Report 2016-136 Recommendation 11 Responses

Report 2016-136: School Violence Prevention: School Districts, County Offices of Education, and the State Must Do More to Ensure That School Safety Plans Help Protect Students and Staff During Emergencies (Release Date: August 2017)

Recommendation #11 To: Placer County Office of Education

To ensure that their schools' safety plans comply with state law and are submitted and approved on or before March 1 each year, the Kern, Placer, and San Bernardino county offices, and San Bernardino City Unified should implement procedures to monitor and approve their schools' safety plans. The procedures should include the use of electronic document-tracking systems and safety plan templates.

6-Month Agency Response

PCOE has completed the annual update of the Comprehensive Safe School Plans (CSSP) for the schools it operates in accordance with the project plan provided on October 27, 2017, and has met the recommendations set forth by the California State Auditor's Office (CSAO). PCOE completed Recommendation 11 through the following steps:

- PCOE redeveloped its digital CSSP template to meet the unique needs of PCOE schools', students, parents, and staff. School site plans are identified individually by the County-District-School (CDS) identification numbering system.

- All CSSPs contain the policies and information required by education code and state law. In addition, 11 Emergency Procedure Manuals were created for each site containing confidential tactical procedures for use in crisis situations.

- Each School Site Council/Safety Committee analyzed and updated its CSSP, conferred with law enforcement and held a site-based public hearing. Each School Site Council/Safety Committee certified to the County Superintendent's office the fulfillment of the requirements for its CSSP by council/committee adoption.

- In addition to the required components of a CSSP, each site developed written safety procedures to accommodate students and persons with disabilities for emergency situations.

- The Placer County Superintendent of Schools and staff reviewed and approved each site CSSP prior to March 1, 2018.

- Progress and continued improvements will continue to be communicated to the CSAO on an annual basis.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

Placer County Office of Education (PCOE) schools completed all their school site safety plans, using PCOE's safety plan template. Further, PCOE has implemented a document tracking system to ensure all its schools submit their safety plans prior to the March 1 deadline each year.

60-Day Agency Response

Following is a summarized project plan to meet recommendation #11 from the State Audit Report

- Communicate recommendation progress to the CSAO within 60, 180, and 365 days from August 31, 2017. Annual communication will then occur over the next five years.

- Redevelop the Safe School Plan electronic template to fulfill the unique needs of PCOE schools', students, parents, and staff, while meeting state requirements. School site plans will be identified by the County-District-School (CDS) identification numbering system (Sept. - Nov. 2017).

- Assemble all required policies and information inside the Safe School Plan template in order to provide a readily available public document. Some components of these plans will remain as confidential when they provide tactical details (Sept. 2017 - Feb. 2018).

- Require each school as identified by CDS code to analyze and update its Safe School Plan annually through a School Site Council/Safety Committee and certify to the County Superintendent's office the fulfillment of the requirements (Dec. 2017 - Feb. 2018).

- Develop written safety procedures to accommodate students and persons with disabilities based on current tactical practice (Sept. 2017 - Feb. 2018).

- Continue to practice and train students and staff on emergency procedures, including violent threat procedures utilizing federal and state resources, as well as current crisis response plans (Sept. 2017 - June 2018).

Documents showing current progress will be shared with the CSAO through the requested communication channel.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2016-136

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.