School Safety

New York State Amends School Safety Plan Requirements to Prohibit Realistic Active Shooter Drills

Jul 26, 2024

At its July meeting, New York’s Board of Regents voted to amend §155.17 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to require that emergency response drills are trauma informed. As defined in the regulation: Trauma-informed drills means avoiding tactics in training or drills that may introduce or activate trauma, such as the use of props, actors, simulations, or other tactics intended to mimic a school shooting, incident of violence, or other emergency, or inclusion...

Critical Incident Review: Active Shooter at Robb Elementary School

Jan 21, 2024

On January 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report on its critical incident review of the law enforcement response to the tragic school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The report provides a thorough description of the critical incident review that has taken place over the past 20 months. It is perhaps one of the most detailed reports on a school shooting incident. The full report can be found here:...

Robb Elementary School Attack After Action Reports Released

Aug 8, 2022

The Texas House of Representatives’ Investigative Committee on the Robb Elementary Shooting has released its Interim Report on the attack. The report can be found here. The Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center has also released its Response Assessment and Recommendations concerning the attack. ALERRT’s report can be found here.

Active Shooter Drills in the Classroom: Do They Do More Harm Than Good?

Mar 4, 2020

The Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association recently released a report concerning active shooter drills in the school setting. A copy of the report, The Impact of School Safety Drills for Active Shootings, can be found at: https://everytownresearch.org/school-safety-drills/. The report is a follow-up to a comprehensive safety plan the three organizations previously released. A copy of that plan, Keeping Our Schools Safe: A Plan to...

U.S. Secret Service Releases Study of Targeted School Violence

Feb 5, 2020

The National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) recently released: Protecting America’s Schools – A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. The report builds on 20 years of NTAC research and guidance in the field of threat assessment by offering an in-depth analysis of the motives, behaviors and situational factors of the attackers, as well as the tactics, resolutions and other operationally-relevant details of the attacks. In compiling the report, the NTAC studied 41 incidents...