School Safety: What Works?

School safety is a continuous concern requiring ongoing action at all levels. While current disturbing incidents in schools have resulted in increased police presence in schools, one's experiences, culture, and circumstances may influence one's relationships with service providers such as police officers. The School Safety Task Force of 2014 established by Deval Patrick, the former Governor of Massachusetts, was a significant initiative. The task force was undertaken to address the pressing issue of school safety in the United States. The task force conducted a comprehensive review of existing school safety thorough examination of current practices, policies, and resources related to school safety. While the task force provided recommendations and strategies to enhance security and promote a safer learning environment for students and educators across Massachusetts the recommendations provide protocols specific to students with special needs.

The police force is designed to protect society and ensure safety for all. However, neurodivergent individuals (especially those with emotional and behavioral disorders- EBD and autism) may present with various challenges in processing social events and cues. Hence, they will likely have negative experiences with police officers, especially during an emergency. Furthermore, many officers have limited awareness of how to engage with neurodivergent students.

Careful planning is the best way to ensure schools are safe learning places. A critical proactive step would be to explore strategies to foster effective partnerships with first responders, such as law enforcement. Recognizing the importance of training in and exercising these protocols as they relate to the role of school staff is another critical step. School personnel could create professional development activities as a strategy for initiating and encouraging meaningful partnerships with community first responders.

School Safety and Massachusetts State Law contains three laws are explicitly directed at school safety. However, there has yet to be any laws addressing shelter-in-place, lockdown, or family reunification plans for students with special needs. For instance, the multi-Hazard Evacuation Plans for Schools (Section 363 of Chapter 159 of the Acts of 2000) requires that the superintendent of each school district meet with the fire and police chiefs to formulate a school-specific. I reference this particular law because partnerships and collaboration with law enforcement and other community stake holders.

The lead presenter created a training package for training first responders as a step in fostering collaboration. Law enforcement received on using evidence-based strategies, because such strategies are most likely to improve outcomes. The goal of the training for expected that participants increase their awareness of individuals with neurodiversity. The training started with surveys where law enforcement responded to questions regarding their current training and some challenges they faced when interacting with students with special needs during an emergency. Further, they were trained to include cultural considerations in their service, engage them more effectively, and limit escalating the situations. Lastly, the project revealed the training components and strategies linked to better support students with neurodiversity and better outcomes during police interactions. Findings are likely to generalize to the second phase of this research and to other settings where students encounter law enforcement and when law enforcement encounters people with neurodiversity.

Social skills training (SST) is a well-established, evidence-based practice for teaching students with ASD to interact more effectively with peers and adults. Research has demonstrated that, regardless of the program used, the way in which teachers and other education professionals approach this instruction can be highly beneficial, but can also cause harm. SST that ensure benefits to both social communication skills and mental health outcomes should avoid two practices. First, the focus on social skills can highlight social communication deficits in some students, leading to self-doubt and a reduction in self-esteem. Also, the emphasis on certain discrete skills such as making eye contact can cause anxiety for certain individuals, and is culturally bound. An emphasis on “masking” or “camouflaging” autistic-like behaviors may allow students to blend in more readily, at the expense of their sense of self-confidence and authenticity. Teaching social skills in a way that is self-affirming and empowering to students with ASD requires a shift in mindset; a change that will assist educators and other professionals to promote greater social efficacy while validating diverse ways of interacting and relating to others.
The ideas presented in this session are derived from a review of the literature regarding social skills training practices for students with ASD and of the literature relating to mental health outcomes for secondary students with ASD. The assumption is made that social skills instruction can be approached in such a way that the benefits may result for students in terms of increased frequency and effectiveness of social interactions with peers in particular, without adding to negative effects which impact self-confidence, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and authenticity of students with ASD.
Specific research presented during the session will include reviews of the Social Thinking Curriculum (Crooke & Winner, 2020; Winner, 2022), the SCERTS Model (Prizant et al., 2003), and the UCLA PEERS Program (Laugeson & Frankel, 2005; Laugeson et al., 2012). Information about mental health outcomes for students with ASD will be derived from current research (Lai et al., 2019; Ratcliffe et al., 2015; Koudys et al., 2021).

Session outcomes will be achieved through the presentation of current research about effective approaches to SST for students with ASD and information about mental health outcomes for this population. A visual and interactive approach will be used to present important concepts presented during the session. Participants will be asked to interact with other session attendees in discussing session concepts and key takeaways. Hands-on activities will be incorporated and participants will produce a permanent product to be taken with them after the session.