A sick school building has indoor air problems that pose health risks for everyone inside. The paper discusses what makes a school sick and what interested parties can do about it by targeting the problem together, making classroom changes, and making schoolwide changes. Resources for further information are included. (SM)

Summoning police officers to help investigate the report of an armed student is the prudent and safe thing for school officials to do. Police officers receive extensive training in dealing with armed subjects. School staff training should include all staff members and should provide information about where to report, how to report, and to whom.…

Discusses reasons for school violence, examining critical aspects of the culture of school violence (a dominator value system that supports violence, overemphasis on negativity, and pervasiveness of bullying). The paper describes differences between bullying and normal peer conflict and notes short- and long-term effects of bullying.…

Explains how local PTAs can help with school crisis intervention, focusing on dealing with the public and the media; spreading the word about the National PTA's programs and positions via public relations programs; what to do during a crisis; and how to prepare for press conferences and prepare necessary materials. Finally, the paper discusses the…

Unsafe conditions in schools impede student learning. This paper describes how an effective conflict-management program can help to create a safe school environment. Such a program should be considered essential to an overall school-safety plan, not regarded as an adjunct to the plan. An effective conflict-management program gives students a…

This handbook describes how a New York City high school transformed itself into a model school. Boys and Girls High School is located in Bedford-Stuyvesant, one of the city's toughest neighborhoods. Over the period 1986-94, the school experienced increases in school attendance, the graduation rate, the number of college-bound students, the number…

Guidelines for controlling indoor air quality problems associated with kilns, copiers, and welding in schools are provided in this document. Individual sections on kilns, duplicating equipment, and welding operations contain information on the following: sources of contaminants; health effects; methods of control; ventilation strategies; and…

Developed to increase student and teacher awareness of safe laboratory conditions, this guide provides information and suggestions for maintaining a safe laboratory environment. Section 1 contains a listing of potentially hazardous chemicals commonly used in secondary school science classes and section 2 lists potentially hazardous chemicals…

Prepared to help school administrators and theatre arts teachers establish and maintain a safe environment for the actors, technicians, and audience members who participate in educational theatre programs, this guide is divided into two major sections. The first section presents administrative guidelines covering recommended procedures, teacher…

This publication is concerned with how to keep schools safe. The spring 2001 issue "New Study Reveals Prevalence, Harm of Bullying" (Ira Pollack) discusses a study about bullying based on data collected in 1998 by the World Health Organization's Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey of 15,686 students in grades 6 through 10 and sheds…

This guide offers suggestions to college administrators for dealing with a variety of emergency or crisis situations that could affect a community college's effectiveness. The authors used the Institute for Crisis Management's (ICM) four types of crises in higher education as the framework for the guide. The four types of crises are: (1) sudden;…

This guide from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in the U.S. Department of Education is designed to assist school administrators in understanding the challenges faced in creating safe, effective learning environments, whole school practices that have dramatically increased effective learning environments, and under what…

Responding to the need for users of schools to use their buildings in a way that creates a better internal environment for children and reduces harm to the environment, this document lists the environmental issues that need to be addressed and the corrective recommendations that designers and administrators can apply. Environmental issues cover…

This guide presents practical steps to improve the school environment and to minimize the legal liability of educators. It provides strategies and techniques for discipline and safety, documentation, dealing with harassment, gang activities, physical violence, off-campus problems affecting school environment, issues concerning special education…

Asserting that school buildings under renovation and even newly built schools may have polluted indoor environments that cause health problems and hinder learning, this guide introduces special education and anti-discrimination laws designed to remove barriers to education for children with disabilities such as chronic health impairments. The…