How does the district stay up-to-date with the most current recommendations, best practices and requirements in regards to district/school safety?
Ichabod Crane Central School District officials achieve this in a variety of ways.
Our District officials maintain an active relationship with local and state law enforcement. This includes participating in the School Resource Deputy (SRD) program, and including law enforcement on the District-Wide Safety and Health Committee.
School district staff across all departments regularly attend health and school safety training sessions and conferences, in addition to the annual Professional Development training sessions on school safety, security, violence prevention and mental health.
In addition, district and building officials regularly update their School Safety Plans with stakeholders from across the school community to ensure that all information included is accurate and relevant.
Our district also maintains an active relationship with our health and safety consultants, Needham Risk Management, to help ensure that the school district is in compliance and following best practices regarding school safety and security.
Who is the district’s new safety consultant, and why did you decide to change?
In July, Needham Risk Management, a firm with more than 20 years of experience in school safety, started working for the district as our new school health and safety consultants. The district had worked closely with the Questar III BOCES Safety Consultants for many years. However, following the retirement of our designated health and safety specialist, we contracted with Needham to provide these services.
If someone (for example, staff, students, teachers, parents, community members) sees something concerning, what should they do? What if they feel nervous or uncomfortable about reporting it?
If you see something, please say something.We know that prior to committing an act of violence, either against themselves or against others, a person has let others know what they plan to do. There is a term called “leakage,” which means “the communication to a third party of an intent to do harm to a target.”
We also know that in the vast majority of active assailant events in schools that other people were aware of an individual’s plans or intentions, but many times this information was not communicated to people who could intervene and prevent the violence from occurring.
We ask that if you’re worried about somebody or something, that you please talk to your teacher, your principal, or any other trusted adult in the school district so that we can take steps to prevent violence from occurring in the school community.
What kind of training sessions have you done in-district with the new consultant?
This new partnership with Needham also allowed the district to greatly expand our professional development offerings around safety, not only with our staff but also our substitutes, students and community members. The additional training opportunities included: school safety and security (SAVE – Schools Against Violence in Education) training for building and district administrators; SAVE training for staff and faculty; SAVE training for high school students; threat assessment; supplemental first Aid training for PE Staff; Stop the Bleed; concussion training; chemical hygiene; and playground safety.
Needham also hosted an information session for our High School students and staff. A representative from Needham shared some of the same information provided in the staff’s summer sessions, including information on the five emergency response procedures (Lockout, Lockdown, Shelter-in-Place, Hold-in-Place, and Evacuate); violence prevention; mental health; and our district’s physical response to violence. This brought the students and staff on the same page when it comes to various school safety measures and policies.
How was the district-wide Safety Plan developed? Who was involved?
The District-Wide School Safety Plan was developed through extensive analysis of the local environment, emergency potential, and available resources. Through training and workshops that included district employees, administration, and local emergency services, the plan has been developed to address the specific needs of the Ichabod Crane Central School District and the community. The plan adheres strictly to New York State regulations and guidelines.
How many fire drills and lockdown drills does the district have each year? And are those dates shared with families and the public?
Each school building is required to perform at least 12 emergency drills each year. Of those 12 drills, eight must be evacuation drills (fire drills) and the remaining four must be lockdown drills. The requirement comes from State Education Law 807.
Do you tell parents and families when the drills are scheduled?
We do not tell parents and families when we are holding drills. We want our students and staff, by having a dozen unannounced drills each year, to be able to respond quickly, using the response tactics they were taught. We want their emergency response actions to events, such as a fire, a natural disaster, or an act of violence, to become second nature.
Additionally, we do not announce our drills because it allows us to test our emergency response actions and to help students and staff continue to build their “muscle memory” when it comes to a particular drill. This provides the district, the buildings, and Needham with a better understanding of which areas are in need of improvement.
What policies do you have in place to ensure that our schools are safe and secure?
Every day, ICC administrators and staff use the District-Wide School Safety Plan as a blueprint to ensure that all of our buildings are safe and secure. The school district has instituted a number of policies and procedures in order to keep the entire school community safe.
The school district has a strict single-point of entry visitor process, which requires all visitors to enter the school building through a single primary entrance. Once they have been provided access through the first door of the building, they will be screened by school district personnel. If it is someone’s first visit to a building, their ID is scanned into our Visitor Management System. In subsequent visits, our greeters can type someone’s name into our system, and all their information, including a photograph, will appear. Every time someone visits, they are provided with an ID badge that must be visibly worn. Our Visitor Management System also ensures that the individual is not on the sex offender registry. This system provides district officials and administrators with an up-to-date, comprehensive log of all visitors to the campus.
The school district also maintains a robust camera system that provides selected individuals with the ability to monitor building entrances, hallways, exits and more in real-time.
The school district maintains an active relationship with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, which includes the daily presence of a School Resource Deputy (SRD).
How have you informed the community and public about your school safety initiatives?
Our District-Wide School Safety Plan is posted on the Board of Education’s agenda for review, and then is posted for 30 days so the public can comment prior to the board’s adoption. We typically have our safety consultant present an overview of the drafted safety plan at a board meeting during the summer, before it is posted for public comment and board approval.
Last year, we hosted a Community Safety Forum, where Needham representatives gave an overview of the SAVE (Safe Schools Against Violence in Education) law, summarized the collaborative work they have done district-wide over the last several months, and discussed future plans at ICC. Click here to watch the entire forum.
Last November, a newsletterwas sent to every district resident by mail. One of the feature articles focused on school safety, our Safety Plan, Needham and what we do every day to ensure that our staff and students are safe. (will hyperlink digital copy)
What does it mean that ICC is a closed campus, and when was this enacted?
It means the campus is closed to outside visitors between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m, and after dusk. This policy doesn’t apply to members of the public invited to the district or drop-off and pick-up at the school buildings.
How many School Resource Deputies are on campus on a daily basis, and what is their schedule?
Every day, a School Resource Deputy, employed by the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, is on campus. Each day, the SRD rotates between the three buildings, walks the halls of all the schools, and visits classrooms. The SRD also frequently drives around the campus as a visible presence throughout the day and responds to any concerns in the buildings. The SRDs also attend building safety meetings. The SRDs also run the district’s DARE program.
How have you incorporated mental health awareness and resources into your safety planning?
Mental health awareness, interventions and in-district professionals continue to be essential components of each of our buildings. We strive to be proactive, rather than reactive.
Using grant funds to support this ongoing mental health initiative, the district has hired several new staff members over the last few years. This includes an additional school psychologist and school counselor this year. In 2021-22, we hired a full-time licensed clinical social worker.
In addition to our own counseling staff, we continue to partner with the Columbia County Department of Mental Health, who has provided a social worker onsite one day each week.
At the beginning of the school year, our experienced school counselors introduced themselves in classrooms across the district. Since then, they have also visited classrooms to discuss mental health.
We also continue to finetune our social-emotional learning curriculum to use with the students. During the back-to-school professional development days, the Capital Area Area School Development Association (CASDA) provided Middle and High School staffers with presentations and workshops focusing on student mental health and engagement. They emphasized how to build community district-wide, to best support our children’s mental health, to identify potential mental health needs, and how to connect children and families with area resources and treatment.
District staff have also implemented new social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula, including Peaceful Classroom, a program created to help students build their emotional resilience, while teaching concepts and practicing mindfulness, so they are better equipped to deal with daily stresses; and Second Step, a program designed to build social-emotional competence and to develop foundational learning skills.
We also practice mindfulness in the classrooms, which we have done for years. Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. It teaches our students to be aware of their emotions and how to process feelings in a proactive and non-judgmental manner.
The district also surveyed students, families and teachers to get a better understanding of where we are in terms of mental health needs in order to develop proper interventions. The district consistently helps students and families connect to the mental health resources we offer in our schools, as well as services available outside of the district.
District staff use a multi-tiered system of supports, depending on the child’s/family’s needs, and the particular circumstance. This includes our psychologists and counselors regularly pushing into our classrooms to talk about an array of subjects, including feelings and emotions. We also have trained our Teacher Assistants, transportation and food service staff in trauma education. Other supports include group and individual counseling, parent training on mental health, and individual and therapeutic crisis intervention. ICC also has a district-wide Wellness Committee that meets every month.
What technology does the district use as part of its overall safety plan?
Last year, we replaced our camera system with a brand new system with over 100 indoor and outdoor cameras across the campus in order to enhance security.
What procedures does the district have in place to assess potential threats?
We have a solid system in place to assess any potential threats. The school district utilizes the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG, formerly VSTAG) as its threat assessment model and approach to violence prevention. The CSTAG is an evidence-based program that is formally recognized by the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The CSTAG has a staggering amount of research that has shown a correlation between CSTAG usage and a reduction in fighting, violence, bullying, and suspension, and an increase in the use of counseling services for students, an increased positive school climate, and teachers feeling safer after implementation of the program. The CSTAG is also recognized by the New York Center for School Safety as its preferred resource for threat assessment models in New York state schools. All of our administrators and counseling staff across the district were trained in this system.
The school district’s threat assessment procedures allows its administrators and counseling team to assess potential threats, identify concerning behaviors, and provides students who are in crisis with resources and solutions for their problems in a comprehensive manner. School threat assessment is not a punitive or disciplinary process, but seeks to supplement the district’s existing processes and procedures with best practices for violence prevention — and ensure that protective action is taken as necessary for all staff, students, and school community members.
The culmination of the school threat assessment process is the development of a safety plan that is designed to address the problem or conflict underlying the threat and prevent the act of violence from taking place.
