility and providing data about the observations. Read More..

Download   School District Facility Safety and Security Audit Toolkit Introduction (PDF)

Download   School District Facilty Safety and Security Audit Toolkit Checklists (XLS)

If you have any questions regarding the school safety and security audits please contact us at 1-877-304-2727.

TEC 38.008

Steroid Law Notice to be posted at secondary campuses as required by TEC Chapter 38.008.

TEC 37.108, EOP, and Security Audit FAQ's

As staff/representatives of TxSSC have traveled around the state the following questions concerning TEC 37.108 have been asked repeatedly. In order to better serve you, the school professional of Texas, we are responding to those questions and posting them on this web site. If you have a question or concern that is not addressed below, please send an email to txssc@txstate.edu. We will get you an answer and post it on this site.

Curtis Clay, Director
Texas School Safety Center

List of Security Audit FAQ's

TSA Provides Free Training Program for Districts on Transportation Safety

This training program is designed to make key personnel within the American educational infrastructure aware of the security vulnerabilities inherent in thetransportation of schoolchildren and provide an action plan which will prevent or minimize casualties.

http://www.stsatrain.com/

Security Design Criteria Manual for Schools

The purpose of this reference manual is to provide school architects and school district personnel recommended criteria for constructing a secure instructional facility. The recommended criteria set forth in this reference manual are to be taken into consideration during the design process and are not meant to supersede local building codes or Texas Administrative Code Title 19, Chapter 61, Subchapter CC.

Building security encompasses how assets (people, information, and property) can be protected from the effects of malevolent acts carried out by individuals or groups of individuals (violent people, criminals, extremists and terrorists).
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Security Design Criteria Manual

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Information

Texas Department of State Health Services: Antibiotic Resistance
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/health/antibiotic%5Fresistance/mrsa/

Centers for Disease Contol and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_ca.html

Proactive Guide for the Threat of Terrorism in Schools

This Proactive Guide is a great resource to use in preparing and educating your schools on how to deal with the threat of terrorism.
You will need a current copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.

Proactive Guide for the Threat of Terrorism in Schools