The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, causal-comparative study with a self-reported survey design was to investigate how the leadership styles of secondary-school leaders influence school culture. Participants involved secondary-school administrators across four intermediate units in Eastern Pennsylvania: LIU 18, NEIU 19, CIU 20, and…

Two states that are more than 2,000 miles apart have a similar goal: to embed best practices in crisis preparedness. Arizona and Pennsylvania are motivated to use the "PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum," 3rd Edition (Brock et al., 2016) across their states to increase school and practitioner readiness…

School crisis situations are increasingly prevalent, yet many educational leaders lack adequate preparation for crisis prevention and intervention upon assuming administrative roles. This gap poses severe implications for the well-being of school communities. To address this issue, a study was conducted within a university educational leadership…

Safety and security are of the utmost importance for public school districts. The COVID-19 pandemic made school district crisis management and communication personally relevant to families with school-aged children. The purpose of this study was to learn how school administrators described their communication with families during the COVID-19…

In 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) enacted a new law called Act 44, which provided new form of funding for school safety in school districts across the State of Pennsylvania. The study focused on how school superintendents and high school principals prioritized each category in Pennsylvania Act 44 from highest to the lowest…

Why are many urban universities' relationships with their surrounding communities fraught despite university efforts at community engagement? Relationships between the factors underlying university-driven neighborhood change remain largely unexplored. In this article, I take the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) as a case study and examine the…

According to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, safety is the second most basic need, before love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization, that humans require in order to be motivated. When this theory is placed within the context of higher education, one could argue that in order to reach their full potential, students must first feel…

Access to public charter schools could theoretically reduce school safety problems by increasing competitive pressures, improving matches between schools and students, enhancing discipline policies, and allowing students to relocate to peer groups and cultures that discourage risky behaviors. Using publicly available data from the Pennsylvania…

This exploratory study used data collected from a representative sample of 522 Pennsylvania residents and 238 Pennsylvania college students to measure attitudes toward four different types of campus carry (CC) -- student, faculty, staff, and universal carry. Findings indicated that a slight majority of both samples believed that armed staff and…

Pennsylvania responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by closing schools and moving to online instruction in March 2020. We surveyed Pennsylvania school nurses (N = 350) in May 2020 to assess the impact of COVID-19 on nurses' concerns about returning to school and impact on practice. Data were analyzed using X[superscript 2] tests and regression…

In recent years, some school districts across Allegheny County have made noteworthy changes to school policing. While some districts have sought to reduce or eliminate reliance on police, a growing number of other districts in the county have, with community support announced expanded police presence and in some cases have decided to arm police.…

Were those gunshots I just heard? Between 1990 and 2014 school shootings more than tripled when compared the prior 30-year span of 1960 to 1990. FBI data from 2000-2013 shows active violent incidents were resolved or ended due to citizen engagement of the perpetrator in 16.2% of the total incidents. Common police response times to an active…

It is very important that schools be careful not to scare children about a place where they should feel safe. Thus, it is imperative that any active shooter drill be preceded by extensive education and preparation. Drills should be carefully planned by local police and the school crisis team, and school psychologists' involvement is critical.…

Data estimates 11.2% of college students experience sexual assault at some point during their postsecondary education. The prevalence of this issue and the resulting impact on students' lives and educational outcomes highlights the importance of examining the role of federal, state and institutional action in preventing and addressing issues of…

Concerns for student safety are a commonly cited reason for the presence of police in schools. But as the nation grapples with the appropriate roles and responsibilities of police more broadly, the time is right to shine a light on what we know about the effects of police in schools. This brief summarizes the research related to this question.…