What Can I do to Make Sure my Child’s School is Safe and Drug Free?
What Information Should I know about my Child’s School?
What is being done to Ensure my Child’s Safety in School
How Can I help create a Safe School?
How Can I help my Child Practice Safe Behavior?
- Review school discipline policies with your child. Make sure that she knows what behaviors you expect of her in school. Let her know that you will support teachers in their efforts to enforce the policies.
- Work with the school to develop a plan to handle safety and drug problems, such as drug education and violence prevention programs. Make sure the school has clear consequences for students who break school rules.
- Get to know your child's friends and their parents. Make sure their attitude about drugs is compatible with yours. If not, encourage your child to find new friends.
- Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states must identify "persistently dangerous schools" and provide families with an alternative to sending their children to schools that are unsafe and threatening. If your child attends such a school—or if your child has been a victim of school violence—talk with school officials about your options.
http://www.ed.gov/Family/agbts/Questions/part8.html
What Information Should I know about my Child’s School? (Back to top)
Knowledge parents should gain about their children's school includes:
- knowing their children's school. This means being informed about what the school is doing to establish and maintain a safe learning environment. This knowledge is important so parents can answer their children's questions and concerns with facts rather than myth.
- knowing their children. This means that they should know what their children's typical behavior patterns are so that they will recognize when behaviors change. This allows for identification of warning signs.
- knowing warning signs. These are the signals of potential problems.
- knowing how to intervene when warning signs present themselves. Parents should have an understanding of how schools and community resources can be accessed should problems arise.
- knowing how to connect with their children. Every parent-child relationship is unique. Parents must take the lead in developing a relationship that works for both and allows each to gain understanding and insight. With specific reference to the safe schools issue, parents need to understand how each of their children is thinking about the issue and address each with appropriate levels of concern and understanding. Especially on this issue, children will take cues from their parents. Parents need to remember this and act accordingly.
http://www.ncsu.edu/cpsv/whatparentsneed.htm
What is being done to Ensure my Child’s Safety in School (Back to top)
Despite the extraordinary media coverage of and public concern over violence in our schools, students are safer there than in any other place except their homes. Still, school officials recognize the potential threats to the safety of children attending school and school-related activities. Many are seeking ways to help school personnel control the school environment more effectively and to be more visible and available to students who need better guidance. In some districts, for example, drivers of school vehicles must complete rigorous training in managing student behavior as well as operating their vehicles safely. In addition, more school districts are requiring routine drug screening for vehicle operators and are training school personnel in crisis management and violence intervention. Other violence-reduction strategies include:
- Teaching prevention skills. Students are being taught mediation skills (problem solving and communication) and ways to handle their emotions—especially anger—without hurting others. These skills will help them avoid potentially dangerous situations. Students are also being taught "safe" behaviors such as doing activities in groups, alerting school personnel if a stranger is on school grounds, and reporting situations that threaten other students' safety.
- Providing alternatives to gangs. School districts and communities are working together to offer students alternatives to gang membership, including activities that build self-esteem and help students deal with feelings of powerlessness. Strategies include providing special assistance to students who are at risk of gang membership, creating an atmosphere that fosters a sense of belonging in all students, informing parents and school staff about gangs and teaching students how to avoid being drawn into them, and giving students regular opportunities to discuss school experiences and to plan for future successes and rewards.
- Improving school designs. As school buildings are constructed and old ones are renovated, safety has become an essential element of their design. In new schools, office areas are now centrally located for easy accessibility from other locations in the building or campus. Hallways have convenient exits and are well lit. Dead-end hallways and staircase hideaways have been eliminated, and restrooms are located closer to administrators to prevent students from hanging out.
- Monitoring visitors carefully. Schools are becoming more assertive in screening visitors, requiring them to register when entering the building or campus and by employing security personnel. Schools can be both secure and friendly by requesting visitors to check in rather than report to the office. Registered visitors are given a pass or badge to display prominently to let staff and students know that they have been acknowledged by the administration. Staff and students are instructed to report people without proper identification to a school administrator. In addition, many schools now ask that parents give the names of adults who are allowed to pick up a child, and require those individuals to show identification to school personnel when signing a student out.
http://npin.org/library/pre1998/n00183/n00183.html
How Can I help create a Safe School? (Back to top)
Parents can help create safe schools. Here are some ideas that parents in other communities have tried:
- Discuss the school's discipline policy with your child. Show your support for the rules, and help your child understand the reasons for them.
- Involve your child in setting rules for appropriate behavior at home.
- Talk with your child about the violence he or she sees--on television, in video games, and possibly in the neighborhood. Help your child understand the consequences of violence.
- Teach your child how to solve problems. Praise your child when he or she follows through.
- Help your child find ways to show anger that do not involve verbally or physically hurting others. When you get angry, use it as an opportunity to model these appropriate responses for your child-and talk about it.
- Help your child understand the value of accepting individual differences.
- Note any disturbing behaviors in your child. For example, frequent angry outbursts, excessive fighting and bullying of other children, cruelty to animals, fire setting, frequent behavior problems at school and in the neighborhood, lack of friends, and alcohol or drug use can be signs of serious problems. Get help for your child. Talk with a trusted professional in your child's school or in the community.
- Keep lines of communication open with your child--even when it is tough. Encourage your child always to let you know where and with whom he or she will be. Get to know your child's friends.
- Listen to your child if he or she shares concerns about friends who may be exhibiting troubling behaviors. Share this information with a trusted professional, such as the school psychologist, principal, or teacher.
- Be involved in your child's school life by supporting and reviewing homework, talking with his or her teacher(s), and attending school functions such as parent conferences, class programs, open houses, and PTA meetings.
- Work with your child's school to make it more responsive to all students and to all families. Share your ideas about how the school can encourage family involvement, welcome all families, and include them in meaningful ways in their children's education.
- Encourage your school to offer before- and after-school programs.
- Volunteer to work with school-based groups concerned with violence prevention. If none exist, offer to form one.
- Find out if there is a violence prevention group in your community. Offer to participate in the group's activities.
- Talk with the parents of your child's friends. Discuss how you can form a team to ensure your children's safety.
- Find out if your employer offers provisions for parents to participate in school activities.
http://pmct.org/helpsucceed/safety.html
How Can I help my Child Practice Safe Behavior? (Back to top)
Parents can teach their children safe behaviors before enrolling them in school. Children who know the appropriate action to take in a given situation are less likely to expose themselves to danger. Safe behaviors to teach your child are:
- Not talking to strangers. This warning is more important today than ever before. Encourage your children to get to know school staff other than their teachers and get acquainted with them yourself. Familiarity helps children recognize adults who don't belong as well as adults who can offer help when needed. As a plus, children will also learn that the school staff are their friends and more than just rule enforcers.
- Taking safety in numbers. Encourage your children to stay close to friends and to walk in groups in school hallways. Suggest that they limit their restroom visits to recess and breaks and use facilities located in high-traffic areas or in areas more likely to be visited by staff.
- Choosing friends carefully. Encourage your children to avoid students who do not handle anger effectively. Ask your children to be particularly careful with classmates who bring weapons to school and to report any such incidents to their teachers.