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**Highlights of Remarks by Patrick F. Bassett to the**

**Secretary's Advisory Council on Safe and Drug-Free Schools**

**Tuesday, January 16, 2006**

-   **[The Panel]{.underline}**: NAIS, representing over 1300
    independent college-preparatory schools and 500,000 students, is
    grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Secretary's
    Advisory Council, since the topic of school safety is so critical
    for the well-being of all children in the U.S.

-   **[School Safety:]{.underline}** Independent schools in particular
    and private schools in general have been spared from "the danger
    within": acts of violence by students or adults known to us. Why is
    this the case?

    -   One of the reasons private schools tend to have less crime on
        campus is that they have selective admission and hiring
        policies: i.e., the students and the faculty fit the ethos of
        the school, whether college-prep, gifted, or LD-oriented.
        Private school students want to attend the school they are in
        and know that misbehavior could result in dismissal. The more
        there is a fit and match between students and schools and the
        less of "one container for all sizes," the greater the sense of
        "belonging," a key ingredient to school and student success, not
        to mention safety.

    -   A second factor is that most independent school students are
        involved in multiple after-school activities which keep them
        occupied in salutary not dubious and unsupervised endeavors in
        the hours before their parents return home from work.

    -   A third factor may be the systems that private schools have
        developed for dealing with or preventing crises. Many
        independent schools, for instance, have crisis plans that
        address security, and most conduct security audits and drills to
        ensure that their campuses are safe, a practice that should be
        standard for all schools.

    -   Finally: private schools tend to be small, intimate, family-like
        places, not large and impersonal bureaucracies: the former
        generate a sense of obligation and responsibility; the latter a
        sense of alienation and anger.

    -   The high touch/high tech future: High tech *and* high touch will
        surely be the future of academics and other programming,
        including safety programming in good schools: All schools,
        public and private, need unobtrusive, non-invasive means to
        secure a safer future: teachers (not armed security) trained and
        staffing single points of entry; neural networks and smart cards
        tracking kids and visitors, cameras screening the building and
        classrooms, and the like.

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-   **[NOAA Radio Issue]{.underline}**: The private school world
    endorses the "America is Safer When Our Schools are Safer" pilot
    program that would distribute NOAA radios to public schools in
    selected high-risk cities. We believe this initiative is an
    appropriate one for government to undertake. But the distribution
    plan alarms us for several reasons:

    -   Radios were only given to public schools

    -   Private schools were bypassed for the second wave of
        distribution

    -   The regulations of this initiative state that all schools will
        receive a NOAA radio, and yet these regulations are not being
        followed.

    -   When it comes to the health and safety our nation's children,
        all students should be treated equally by the federal
        government.

    -   By excluding private schools and students the Department of
        Homeland Security is creating "holes" in a "safety net" designed
        to protect all students.

    -   When natural disasters make no distinction between public and
        private school students, and neither should the government,
        since all children should be protected, and all schools should
        be prepared to listen to the warnings and act accordingly.

    -   We would hope this panel would urge that NOAA radios from the
        America is Safer When Our Schools are Safer initiative be
        delivered to all schools, including independent and other
        private schools.

-   **[Stafford/FEMA/Hurricane Relief]{.underline}**

    -   Prior to 2006, independent and private schools were ineligible
        to receive reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management
        Agency (FEMA) for damaged facilities, since they were not
        considered to be providers of "critical services," and therefore
        had first apply for a loan from the Small Business
        Administration (SBA), rather than a grant from FEMA in the event
        of a disaster. (Only if the loan was denied or the damage was
        greater than the loan amount could a private school apply
        directly to FEMA for assistance.) This process burdened private
        schools with more expensive insurance policies and increased
        financial exposure.

    -   In 2006 legislation was passed and signed into law amending the
        Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act,
        which now restores federal aid for the repair, restoration, and
        replacement of private nonprofit educational facilities that are
        damaged or destroyed by a major disaster. The private school
        universe thanks you for your quick and effective response to our
        concerns regarding the implementation of the Hurricane Education
        Recovery Act's Restart School Program, which provided Emergency
        Impact Aid for Displaced Students and Immediate Aid to Restart
        School Operations Program.

    -   NAIS and other private schools educated literally tens of
        thousands of displaced Katrina students---almost all with no
        charge of tuition. When the eleemosynary instincts of the
        private school community are matched with the financial relief
        government can provide under emergency circumstances, we can
        stand together strongly to meet the needs of children.

-   **[Drug-free Schools]{.underline}:** While the focus of today's
    panel is on disaster and crisis planning and policy, I would also
    say a word about the larger threat to children's health and safety:
    i.e., the absence of drug-free schools and communities. Students are
    vastly higher at risk from the use of tobacco products, alcohol, and
    other drugs than they are from violence or natural disasters. The
    private school world in not immune from this menace, of course. We
    are, however, experimenting in ways all can be helpful in the future
    to all schools: i.e., there is a public purpose of private
    education, and being the laboratory of "what works" is one such
    important contribution. I would cite the "social norming"
    experimentation going on in some schools and colleges as the most
    promising approach I've seen in a long-time: i.e., documenting the
    extent of use and abuse, and sharing what is inevitably "news" to
    students: Not *everyone*, in fact not even the majority in most
    cases, is immersed in "sex, drugs, and alcohol." When real data is
    collected and shared, it becomes the norm NOT to use and abuse
    drugs.

**[NAIS]{.underline}**

The National Association of Independent Schools, a nonprofit 501(c)(3)
based in Washington, DC, is a membership organization and the national
voice of independent K-12 education. NAIS represents nearly 1,300 U.S.
independent schools, including day, boarding, and day/boarding schools;
elementary and secondary schools; boys\', girls\', and coeducational
schools. NAIS offers a variety of products and services to member
schools and associations, including professional development,
publications, national statistics, and benchmarking.

**[Independent Schools]{.underline}**

Independent schools are defined by their independent governance and
financing. As nonprofit entities, they are governed by boards of
trustees composed of alumni/ae, parents, educators, and community
members. Financially, NAIS schools are primarily supported through
tuition payments, charitable contributions, and endowment income. They
are accountable to state and regional accrediting associations, boards
of trustees, and to the parents who choose to send their children to
independent schools. For a complete list of NAIS member schools, please
visit <http://www.nais.org/>.