The state of New York’s “Safe Schools against Violence in Education” (”SAVE”) law requires each of its school districts to develop and implement a district-wide safety plan, and each individual school to have a building-level emergency response plan. District-wide and school-wide school safety teams that include school and district personnel, board of education members, and members of teacher, student and parent organizations, are charged with developing the plans and reviewing and updating them annually. (School-wide school safety teams also include members of law enforcement and community groups.) There’s a mandatory period of public comment before safety plans are adopted, and community and parent involvement is encouraged. The “ProjectSAVE Guidance Document for School Safety Plans” provides a detailed framework of best practices and processes for school safety planning, which could serve as a valuable resource for any school district in any state.

New York State’s ProjectSAVE has been in effect since 2000, but here in Wisconsin, it seems that we’re far from the leading edge. School safety plans got a mention in Governor Doyle’s campaign blog a few months ago (”Everyone must make an effort to dust off and review school safety plans that may not have been practiced or updated since they were developed after the 1999 Columbine shooting, Doyle said.”), but searches on the web sites for the state Department of Public Instruction and the Madison Metropolitan School District don’t give the impression that we’ve approached school safety planning either with rigor or broad-based involvement. What do the school safety plans for our district and our children’s schools look like today?