We live in a culture where school systems are accused of being negligent or at fault for any undesired outcome. This can leave school districts and their employees anxious about potential consequences, regardless if the negligent claim is warranted or not. Therefore, there is a need for all educators to understand their responsibilities to provide…

Over the past 25 years school violence in the form of active shootings has steadily increased in frequency and devastation. Schools across the United States have leveraged a multitude of security mechanisms and philosophies to stop active shooter violence. The 2020 COVID pandemic further ignited violence within the schools and a rise in teacher…

School safety is an ever-present issue in the modern education system. Incidents like Sandy Hook, Parkland, and Columbine have forever changed the way school and police officials develop school safety programs. A primary component of many school safety programs is the utilization of school resource officers at various levels throughout the…

Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is a schoolwide approach to promote positive school safety in which student academic success can occur. However, at least one third of students in United States schools are suspended once in their K12 school career for violating a school's code of conduct. School suspensions have been linked to…

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…

The doctrine of sovereign immunity in Florida has evolved over time as the common law and statutory environment within the state has changed. Public schools and public-school employees enjoy some level of immunity protection under both common law and statutory law. Nonetheless, Florida law creates a duty to provide a safe environment for students…

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the perceptions of school resource officers (SROs) in Southern Maryland regarding the support SROs could provide elementary schools to foster positive interpersonal relationships while maintaining school safety and what additional resources that the SROs needed to support their job. The overall…

The purpose of this explanatory sequential, mixed methods research study was to identify the perceptions of school resource officers (SROs) regarding high school students with disabilities and their preparedness to work with this population, as a result of their SRO training. This study involved a national quantitative survey of SROs working in…

School Resource Officers (SROs) are a growing profession in public schools across the country. With the increase of school shootings, the number of SROs has proliferated without federal or state standards or evaluations. This mixed methods study examines the perceptions of 135 teachers in 6 different regions of Missouri. Through surveys and 15…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the impact that teacher teams, specifically building-level leadership teams and professional learning communities, can have on a school's safe and collaborative culture and effective teaching practices. Waves of school reform have made their way through legislation and schools and, as a result,…

This dissertation examines the effects of neighborhood characteristics on Detroit Public School Community District students' attendance rates for the 2018-19 school year. First, I analyze the effects of daylight savings time, relative to school start time, on absences for elementary and middle school students. By observing the natural change in…

Little information is known on crisis prevention and intervention plans in schools across South Dakota. A review of the existent literature revealed gaps within school-based crisis intervention models, their objectives, and their effectiveness in addressing the psychological and physical safety needs of students, staff, teachers, families, and…

Implementing school resource officer (SRO) programs has been a popular response to school-based violence in the United States (Lynch, 2017). Lynch further posits that there is a growing concern that school resource officers hyper-criminalize trivial student misbehavior, contribute to a culture of youth punishment and control, and are instrumental…

This research study examined the perceptions of educators and law enforcement professionals regarding the procedures used in schools by law enforcement. It examined their level of satisfaction with their general feelings about the relationship between schools and law enforcement and the current school districts' overall school safety in three…

As school safety continues to be a growing issue in public schools, this study takes an exploratory approach to examine the impact vaping is having on public schools in Arkansas. Student vaping is rapidly becoming a common issue in schools. This study examined the response to vaping from administrators in Arkansas. The study surveyed 82 Arkansas…