- 
      - **  Home
      - **   About Us
      - **  Archives
      - **  News
      - **  Publications

### Contact Us

To provide feedback on the Community Policing Dispatch, e-mail the editorial board at CPDispatch@usdoj.gov.

To obtain details on COPS Office programs, publications, and resources, contact the COPS Office Response Center at 800-421-6770 or AskCopsRC@usdoj.gov

**U.S. Department of Justice** Office of Community Oriented Policing Services  145 N Street, N.E.  Washington, DC 20530 www.cops.usdoj.gov×  Menu  - Home
- About Us
- Archives
- News
- Publications
- Contact Us
**Critical Topics in School Safety:COPS Briefing on SVPP Funding Considerations**
 September 2018 | Volume 11 | Issue 9

The new COPS Office STOP School  Violence: School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) provides up to $25 million in funding for state, local, and tribal units of government. This funding will be used to coordinate with law enforcement and schools to improve school safety with deterrence hardware, emergency notification technology, law enforcement training, and other evidence-based measures to support comprehensive school safety plans.

To prepare for evaluation of the solicitation requests,  the COPS Office held an SVPP briefing in August, with school safety experts and  practitioners discussing a broad topic of issues. The first speaker was Max  Schachter, founder and CEO of Safe Schools for Alex, who lost his son during  the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.  Mr. Schachter discussed a number of measures to improve emergency response  protocols in schools, hardware and technology to increase the safety of  students and staff during an incident, and development of a national school  safety policy similar to fire safety standards. Schachter advocates for the  protection of children and teachers through his role on the Marjory Stoneman  Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

Mo Canady, Executive Director for the National Association of School  Resource Officers (NASRO), followed Mr. Schachter to present information  on a comprehensive approach to school safety. He reviewed the physical security  and target hardening of school buildings and campuses, CPTED (Crime Prevention  Through Environmental Design), the psychology of school safety, technology such  as video surveillance and visitor entry tracking systems, and partnerships between  law enforcement and other first responders and school personnel and the  community. NASRO advocates for School Resource Officers (SROs) in every school as part of a comprehensive  safety plan.

**School Resource Officers**

A school resource officer (SRO) is a  full-time law enforcement officer with sworn law enforcement authority, trained  in school-based policing and crisis response, assigned by the employing law  enforcement agency to work with the school using community-oriented policing  concepts.

Source: NASRO, *Standards and Best Practices for the School Resource Officer  Programs* (Hooverville, AL: NASRO, 2018), https://nasro.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/NASRO-Standards-and-Best-Practices.pdf

Clarence Cox III, President (retired) of the National  Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), spoke next about his  expertise in school-based law enforcement and important factors to consider in  comprehensive planning. He raised evaluation questions that should be answered  when purchasing communication equipment, visitor management systems, and  surveillance technology. He stressed the importance of having a ‘system of  care’ for students that provides a network of services to help struggling teens  and children. Cox recommended that overall, evaluators be thoughtful about  community partners working to make children safe and the safety policies and procedures  that schools implement.

The final presenter was Dr. Lina Alathari, Chief of the U.S.  Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), who spoke on threat  assessments, the management of threats in schools, and the continuum of school  safety. The NTAC just released a new publication, Enhancing School Safety  Using a Threat Assessment Model: an operational guide for creating a  violence prevention program in schools. The program aims to allow school  personnel to identify possible threats and avert violence through training, a  central reporting system, and the development of a multidisciplinary threat  assessment team.

The briefing was attended by COPS staff and leadership, as  well as other DOJ component staff, including partner agency the Bureau of  Justice Assistance (BJA). The SVPP program funding is made available through the  STOP School Violence (Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing School  Violence) Act of 2018. It provides $50 million in FY2018 for the BJA to fund  multimedia projects, mental health training, and development of school threat  assessments. For more information, visit COPS Office Grants & Funding. 

Elizabeth Simpson   COPS Office

Tweet
**Subscribe to Email Updates**
To sign up for monthly updates or to access your subscriber preferences, please enter your email address in the Subscribe box.
Email
The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office. 

The Community Policing Dispatch is the e-newsletter of the COPS Office. 

**Explore**
- Home
- About Us
- Archives
- News
- Publications
- Contact Us
**Connect With Us**
Want to stay connected with the COPS office?  Follow us on social media!
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
 FOIA 

 No FEAR Act 

 Open Government 

 Plain Writing 

 USA.gov 

 Legal Policies and Disclaimers 

 Language Access Plan 

 DOJ Privacy Policy