- NCEF - Safe Schools
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Safe School Facilities
This information on protecting school occupants, buildings, and grounds is coordinated with the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools of the U.S. Department of Education.

Safe School Facilities Checklist

NCEF provides a free checklist that combines the nation's best school facility assessment measures into one online source for assessing the safety and security of school buildings and grounds. It includes over 400 measures covering school surroundings, school grounds, buildings and facilities, communications systems, building access control and surveillance, utility systems, mechanical systems, and emergency power. The checklist is updated frequently and may be used for planning and designing new facilities or assessing existing ones.


NCEF Publications on School Safety and Security

Mitigating Hazards in School Facilities. Guidance for making school safety and security assessments and for planning, funding, and implementing safety and security improvements. Includes 25 downloadable, subject-specific NCEF Assessment Guides.

Improving School Access Control. A wide range of access control measures for thinking about and devising better ways of controlling access to school buildings and grounds.

Low-Cost Security Measures for School Facilities. Fifty school safety and security measures that may be implemented at little or no cost and without the use of complex technology.

School Security Technologies. Current information on access control, surveillance, weapons detection, communications, alarm, and emergency notification system technologies.

Mass Notification for Higher Education. Things to consider when designing a mass notification system, and the pros and cons of current notification devices.

Emergency Response Information for School Facilities. Information needed for managing school buildings, grounds, occupants, and rescue and recovery personnel during and after a crisis.

Door Locking Options in Schools.. School door locking options and the limitations imposed on them by building and fire codes.

Severe Weather Planning for Schools. Understanding, preparing for, and coping with weather emergencies, including severe thunderstorms, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes and storm surge, flooding, and extreme heat and cold. Six appendices contain detailed weather information.

Earthquakes and Schools. Earthquake basics, preparing for an earthquake, reducing nonstructural hazards, seismic upgrading, and appendices on nonstructural hazards, past earthquake damage to U.S. schools, and schools as post-earthquake shelters.

Flooding and Schools. What flooding can do, preventing or mitigating flood damage, preparing for and responding to flood emergencies, recovering from a flood, and schools as post-flood shelters.

Wildfires and Schools. How a building catches fire, determining your school's risk, creating a survivable space, importance of maintenance, the fire resistant school, meeting code requirements, related flood and mudslide risks, and an appendix on wildfire response.

An Investigation of Best Practices for Evacuating and Sheltering Individuals with Special Needs and Disabilities. Response to the June 2007 General Accountability Office report GAO-07-609 concerning evacuating and sheltering students with special needs and disabilities.

Safe School News

Recent articles about safe and healthy school facilities from newspapers across the country:

San Mateo County School Districts Seek Data on Buildings' Seismic Safety
Mercury News, December 28, 2008

China Sets Stricter School Construction Standards
Associated Press, December 28, 2008

China Admits School Building Failures
Seattle Times, December 27, 2008

Concerted Global Action Needed To Make Schools Safe From Collapse, UN Says
Scoop Independent News, December 24, 2008

Young Students Often Most Vulnerable to Toxic Air
USA Today, December 22, 2008

Officials Vow Air Near Schools Will be Tested for Toxics
USA Today, December 09, 2008

Georgia School Design Includes 72 Surveillance Cameras
School Construction News, December 09, 2008

Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools
USA Today, December 08, 2008

School Districts Get Top Grades for Indoor Air in Classrooms
EPA, December 04, 2008

  Safe School Events

Upcoming conferences and workshops on school safety and security:

Safe and Secure Schools Forum
February 18, 2009
San Francisco, California

  Safe School Publications

Key publications on safe school facilities:

Ensuring Quality School Facilities and Security Technologies: Effective Strategies for Creating Safer Schools and Communities.
Hamilton Fish Insitute on School and Community Violence, Washington, DC; Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, OR, 2008

Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities.
U.S. Department of Education, 2007

Educational Facilities Disaster and Crisis Management Guidebook.
Florida Dept. of Education, Tallahassee, 2007

Safe and Healthy School Environments.
Oxford University Press, New York, 2006

Security Design Considerations for Instructional Facilities.
Texas State University, San Marcos, 2006

Security Planning and Design: A Guide for Architects and Building Design Professionals.
John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2005

Design Guide for Improving School Safety in Earthquakes, Floods, and High Winds.
Federal Emergency Management Administration, 2004

Jane's Safe Schools Planning Guide for All Hazards.
Jane's Information Group, Alexandria, VA., 2004

Primer to Design Safe School Projects in Case of Terrorist Attacks.
Federal Emergency Management Administration, 2003

  Safe School Journal Articles

Recent magazine and journal articles about safe school facilities:

Starting Over.
American School Board Journal, December 2008

Wandering Eyes and Security.
School Construction News, November 2008

Selecting a Mass-Notification Solution.
Buildings, November 2008

Overcoming Common Barriers to Good Campus Safety.
Doors and Hardware, November 2008

Access Denied.
Campus Technology, November 2008

  Safe School Resource Lists

NCEF lists of continuously updated links, books, and journal articles on safe school facilities topics:

Access Control Systems in School Buildings

Assessing Flood- and Wind-Damaged Schools

Campus Safety and Security

CPTED for Schools: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

Disaster Preparedness for Schools

Fire Safety in Schools

Safety and Security Assessment of School Facilities

Safety and Security Design for Schools

School Preparedness for Natural Disasters

School Preparedness for Terrorism

State and Local School Emergency Planning Guides