$230 Million Funding Legislation Aims to Support Comprehensive Approach to Student Safety
Governor Bill Lee has signed new legislation to improve Tennessee school safety, following the active shooter attack at Covenant School in Nashville. The bill enacts a multi-tiered accountability plan to ensure exterior school doors are locked while students are present and requires private security officers to receive active shooter training prior to being posted at schools. It also requires every school district to establish threat assessment teams to identify and address potential threats, and develop annual safety plans that include a newly required incident command drill for school leaders and law enforcement.
The Tennessee school safety bill provides a significant funding boost of $230 million for school safety measures. This includes:
- $30 million for Homeland Security agents across all 95 counties
- $140 million for one full-time, armed School Resource Officer (SRO) for every public school
- $40 million for public school security upgrades
- $14 million for private school security upgrades
- $8 million for additional School-Based Behavioral Health Liaisons across the state
With this funding, Tennessee is taking a comprehensive approach to addressing school safety concerns, focusing on both physical security measures and mental health resources.
Solutions that Work Better Together to Support Tennessee School Safety
Tennessee school safety is top of mind for students, families and school staff. This additional funding will equip school leaders to put solutions in place to assure their community that school safety is a top priority, and the best way to maximize these funds is by implementing safety solutions that work better together. As the only school safety partner focused on holistic wellbeing, Navigate360 offers a robust suite of solutions that help schools care for the whole child.
Safety & Security Suite: Operating as a single visitor, volunteer, panic button and emergency management solution set, our Safety & Security Suite integrates Emergency Management and Visitor & Volunteer Management to ensure real-time, whole-campus oversight and accountability and improve communication pathways. The suite provides a variety of features, including silent panic alarms, robust safety checks, guidance to ensure Department of Education (DOE) compliance and comprehensive site mapping.
Risk Assessment: As the only Expert Service Consultants internationally recognized by A.M. Best’s Client Recommended Expert Service Providers for Risk Assessments, Navigate360’s team of board-certified Physical Security Professionals (PSPs) are exceptionally qualified to perform your risk assessment, which can give you peace of mind to stay focused on your school’s critical safety and security missions.
ALICE Training®: The ALICE program is a proactive, options-based active shooter response training program that empowers students and staff to survive in the face of violence. This trauma-informed, age- and ability-appropriate training program provides your schools with both eLearning and in-person instruction options and teaches proven techniques for safety drills and emergency response.
Detect: Detect is the most comprehensive, all-encompassing digital safety solution available. This software helps identify and address a student’s intent to harm themselves or others by scanning digital content in real time and notifying school administrators of harm language found in school-owned email and public social media. It also utilizes a web indexing database of 3 billion URLs to protect students from potentially harmful content.
P3 School Tipline: P3 serves as a forum for collaboration and accountability between school administrators, peace officers and mental health professionals to ensure every student’s needs are met. Our technology also powers well-known national and state-level tip lines such as Sandy Hook Promise’s Say Something program and Safe2Tell Colorado. As the leading anonymous reporting tool, our software empowers students, teachers and individuals to proactively share information about safety, bullying, self-harm and violence.
Behavioral Threat Assessment Training: Aligned with the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) or the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) threat assessment model, this is a two-part behavioral threat assessment training program that combines online and in-person (available live or virtual) learning to build the confidence needed to identify and properly intervene when a child is showing signs of a mental health crisis.
Behavioral Threat & Suicide Case Management: This single solution will provide your school’s mental health professionals and behavioral threat assessment team members with evidence-based case management software that allows for continuum of care documentation and analytics reporting to proactively improve outcomes for students of concern.
Next Steps
We know it takes more than a single solution to take care of the whole child and the schools and community that surround them, which is why we believe in solutions that work better together. We can provide end-to-end solutions that support Tennessee school safety from prevention, all the way through response and recovery.
Building a comprehensive safety plan can be a daunting task, but we are here to help. Speak with one of our safety specialists today to learn how you can maximize this additional funding to build a holistic ecosystem of whole-child safety this year.
