Every school needs an effective disaster recovery plan that is flexible, comprehensive and designed to take into account unexpected disasters. Presents guidelines for preparing such a plan, with immediate and long-range recovery procedures. (MD)

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative, funded by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice, is an ambitious federal effort to improve the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The Initiative focuses on integrated prevention and treatment programs, strategies, and services designed to…

Accountable school leaders are the key to school improvement, but while school leadership has been described often in many different ways, accountability has been mentioned only in general terms. In "The Expert School Leader," the authors detail a new approach to identifying, analyzing, acquiring, and using specific competencies that are needed…

In 1999, a small Brooklyn middle school in a high-crime neighborhood created the Brownsville Youth for Peace (BYFP) school safety project. The school's students have low test scores, and parents are generally not involved in school activities. BYFP coordinators (school staff, teachers, and students) assessed the nature of the school's safety…

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2005 is the eighth in a series of annual reports produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the U.S. Department of Justice that present the most recent data available on school crime and student safety. The…

As the Department looks back on FY 2005, it reflects on successes like the national sample of 9-year-olds whose reading scores are higher this year than in any previous assessment year and challenges like those with collecting reliable, valid, and timely data. This report presents complete, reliable information that demonstrates the Department's…

The Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA) requires that each state or territory receiving federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) have a state law that requires all local educational agencies (LEAs) in the state or territory to expel from school for at least one year any student found bringing a firearm to school. (See Appendix…

In 1977, a series of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) for school buses became effective, mandating different performance standards for school buses compared to other buses. Because data on the crash performance of school buses built to these standards were lacking, the National Transportation Safety Board conducted a series of…

The U.S. Congress bolstered the increase in expulsions by passing into law the federal Gun Free School Act of 1994. All states receiving federal funds were to pass laws requiring schools to expel students who brought firearms to school or to school activities. There is evidence that schools are safer, but expulsion rates continue to climb. With…

In their attempts to help educators improve student achievement, researchers have identified hundreds of effective school practices. However, there is no accurate picture of the relative effectiveness of effective practices or the ways various practices interact to produce results. Nevertheless, the data are plentiful enough to permit informed…

The Safe Schools Coalition of Washington is a public-private partnership of 90 offices, agencies, and organizations, as well as many individuals. The Coalition's Anti-Violence Documentation Project is an ongoing statewide qualitative study examining the phenomenon of anti-gay sexual harassment and violence in kindergarten through grade 12. In the…

The case studies in this collection explore issues of violence in schools and what can be done to reduce these events. A number of national experiences in violence management, principally from developing countries, are brought together as a step toward improving the quality of education. The following are included: (1) "Tackling School Violence…

Surveys of teacher education programs at U.S. colleges and universities examined what is being done to prepare teachers to respond to school violence and participate in prevention programs. Questionnaires were mailed to department heads and deans of colleges and universities belonging to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.…

This edition of the annual report presents an updated description of the nature and extent of crime and violence on school property. It captures the spirit of the newest communities around the country that have paid special attention to one chapter in particular from the 1998 Annual Report, entitled "What Communities Can Do Through…

This paper analyzes Pennsylvania's Safe Schools Act of 1995 and 1997, discussing decisions that led to its adoption and its impact on Pennsylvania schools from 1995 to 2001. It presents a history of media reports on school violence, and discusses the national experience, zero tolerance and its effects, and Pennsylvania's answer to school violence.…