Pennsylvania Sets School Safety as Top Priority

By signing Act 55 of 2022 into law, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf took an important step toward ensuring school leaders and educators understand the path toward school safety and wellbeing and that they have the funding to implement necessary solutions. The legislation sets parameters for wide-ranging student safety initiatives such as:

• Risk assessments to determine necessary hard security upgrades.
• Mental & behavioral health awareness and training for educators.
• Mandatory training on situational awareness and trauma-informed drills.
• Behavioral threat assessment teams.
• Suicide and bullying prevention & training for educators.

Act 55 also provides grants to be used as school districts enhance their holistic student safety solutions. With $95 million available for safety and security spending and an additional $95 million available for mental health supports, Pennsylvania leaders make it clear they understand that effective school security is about more than locked doors or planning for an active shooter incident.

Act 55 Required Safety Training

Per the requirements of Section 1310-B of the PA Public School Code as amended by Act 55 of 2022, school entities are responsible for providing their employees with mandatory training on school safety and security subjects.

Act 55 requires all school safety and security coordinators to complete up to seven hours of training within one year of their appointment and requires three hours of instruction annually for educators and other school staff (previously three hours of instruction every five years).

All school employees are required to complete two hours of training annually on one or more of the following school safety and security topics:

• Situational awareness
• Trauma-informed approaches
• Behavioral health awareness
• Suicide and bullying awareness
• Substance use awareness

In addition, one hour of annual training is required for all school employees on the topics of:

• Emergency training drills (including fire, natural disaster, active shooter, hostage situation and bomb threat)
• The identification or recognition of student behavior that may indicate a threat to the safety of the student, other students, school employees, other individuals, school facilities or the community

Navigate360 can help Pennsylvania schools meet these requirements and provide in-depth training on important safety topics. With an eLearning library specific to Pennsylvania and hours of instruction on required Pennsylvania topics, participants will learn how to create safer and more inclusive environments in their schools to keep themselves and their students protected.

Learning plans and courses in the Pennsylvania Library include:

• Situational Awareness
• Recognizing and Responding to Suspicious Activity in Your School
• De-Escalation: How to Diffuse Aggression
• Trauma Response for Schools
• Understanding Suicide Awareness and Prevention
• Creating a Suicide Awareness and Prevention Program
• Understanding Bullying
• And more!

How Navigate360 Can Help You Create a Holistic Ecosystem of Safety & Security

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: Combining both web filtering and digital scanning, 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 Anonymous Tip Reporting: 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.

Mental Health & Awareness Solutions

Suite360 for Students: Help your students reach their full potential and thrive with the most comprehensive, evidence-based social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum available. Suite360 for Students includes scaffolded lessons for grades K-12, engaging content that students understand and diverse topics that help to produce well-rounded students.

Mental Health & Prevention: Navigate360 provides mental health awareness tools to address tough mental health and safety-related topics. With professionally developed resources for students, staff and families, everyone can care for their own mental health and respond appropriately when they or someone they care about is in need.

Suicide Awareness & Prevention: Aligned with the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), Navigate360’s comprehensive suicide prevention training prepares mental health staff to address and help a student in crisis. Through our expert-authored curriculum, staff will also gain knowledge of strategies for reducing the stigma of suicide and improving the effectiveness of prevention programs.

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.