A school-based anti-violence prevention program

Parent Involvement: Parents are involved in yearly launches, assemblies, celebrations and fun activities. Initial outcomes over a 2-year period showed that schools participating in PeaceBuilders significantly decreased the rate of injuries related to fighting compared to comparison schools Krug et al. Flannery et al. The scores were compared to those of control schools, where the PeaceBuilders program was not implemented. The results showed that students in grades K-2 were rated significantly higher by teachers on social competence than control students, with moderate effects being found for the grades students.

The grades students were also rated by teachers as less aggressive than non-intervention students and these changes were maintained over time. No behaviour changes were observed in the control schools. Suggestive Research Evidence-Unpublished: Informal evaluations indicated decreases in self-reported bullying-related behaviours e.

A Train-the-Trainers format is also available. Several program packages are available, including Elementary, Middle School, and K — 8 programs. For costs, contact Heartsprings, Inc. Box Tucson, AZ ; phone ; fax ; email info peacebuilders. References Embry, D. PeaceBuilders: A theoretically driven, school-based model for early violence prevention.

American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12 5 , Flannery, D. Initial behaviour outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based violence prevention program. Developmental Psychology, 39 2 , Krug, E. The impact of an elementary school-based violence prevention program on visits to the school nurse. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 13 6 , Rowe, W.

Tuscan, AZ: Heartsprings. Shott, B. Report for reaccredidation of Arizona State School for the Deaf for the target area of social skills. Shapiro developed Peacemakers through the Applewood Centers in Cleveland, Ohio for students in grades 4 to 8. The program is primarily for classroom use, but may be used clinically with individuals or small groups of aggressive youth. Objectives: The program is designed to reduce physical violence and negative interpersonal behaviour among students.

Description: Peacemakers is an session minutes each curriculum using instruction and activities such as stories, writing exercises and role-plays. Sessions focus on understanding violence, peacemaking, personal strengths, values, pride, shame, self- esteem and the role of emotions in violence. Skills taught include anger control, avoiding conflicts, social problem-solving, effective communication and conflict resolution. The program focuses on cognitions, group dynamics, emotions and self-concept.

The psychosocial content may be unfamiliar to teachers, so 6 hours of training is recommended. Student self-reports indicated significant increases in knowledge of psychosocial skills and decreases in aggressive behaviours at post-test for the program compared to the control group. Teacher-reports showed that program students had fewer disciplinary incidents involving aggression, used fewer mediation services and received fewer suspensions for violent behaviour than did control group students.

Using the CD alone, the program had minimal effect, producing only a few significant attitudinal and behavioural changes. Facilitator training is available in one day sessions offered by J. For more information contact the National Education Service at or www. Materials are also available from Applewood Centers: Phone ext. Evaluation of the Peacemakers Program: School-based violence prevention for students in grades four through eight.

Psychology in the Schools, 39 1 , Shapiro, J. Cleveland, OH: Applewood Centers. Background: Project WIN Working out Integrated Negotiations was originally developed for low-income, urban, young adolescents under Social Interdependence Theory to help students and teachers transform a competitive classroom into a cooperative classroom by changing the strategies that students use to resolve conflict. It is hoped that students will learn to adopt cooperative values such as respect for self and others.

Each session contains exercises for students including worksheets, role-plays, games and brainstorming. Each lesson is based upon the two themes of Project WIN; transforming competitive contexts to cooperative contexts and negotiation strategies.

Students are taught about respecting themselves and others, resolving conflict non-violently and strategies for non-violent conflict resolution and negotiations.

While the program was originally developed for low-income urban adolescents, it can be modified for other groups. Either teachers or trained conflict resolution professionals can teach the program. Teacher Training: No specific training is provided for teachers. The Project WIN manual contains all necessary information. Program students developed reported greater liking of other classmates and more positive attitudes about teamwork. Intervention students also kept journals about conflicts they had experienced in school, the contents of which reinforced the quantitative results.

In contrast, at post-test, control students reported declines in liking, cooperative attitudes to classmates and teamwork. References Roberts, L. Theory development and evaluation of Project WIN: A violence reduction program for early adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 24 4 , Roberts, L. An endurance test for Project WIN: A conflict transformation program in a low-income, urban, middle level classroom.

Research in Middle Level Education Online, 27 1 , The RCCP National Center, established in September , forms multi-year partnerships with school districts to support program dissemination. Objectives: RCCP is designed to help teachers and students to become aware of choices for dealing with conflict; recognize and oppose prejudice; decrease violence and increase understanding among different cultures; and transform school culture into one that models values and principles of non-violent conflict resolution and respect for diversity.

Description: RCCP has separate elementary and high school curricula. The elementary program contains 51 weekly lessons of to minute duration each. It encourages teachers to integrate the instruction into all curriculum areas. Assertiveness, cooperation, negotiation, emotional expression, and countering bias are some of the topics. Student interaction is achieved through role-plays, discussions, and brainstorming; and practice the core skills of communicating and listening, appreciating diversity and opposing bias.

The high school RCCP is similar to the elementary program with an increased emphasis on ways to de-escalate confrontations that might lead to violence and an additional planning and needs assessment, a collaborative effort between teachers, parents, staff, students, and the community. The program also teaches students how to become more involved in their community and school to reduce conflict.

This curriculum has three major units: 1 engaging the students; 2 concepts and skills of conflict resolution; and 3 concepts and skills of inter-group relations and bias awareness. A peer mediation component gives children opportunities to use the conflict resolution skills learned in the classroom.

Peer mediators work in pairs and may intervene in conflicts during lunch and recess. Teacher Training: A hour introductory course offers teachers information and practice of the skills they will teach.

Teachers are trained to incorporate exercises into the regular curriculum to improve communication, conflict resolution and inter-group relations.

Staff developers provide ongoing classroom follow-up and support, after school meetings with trained teachers, and advanced training. Administrator and support staff training is also provided to educate about the concepts and skills of conflict resolution, as well as to promote a leadership style that will effectively reduce aggressive behaviour. Parent Involvement: A parent component called Keeping Peace in the Family consists of hours over four workshops.

The workshops cover the same topics as the teachers training. Strong Research Design. However, those receiving a high number 25 or more of RCCP conflict resolution lessons had significantly slower growth in self-reported hostile attributions, aggressive fantasies and aggressive problem-solving strategies compared to children with fewer than 25 lessons or none.

Teachers of high-lesson children reported similar results: a significantly slower increase in aggressive behaviour and increased positive social behaviours and emotional control.

On standardized reading and math achievement tests, high-lesson children showed greater improvement from pre- to post-test compared to the other groups. All children, regardless of gender or grade, benefited from the program; this was slightly increased for girls and slightly reduced for boys, younger children and those at higher risk for violence.

More recently, Aber, Brown and Jones studied 11, students investigating a number of child developmental issues including the effectiveness of RCCP. Students whose teachers taught more RCCP sessions were slower in developing hostile attributions towards others, aggressive negotiation strategies, aggressive fantasies, and depressive symptoms. Improvements were not dependent on gender or socioeconomic factors suggesting the acceptability of the program to diverse groups. A 3-year study was conducted in 15 New York elementary schools with 2, children from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds Brown, The children were classed into four groups based upon the amount of involvement they had with the RCCP program.

The results showed that children, over a two year period, showed increases in math achievement. This demonstrates that the RCCP curriculum does not interfere with other classroom learning and may, in fact, help to increase scores.

Children also self-reported lower levels of aggressive social-cognitive processes and behavioural symptomatology.

Teachers also reported lower levels of negative behaviour, although these did tend to vary considerably between individuals. Suggestive research design. The children were also more able to handle conflict without adult help and reduced verbal abuse no statistical tests to determine significant pre- and post-test differences were conducted on any analyses. Student self-reports agreed.

Hare distributed the Resolving Conflict Creatively videotapes to libraries and organizations and requested feedback about them. Feedback was obtained from 95 of surveys. Most found the mediation and negotiation videotapes enjoyable, effective in changing attitudes and realistic.

While reactions to the inter-cultural mediation tape and the diversion and transformation tape were less favourable, the majority still found the tapes effective and potentially useful. An analysis of effects suggested that two years of the program are better than one.

Ordering is available through the Triune web site: www. References Aber, J. Teaching conflict resolution: An effective school-based approach to violence prevention. Aber, J. Developmental trajectories toward violence in middle childhood: Course, demographic differences, and response to school-based intervention. Brown, J. Hare, F. Evaluation report on the Resolving Conflict Creatively in Ontario survey project. Milbank Memorial Fund Meyer, A. Farrell, W.

Northup, E. Kung and L. Key Words: Conflict resolution Grades Teacher-offered classroom curriculum Strong research design-Published: Lower rates of fighting, weapons, suspensions; higher use of peer mediation; knowledge of conflict resolution skills. It approaches violence prevention from a social-cognitive skills building perspective for students from grades 6 through 8.

Information to adapt the program for other cultural and community differences is included in the manual. RIPP-6 for sixth grade , is a 25 session program focusing on broad concepts of violence prevention such as discussion of individual differences, strategies to avoid violent situations and developing problem-solving skills.

RIPP-7, a session program, focuses on assisting students to use conflict resolution skills in their friendships. Lessons include listening skills and understanding their own feelings in the face of conflict. Finally, RIPP-8 is a session curriculum that assists students in transitioning to high school. Lessons include different types of coping, positive risk-taking and the concept of forgiveness in relationships. All levels of the curriculum use games and group work to emphasize social problem solving, peer mediation and violence resistance skills.

Students are taught to resolve conflicts through four non-violent options: resolve, avoid, ignore, and diffuse RAID. RIPP suggests utilizing a peer mediation program. Teacher Training: The authors recommend hiring a fulltime staff member, or training an existing staff member to teach the RIPP curriculum and coordinate the peer mediation program. Training for coordinators takes a number of days at the RIPP office in Virginia, but consulting with the program developers is also an option.

In , class participation was staggered, with grade 6 students starting the program in the fall and in the spring as a wait-list control group. A gender analysis showed a significant decrease in physical fighting for boys in the program, but not for girls.

In comparison to control schools that did not receive the program, students in intervention schools had more favourable attitudes towards non-violent solutions to problems.

Girls in these intervention schools endorsed pro-social responses to conflict more often than girls from control schools. Further, students in control schools had higher rates of aggressive behaviours than the intervention group over the course of the two follow-ups.

Students in the control schools were more likely to have brought a weapon to school than students in the intervention schools. How Did it Work?

Phone ; Fax ; or online at www. References Farrell, A. Richmond youth against violence: A school-based program for urban adolescents. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12 5 Supplement , Farrell, A. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30 4 , Impact of the RIPP violence prevention program on rural middle school students. Journal of Primary Prevention, 24 2 , Journal of Child and Family Studies, 12 1 , Promoting non-violence in early adolescence: Responding in peaceful and positive ways.

Their programs have been widely distributed throughout North America. The Second Step curriculum is used with diverse ethnic populations and implemented in large urban as well as rural communities. Objectives: Second Step was developed to meet two primary objectives: to reduce aggression and increase prosocial behaviours.

Description: The program consists of about 20 lessons for each grade that build sequentially as grade level increases. The formal lessons vary from 20 minutes at preschool to 50 minutes in junior high. The skills taught include empathy, impulse control, problem-solving and anger management. Teachers and other staff model these behaviours in interactions with students. Aspects of the program such as role-plays can be integrated into the regular curriculum.

The major format for elementary school students is 11" by 17" photo lesson cards that the teacher shows to the class, utilizing the lesson outline on the reverse.

Lesson techniques include story and discussion, teacher modeling of the skills and role-plays. Transfer of training is encouraged through alerting students to opportunities to use the prosocial skills at school and home, and reinforcing them when they do. The lessons for Grades are divided into three levels: Level 1 contains foundation lessons and Levels 2 and 3 contain skill-building lessons. Each level includes discussion, overhead transparencies, reproducible homework sheets, and a live-action video.

The three levels allow students to receive multi-year training in prosocial skills. Teacher Training: Training is often provided through school boards by facilitators trained by the Committee for Children. Various training options are available. Parent Involvement: Parents of elementary school children can learn to model and reinforce the skills at home.

The decreases were greatest on playgrounds and in lunchrooms. At 6-month follow-up, program schools continued to show significantly lower levels of physical aggression. Verbal aggression did not significantly differ at post-program or follow-up. Neutral or prosocial behaviour significantly increased from pre- to post-program, but remained constant in the control sample. This pattern continued at 6-month follow-up.

Parent and teacher ratings on the Child Behavior Checklist noted no significant changes in either prosocial or physical aggression for the program group.

Taub compared Second Step in a rural school with students from grades 3 to 5, to a no program comparison school. Data was collected pre-program, 4-months post and at 1-year follow-up. A time-series analysis of teacher ratings on the School Social Behavior Scales indicated that program students significantly increased prosocial and significantly decreased antisocial behaviours compared to pre-test, while the control students increased their antisocial behaviour in the same time period.

Independent behavioural observations showed that program students did not significantly improve how they engaged with peers at 4 months post, but did significantly by 1-year. Moore and Beland studied preschool and kindergarten students in either a program or control group.

Due to the young age of the participants, students were interviewed to assess their knowledge and skill development. Students who received the curriculum exhibited significantly greater knowledge and skills e. While preschool and kindergarten children improved following the curriculum, the older children scored better on knowledge and skills.

Teachers observed students using problem-solving and anger-management skills in everyday situations in the classroom and while at play. Botzer employed a pretest, posttest comparison group design with a third grade program students compared to 71 non-program students using measures of delinquency, student aggression and affective skills.

Suggestive research evidence-Published. Bergsgaard used a two-year staged intervention with Grades 2 and 4 participating in Year 1 and Grades 1 to 4 in Year 2. Based on six 5-day observation and data-collection periods, several trends were noted in program children no statistical tests were used to assess differences : 1 the number of conflicts decreased, with a greater decrease at year two of the program.

The students were measured on knowledge and skills, aggressive behaviour, psychological sense of school membership, empathy and impulsivity as well as peer ratings, and a teacher checklist. The students improved in knowledge, empathy and prosocial behaviour, but aggressive behaviour changes were dependent on grade, with more change in 7 and 8, and minimal to no change in 5 and 6.

Videos, transfer-of- learning materials and the Family Guide and videos are extra. References Beland, K. Second Step, Grades Pilot project summary report. Seattle, WA: Committee for Children. Beland, K. Evaluation of Second Step, preschool-kindergarten: Violence prevention curriculum kit: summary report.

Bergsgaard, M. Gender issues in the implementation and evaluation of a violence-prevention curriculum. Canadian Journal of Education, 22 1 , Botzer, E. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Second Step violence prevention curriculum for third grade students. Grossman, D. Effectiveness of a violence prevention curriculum among children in elementary school: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, , McMahon, S. Violence prevention: An evaluation of program effects with urban African American students.

The Journal of Primary Prevention, 24 1 , Moore, B. February Evaluation of Second Step, preschool- kindergarten a violence-prevention curriculum kit: Summary report. Evaluation of the Second Step violence prevention program at a rural elementary school.

School Psychology Review, 31 2 , Students are encouraged to become directly involved in preventing bullying at their school. Strong Research Design-Published: Students decreased being bullied and their own bullying behaviour. Background: The Sheffield Project is a whole-school anti-bullying program developed in by British researchers concerned with the levels of bullying in British schools. Objective: To reduce bullying behaviours in schools, the Sheffield Project is a comprehensive program that works within the school and community.

Description: Activities are incorporated into many daily lessons. Curriculum exercises encourage students to discuss bullying, the effect of bullying on other students and how to prevent it.

Students view a video that exemplifies a student being bullied with interviews from actual children who have been bullied. Accompanying the video is a kit with ideas for discussion, creative writing and drama projects. Secondary students receive a video and accompanying lesson about racism. A local theatre group also attends the schools to present a play about bullying and in primary schools.

Involving students in reducing bullying is a major component of the Sheffield project. Students can participate in numerous activities to have a direct impact on the quality of life at their school. Quality Circles allow groups of students to discuss current problems at their school weekly, researching the problem, identifying its causes and coming up with solutions to these problems that they present to a group of adults.

Victims of bullying receive assertiveness training and bullies receive individual attention for their actions. Committees may rearrange recess and lunch breaks if bullying on the playground is a major concern. Alternatively, lunch supervisors may be given more status as disciplinarians and may undergo training to deal with bullying. Additionally, cooperative play and positive behaviour are encouraged. Parent Involvement: Parents are encouraged to become involved with aspects of the program such as becoming lunchtime monitors or assisting with assertiveness training.

Generally, schools are offered about 15 hours of training. Students in primary elementary intervention schools reported being bullied less often and being a bully less than control schools. Secondary students were more likely to tell an adult if being bullied and noted that they were spoken to if they had engaged in bullying.

Suggestive Research Evidence-Published: Eslea and Smith followed up with the original schools at 3-years, interviewing teachers and students about bullying in their schools. Of eleven schools that participated, nine developed and maintained anti- bullying policies and procedures.

Their efforts had a positive impact on bullying: less bullying incidents were reported and these were of a less serious nature. Teachers found the videos useful for generating discussion about bullying. Girls reported an initial decrease but subsequent increase in verbal bullying at the 3-year follow-up.

They reported being bullied most often by other boys and girls as opposed to being bullied by a single gender. Boys reported being bullied mostly by other boys. Schools that chose to implement the most aspects of the project into their curriculum experienced the most noticeable and positive effects. In the United Kingdom, a guidance pack is available at no charge to all schools. Other publications can be obtained from: www. References Eslea, M.

The long-term effectiveness of anti-bullying work in primary schools. Educational Research, 40 2 , Smith, P. School bullying: Insights and perspectives. Key Words: Conflict resolution Grades 5 through 9 Innovative — computer-based, multi-media violence prevention program Strong research design-Published: Grade 6 to 8 students increased knowledge of conflict resolution and intentions to use non-violent strategies.

Kris Bosworth and colleagues at the Center for Adolescent Studies at the University of Indiana developed the program from to Objectives: Objectives for this computer program include: learning about non-violent conflict resolution strategies and anger triggers; increasing intentions to use non-violent strategies and prosocial behaviour; and decreasing incidents of violent behaviour. It contains 6 hours of material in 8 modules about 15 minutes per module.

SMART Team uses interactive interviews, cartoons, animation, graphics, personal stories and role modelling by celebrities and experienced teen mediators to present concepts.

The program focuses on anger management, mediation, social skills, dispute resolution, and perspective taking. Students can access the modules independently for skill-building practice, information, or to resolve conflicts. This module may take up to 45 minutes to complete. Teacher Training: No specific training needed or provided. Strong Research Design: Bosworth and colleagues ; studied students from grades 6 to 8 assigned to either the program or a control condition.

Program students had access to SMART Talk software for 4 weeks in a computer lab, which they used independently during some classes and at free times. Some students were directed to use the software to resolve specific student-to-student conflicts.

Relative to students in the control group, SMART Team students demonstrated significantly increased knowledge, such as understanding of how certain behaviours may escalate conflict, intentions to use non-violent strategies and what beliefs support non-violent solutions. A gender analysis indicated similar patterns and frequency of use for both boys and girls in the program group.

After the program, students knew more conflict management terms and behaviours that can escalate a conflict. Five pairs of students returned to being friends afterwards and six pairs claimed that their friendships had improved. Three pairs reported being civil to each other, but not friends.

The students appreciated the privacy offered by the software and the lack of teacher and school involvement in these disputes. Print the order form from the website: www. References Bosworth, K. Bosworth, K. A computer-based violence prevention intervention for young adolescents: Pilot study.

Adolescence, 33 , A preliminary evaluation of a multimedia violence prevention program for early adolescents. American Journal of Health Behavior, 24 4 , Using multimedia to teach conflict resolution skills to young adolescents.

While Second Step is designed as a conflict resolution program, it has often been used to target bullying. The Steps to Respect program was specifically designed to educate students about bullying and bystanders. Steps to Respect and the Second Step are often used together and compliment each other.

Objectives: The Steps to Respect program is a whole-school approach, based on evidence that support from parents, community and all school personnel are needed for an effective anti-bullying program.

Description: Steps to Respect incorporates 11 anti-bullying lessons minutes in length and a literature unit of lessons minutes that help students increase empathy for victims of bullies, manage their emotions, recognize bullying and how they may be contributing to it, and learn strategies to stop bullying.

Skill lessons cover topics such as bystanders, recognizing bullying behaviour, friendship and assertiveness. At the conclusion of the first level of the program, students make an anti-bullying pledge.

Lessons are semi-scripted and include activities that help children understand what it is like to be bullied and left out of activities in hope of raising empathy for victims. Teacher Training: Teacher and school training is a critical part of the success of Steps to Respect. The Committee for Children recommends involving the entire adult school population to become supportive of the program and its intended outcomes; developing bullying policies, procedures and consequences.

Committee for Children offers facilitator training on-site to train a small group of leaders who will develop the school-wide anti- bullying program. The on-site training not only trains teachers but also gets the entire school motivated to participate in Steps to Respect.

If schools cannot attend a training session, the Steps to Respect kit includes a training manual and all necessary products videos, handouts, etc.

Parent Involvement: Parent involvement is critical to the effectiveness of Steps to Respect. School personnel are provided with a presentation that explains the program, bullying behaviours, and how parents can support their children if they are being bullied.

Children are given handouts that highlight important concepts, a brochure about bullying, and an annual newsletter for which compliment each lesson. Strong Research Design-Published: Frey et al. Teachers completed checklists of student behaviour. At post- test, students in the intervention schools were less accepting of bullying and aggression, felt more responsible to intervene when witnessing bullying, and reported that adults were more responsive to reports of bullying than at control schools.

Program students believed that assertive intervention behaviours were easier and reported less victimization than control students did. Boys in the intervention group reported that finding that assertive responses to confronting bullying were easier than those at control schools.

Boys increased their agreeable behaviour as compared to girl students. Availability: Steps to Respect is available on the Committee for Children website: www.

Contact by phone: ext: Reference Frey, K. Reducing playground bullying and supporting beliefs: An experimental trial of the Steps to Respect program. Developmental Psychology, 41 3 , A Key Words: Social Problem Solving Aggressive Behaviour Grades Teacher offered curriculum Can be modified for children diagnosed with emotional disabilities Strong research design-Published: Teacher reported less externalizing behaviours among less aggressive students after program.

The program was designed to take advantage of stories as a means to organize human experiences and to teach social information processing and social skills. Objective: By using the story format, the STORIES program intends to teach children, in particular aggressive children, empathy and to vocalize their feelings: two skills that aggressive children lack. Instead of using didactic teaching, STORIES allows children to explore their feelings and those of others in reaction to selected stories.

Each story includes a bully, a victim, and a bystander so that students can explore the emotions and actions of all three characters. Finally, students discuss the lessons learned by the characters. Children are encouraged to share their own similar experiences to further identify with the story characters. The researchers intentionally included 17 students deemed to be aggressive by school records and reputation.

Approximately half the students completed the program in the fall semester while the other half completed the program in the winter semester allowing for control data to be collected. Philadelphia Futures Philadelphia Futures prepares high school students from low income families with college preparation, mentoring, and financial incentives. Temple University-Upward Bound Upward Bound is a college preparatory program offered to high school minority students interested in majoring in math and science with the goal of receiving the full college experience.

Women in Natural Science Program This program focuses on academic enrichment for girls in 8th and 9th grade. Activities offered include field trips, science experiments, and other enriching activities. Antiviolence Partnership of Philadelphia This organization helps children and youth resolve conflict nonviolently, while assisting victims and their families to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of violence.

Good Shepherd House This program educates youth on how to resolve conflict without violence. Red Kite Rising This program teaches martial arts to youth to help them heal from trauma using somatic therapies. Student Antiviolence Education Program This program provides education and examples to students on dealing with conflict in nonviolent ways.

Safe Place: The Center for Child Protection and Health A program of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Safe Place is one of the nation's most comprehensive programs addressing the critical issues of child abuse, neglect and placement in substitute care. Support Center for Child Advocates The Support Center for Child Advocates provides legal assistance and social service advocacy for abused and neglected children in Philadelphia County. Youth Services Inc.

YSI is a private not-for-profit, community-based social service agency dedicated to preventing child abuse, helping at-risk children and teens, and strengthening the family unit. Greater Philadelphia Cares Philadelphia Cares is an organization developed to match volunteers of all ages with their desired community service projects. Department of Education ED , U.

That information would then be analyzed and evaluated to produce a factual, accurate knowledge base on targeted school attacks. This knowledge could be used to help communities across the country to formulate policies and strategies aimed at preventing school-based attacks. The guide provides schools and communities with a framework to identify students of concern, assess their risk for engaging in violence, and identify intervention strategies to mitigate that risk.

Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Shootings The purpose of this document is to present different strategies and approaches for members of school communities to consider when creating safer learning environments.

B demonstrates a rationale based on high-quality research findings or positive evaluation that such program, practice, technology, or equipment is likely to improve relevant outcomes, and includes ongoing efforts to examine the effects of the program, practice, technology, or equipment; or.

C in the case of technology or equipment, demonstrates that use of the technology or equipment is —. I applicable standards for school security established by a Federal or State government agency; and. II findings and recommendations of public commissions and task forces established to make recommendations or set standards for school security; and.