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Friend,

It’s hard to believe it’s already back-to-school season again! As we usher in another new academic year, I know so many of us are asking a common (and very important!) question: how can we successfully promote joy across our campus while preserving — if not building — safety and protecting our community?

Too often, these goals can feel at odds. New security measures at school-sponsored events, new or more frequent emergency drills, security teams on campus for the first time… for schools implementing new or improved safety measures, it can be hard to balance these important initiatives with meaningful and upbeat beginning-of-the-year messaging.

This is perfectly logical — while these measures certainly make people feel safer, they simultaneously remind people that schools — or anywhere we might go — are, in fact, not always entirely safe spaces. They can bring up fear that we can never fully eliminate risk. But, the good news is, we can tip the scale. We can create and communicate systems of safety that put these measures into context at the beginning of the year, so they feel safer and less fearful as the year goes on.

For example, over the next month, you might consider:

Inviting families to attend a meeting to learn about the safety and security practices at your school and ask questions.
Sharing your drill schedule with families with a reminder about the goals and purpose of emergency drills.
Sending out a profile of your security guards so families know and understand how they fit in with the greater school community.
Testing your Emergency Notification System (ENS) to ensure it works and provides peace of mind to both staff and families.
Scheduling a reunification drill for the end of the school year or early next year to ensure families are familiar with your school’s reunification process before they have to take part in it during an emergency.

As hard as this is to say, we’ll likely see some events throughout the year that further call into question our ability to be and feel safe in school and other settings. Taking the actions above at the very least will help show your community you’re being proactive and taking safety seriously. It might even mean some people will think to themselves, “I trust my school has their act together on safety” when those events occur.

This is certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many other things you can do to contextualize your safety and security practices for families (and faculty and staff, too!). As you welcome your students and staff back to school over the next few weeks, I hope you’ll share with us some of the things you’re trying! We’re here to learn — and grow — together.

In strength,

Chris Joffe

Founder and CEO

Twitter: @JoffeChris

4 simple ways to make your campus safer this back-to-school season

Wondering what steps you can take right now to make your campus safer? In our latest blog post, we offer four ideas for simple and easy back-to-school steps you can take immediately to improve your campus safety.

New Resource! Joffe Academy Back to School Bundle

In every back-to-school season, there’s a lot to think through, and the priority list just keeps growing. For those trying to sort through the details and create a game plan for the year, we created the Back to School Bundle on Joffe Academy.

The Bundle offers access to five Joffe Academy modules that will help you plan and prepare for a safe and successful school year, including:

Crisis Communication Planning
An Introduction to an Emergency Operations Plan
Trauma-Informed Schools
Physical Security Best Practices
Incident Command Structure (Part I): Incident Commander Orientation

Purchase the full bundle through Joffe Academy today!

Save the Date: August 7th back-to-school webinar

We’ll be kicking off our 2023-24 webinar series this upcoming Monday! Join us this Monday, August 7th at 9 AM PT/12 PM ET for up-to-the-minute safety updates, a discussion about the latest best practices in safety and security, and an opportunity for in-depth Q&A.

To register for our webinars, you must have a FREE Joffe Academy account. If you don’t have Joffe Academy access yet, register for a FREE account and get access to all our bi-weekly webinars in the upcoming year!

If you’re interested in changing your membership to a plus membership, for $15/month you can have full access to all Joffe Academy content, which includes our back-to-school course bundle!

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All Clear! Pre-order Chris Joffe’s upcoming book

Since the early days of the pandemic, Chris has been working to capture and catalog of stories and lessons from his work with schools in crisis over the past 10 years. Now, he’s compiled them into a new book set to be published by Jossey-Bass this November! The book, All Clear: Lessons from a Decade Managing School Crises, is designed to offer school leaders and administrators practical guidance and key principles for keeping schools safe and thriving. Pre-Order a copy today on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or a local indy book store!

Question: “I'm in a new role this school year, and I’m leading our school’s safety work for the first time. I’m so excited to take this on, AND I’m overwhelmed by how much there is to do. Where should I start?” -Operations leader at a California-based school

Answer from Olivia Ellison, Joffe Safety Consultant

First off, congratulations on your new role! At Joffe, we've had an influx of clients (both current and new) asking this question lately, so you’re not alone! It was actually one of these conversations that inspired us to put together the Back to School Joffe Academy bundle mentioned in the Top of Mind section above.

But to give you the short answer to your question, we recommend starting with a framework for understanding 1) where you are today, and 2) where you want to be at the beginning of next year. You can think about each of these questions in the context of 4 different categories of emergency management:

Drills: How frequently are you conducting drills? How well are they working? Does the team know how to respond when there are surprises or things that don’t go according to plan?
Emergency Operations Plan: When was the last time your school’s EOP was updated? What needs to be updated this year?
ICS: Do we currently have an Incident Command System (ICS) in place? Are our teams trained?
Communication: Do we have systems in place to communicate with staff and families in the event of an emergency? How have they been working?

For more personalized support, you can always connect with one of our safety consultants who can walk through things with you and help you get settled in your new role. Best of luck! We’ll be here for you if you need support!