Focusing On Safety Report

The evaluation team at the National Center for School Safety collaborated with the AASA (The School Superintendents Association) to conduct two focus group discussions with school district superintendents from across the United States. The superintendents expressed opinions and concerns related to implementing school safety strategies. The school district superintendents identified several school safety strategies implemented with success and other strategies that were difficult to implement.

The thematic coding of discussions of difficult strategies during the two focus groups revealed several training needs including a need for standardizing threat assessment training and all-hazards training. The number of identified training needs in the two focus group sessions suggests the diversity of training needs and the complexity of training school staff, students, and other community partners.