The North Penn School District (NPSD) is proud to announce that it has recently been selected by the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE) Office for Safe Schools for a 2018-2019 Safe Schools Targeted Program Grant in the amount of $20,000.
The Safe Schools Targeted Program Grant is an annual grant opportunity open to all school districts. NPSD applied for the grant in July of 2018 with a proposal incorporating current plans with SIGMA Threat Management Associates to assist with developing the district's capabilities surrounding behavioral threat assessment and intervention. According to the PDE Office for Safe Schools, the grant program received more applications for the 2018-2019 school year than ever before, making it a very competitive award. NPSD is among only 60 school districts in the state to receive this prestigious grant and one of only 31 districts to receive the maximum amount of $20,000.
"This past spring, as part of our effort to focus on a holistic approach to school safety, our Safe Schools Committee identified behavioral threat assessment as a key prevention strategy," said Chris Doerr, NPSD Coordinator of Emergency Management and Safe Schools. "With the support of our full board of school directors, funding was added to the 2018-2019 budget to support the development of a formalized behavioral threat assessment team and process within the school district. This grant will allow us to supplement that initiative by conducting high quality training for the newly formed team, District leaders, and key stakeholders."
Behavioral threat assessment is an important and essential component in the prevention of violence in North Penn schools. Funding from this grant award will allow SIGMA to conduct basic threat assessment training for NPSD administrators and key partners, and advanced scenario based training with the North Penn threat assessment team members. SIGMA will also design and provide curricula and documentation for NPSD team members to use when conducting general threat assessment awareness training for staff, students and parents.
"Contemporary school safety tactics must involve much more than simply equipment and emergency drills," Doerr said. "In order to truly be successful we must identify and implement prevention strategies that address the entire school community. Building trusting relationships, positive school cultures, and open channels of communication help our school leaders identify concerning behaviors at their incipient stage. By building an internal capacity for behavioral threat assessment we will ensure those concerns are evaluated fully and consistently, and result in the intervention needed to keep everyone safe."
To see a full list of 2018-2019 Safe Schools Targeted Program Grant winners, click here