SCHOOL AND COLLEGE SAFETY AND SECURITY CONSULTANT

How do you create and maintain an environment in which your students, staff and parents feel safe and secure and ready to learn and grow?

How can you cost effectively implement a level of physical and procedural school and college security and safety that will properly address your risks and vulnerabilities?

How do you balance your need to be a welcoming community asset against your duty to properly and reasonably protect your students, staff and assets?

Is your school or college security and safety program a strategically planned and synergistic system that cost effectively prevents and mitigates your real threats and risks, or is it a collection of measures developed over the years as a reaction to incidents and concerns?

Are your school or college emergency and crisis plans timely, comprehensive and understood by all?  In addition to natural disasters, fires and medical emergencies, do they comprehensively address purposeful incidents such as the intruder, threats and violence, abduction, bomb threats, terrorism, sabotage, heightened DHS Alert Levels, etc.?

(See the attached "School Safety Advisories" page for commentaries on recent school and college security and safety issues, and see the attached "School Violence" page for more on our School and College violence prevention, mitigation/de-escalation and response programs)

Developing, implementing and managing a school or college safety, security and emergency response program that provides a safe educational environment including the needed level of control and protection while maintaining or improving the desired levels of accessibility, service and satisfaction is a challenge. 

We have extensive experience providing school and college security assessment and planning services.  Our school security and safety consulting services are always focused upon your unique culture, values, history, location, composition, risks, vulnerabilities, threats and budgets.  We know that it is particularly essential to elicit the support for, understanding of, and involvement in school safety and emergency response by all staff, students, parents, emergency responders and even the community.

We have experience meeting the school security and safety assessment standards of the U.S. Department of Education "Safe Schools, Healthy Students" Safe School Environment initiative and related school Emergency Response and Crisis Management programs.  We can also support grantees of the U.S. Department of Education Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grants as part of Emergency Response and Crisis Management (ERCM) grants under the Government Performance and Results Act ( GPRA).   

Note that a comprehensive security and safety assessment is a perfect first step in determining the relative level of security and safety and what you reasonably need to do to achieve a prudent level of protection and response. 

Also please see the attached page on School and College Violence Prevention, Mitigation and Response as well as the page on School and College Security and Safety Advisories which discuss recent issues related to educational security and safety.

Our support to schools and colleges includes:

• School and College Security and Safety Assessments or Surveys
  • School or College Safety Assessments typically involve:
    • Interviewing key staff including administrative/district staff, principals, assistant/vice principals, custodians, maintenance staff, teachers, secretaries/receptionists, school resource officers, local law enforcement representatives, parents, etc.  We often also interview a sampling of students.
      • The interviewing/data gathering phase can be expanded by issuing a questionnaire on security and safety to all staff, students and/or parents
    • Touring and observing the schools functioning, including evening reviews of lighting
    • Reviewing relevant materials including school security and safety policies and procedures, emergency and crisis plans and procedures, HR policies, incident and activity reports, post orders, contracts, past audits and assessments, training materials, safety committee minutes, etc.
    • Providing and presenting a report outlining findings and prioritized recommendations
    • Optionally conducting Team Risk Assessment Workshops (see "Assessments" page for more)
    • Optionally distributing a questionnaire or survey to all or selected staff, students and/or parents to elicit their concerns, issues and suggestions
• School or College Emergency Response and Crisis Management Planning to include bomb threat procedures, drill and response procedures for intruders and attackers
• Staff, Student  and/or Parent Safety and Security Awareness Training and Penetration Testing
  • Training can address access control, safety awareness/ownership, monitoring, dealing with conflict and aggressive behavior, recognizing and reporting the early warning signs of violent behavior, emergency and crisis response duties, planning for potentially problematic triggering events (i.e. disciplines, expulsions, terminations, etc.), control of visitors, etc.
• School or College Violence Prevention, Mitigation and Response Planning and Training
• Development of School, College and District Security and Safety Policies, Plans and Procedures
• Development of School or College Security Self-Assessment and ongoing School or College Security and Safety Audit Methodologies
• Development or and Training on Threat Assessment and Management Teams or Groups
• Development of Sexual and Discriminatory Harassment Prevention and Response Processes
• The providing of ongoing school security consulting support on a retainer basis (The Virtual Security Manager)

We consider school and college safety, security and emergency issues including:

• Access Control (before, during and after class hours, as well as evening and weekend usage)
• Emergency and Crisis Planning and Response (including Bomb Threat, Threat Mitigation and Management, Abduction, and Intruder or Attacker Responses and Drills)
• Visitor Management
• Identification Procedures
• School Security and Safety-related Policies and Procedures
• Student, Staff and Parent Awareness, Ownership and Involvement
• Prevention, Mitigation, De-escalation and Response to Threatening and Violent Behavior (see the page, "School and College Violence Programs")
• Internal and External Protection Measures
• Communications with all Audiences and Stakeholders, especially following incidents and emergencies
• Equipment including Video, Lighting, Keys and Locks, Electronic Access Control, Intrusion Detection, Duress (Panic) Alarms, Contraband Detection, etc.
• Law Enforcement Liaison and Support
• Investigative Procedures
• School Security Staffing and Management
• Background Screening
• Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED)
• Parking Lots and Driveways
• Etc.

Critical assets, and potential targets, to consider in your school security planning include:

• Students
• Staff, including temps and substitutes
• Parents, Visitors, Contractors/Vendors, etc.
• Private Information
• Equipment such as PC's, AV, etc.
• Food, Supplies, Cash, Books, Chemicals, AV materials, etc.
• The Building (against vandalism, graffiti, etc.)
• Vehicles
• Etc.

We can optionally provide various Cap Index reports geared to your particular location(s) that could include:

• A database report that provides "Past", "Current" and "Projected" CRIMECAST™ scores relative to the national, state and county average of 100. We provide the CRIMECAST™ scores for the ten (10) different crime categories, and a total of ninety (90) crime risk scores per location.  This report identifies not only the types and trends of crimes in the area and the frequency with which they are occurring, but it also represents the areas of crime in a graphical format (spatial and temporal analysis). 

We can assist, no matter the size of your school, college or district, throughout North America.  Many school districts and colleges have found that it is worthwhile and cost effective to periodically obtain an objective outside perspective on their school safety and emergency response program to confirm that they still properly and effectively address the true risks, threats, vulnerabilities and liabilities.

Please call or write if you have any questions or would like to request a proposal regarding any aspect of school safety and security planning

We will provide a list of client and professional references upon request.

Helping you protect your people, assets, reputation and value

"It was a pleasure working with Sem Security Management and I would very much recommend Sem Security Management as would I use them again in the future."

"Sem Security's breadth of experience and knowledge was very helpful to us in improving our understanding of the issues and options we had regarding security." 

"The feedback I received from the staff and officers  interviewed by Dick was excellent.  They commented on his thoroughness and his professionalism and willingness to listen.  The report we received from him was complete, comprehensive, well-written and extremely helpful." 

"To describe your report as comprehensive and excellent is an understatement"  school safety consultant, school security consultant, college security consultant, school security, school safety, school emergency and crisis planning, Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grants, School Vulnerability Assessment, Emergency Response and Crisis Management (ERCM) grants, Government Performance and Results Act ( GPRA), Threat Assessment Group, Sexual and Discriminatory Harassment Prevention and Response,