The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the perceptions of school principals regarding creating a safety plan that addresses school safety in K-12 schools in Illinois. The conceptual model that guided this study was the M-PHAT model from the National Association of School Psychologists Framework for Safe and Successful…

This paper examined the perceptions of school administrators in the state of Illinois concerning their roles in preventing school violence. Targeted school violence has increasingly been a concern in the United States. It is a type of violence that transcends everyday altercations in the school context, and rises to the level of deliberate,…

This study determined the perceptions of school administrators who work at rural schools in Illinois classified as distant and remote on whether they need to be allowed to carry concealed weapons in order to protect themselves and their students by responding against armed intruders with deadly force. An existential conceptual/theoretical…

Drawing from a context of reception framework, this article asks the following questions: How do educators describe issues of safety and belonging in the context of a charged immigration policy climate? What practices have educators developed to support immigrant-origin youth? And, what are the relationships between educators' perceptions of…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether district funding influences the leadership work of school principals. This study explored the role of the elementary principal in four school districts. Two districts were located in communities with an affluent population and the schools had an abundance of fiscal resources; the other two districts…

The phenomenological research investigates the perceptions of principals on the use of multi-option response plans before, during, and after active shooter drills. The study discovers three central themes from eight Secondary principals. Active shooter drills in public schools are mandated by state legislation and create school culture challenges…

Across the United States, many communities are concerned with the prevention and response to school violence. To address their concerns, school districts and emergency responders (law enforcement) have increased their use of technological information when planning for and responding to a crisis event. There are many different types of security…

In late 2010, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) initiated a new safety program called the "Culture of Calm" initiative (CoC). Since 2010, CPS has focused resources on schools in order to improve school climate--particularly school safety. These resources were used, to a large extent, to hire vendors that provided services to teachers and…