Chapter 5:
Creating and Implementing a Comprehensive Plan

This chapter describes how to implement the comprehensive three-level model of prevention using a team approach. This chapter begins by outlining the role of teams and how to build an effective team to address important school issues. The chapter later provides information on the logistics of planning and implementation.

The Role of the Schoolwide Team in Creating Safe Schools

The Schoolwide Team, described in Chapter 1, assesses the school, including the academic and behavioral programs and school climate, to set short-term and long-term goals that will improve the quality of the educational experience for all students and the safety of the school. The team establishes general policies and procedures and selects programs to be implemented throughout the school. In addition, the Schoolwide Team coordinates these strategies. Because the Schoolwide Team shares some members with the Student Support Team, they exchange information that will help the Schoolwide Team make more informed decisions about the school and the safety needs of the students.

The Schoolwide Team undertakes activities to plan, implement, monitor, and maintain the school's violence prevention program. At the same time, the Schoolwide Team proposes policies and procedures that do the following:

• Link to all school improvement efforts.

• Align school efforts with community efforts and services.

• Gain understanding and support from all members of the school community: students, teachers, staff, administrators, school board members, families, and other community members.

• Include all three levels of prevention: a schoolwide foundation, early intervention, and intensive interventions.

• Reflect an understanding of how to use early warning signs appropriately.

• Include an efficient process for referral, problem-solving, consultation, and intervention (Student Support Team).

• Employ effective evidence-based interventions that align with the school's structure, culture, needs, and resources.

• Align with special education requirements and all other schoolwide efforts, such as extra-curricular activities and services for English language learners.

Organizing the Schoolwide Team

Because the Schoolwide Team has the responsibility of planning, implementing, and evaluating an integrated schoolwide violence prevention effort, members of the team should have diverse and complementary skills. The selection of team members is critical to the team's effectiveness. Members should be chosen because of their leadership capabilities and expertise in learning and behavior. Team members should be willing and able to commit time and effort to the team, particularly during the initial implementation phase.

Community Members and the Schoolwide Team

Comprehensive planning recognizes the influence of the larger community on the functioning of schools (Center for Mental Health in the Schools, 1996; Developmental Research and Programs, 1994, 1996,  ). School leaders should identify these influences and understand how they affect the school. Schools can enhance their violence prevention efforts by working with their community to address issues that directly influence both their community and school.

Safe and effective schools develop procedures for assessing and working with the external community so that programs and interventions are sensitive to community needs. In this way, schools become true partners with community agencies and organizations.

To ensure that the school considers community factors and to ensure ongoing coordination of prevention and intervention services, the following are some of the community leaders who should be involved in planning and implementation:

• Attorneys, judges, and probation officers.

• Business leaders.

• Clergy and other representatives of the faith community.

• College or university faculty.

• Family agency and family resource center staff.

• Interest group representatives and grassroots community organization members.

• Law enforcement personnel.

• Local advisory board members.

• Local officials, including school board members and representatives from special commissions.

• Mental health and child welfare personnel.

• Parent group leaders, such as Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) officers, advocacy group leaders, and parents knowledgeable about troubling behavior.

• Physicians and nurses.

• Recreational, cultural, and arts organizations staff.

• School public relations officers.

• Violence prevention group representatives.

• Youth workers and volunteers.

• Other influential community members.

Building an Effective Schoolwide Team

Whether the team is well-established or newly established, there is no assurance that its members will function effectively as a team. Indeed, one of the strengths of the Schoolwide Team should be its diversity in expertise, skills, and experiences. The common goal of developing safe schools should galvanize all parties to pool their resources and work collaboratively. Cohesiveness and a sense of shared purpose, primary characteristics of effective teams, can be enhanced through the following practices (Friend & Cook, 1996; Morsink, Thomas, & Correa, 1991):

• The team takes time at the onset to agree on a vision.

• Individual members should commit to participate in all relevant team activities and training, leaving their personal agendas at the door.

• The team selects a dedicated leader or facilitator. The leader or facilitator keeps the team focused on the task and productive, while ensuring that needs are addressed and interpersonal conflicts (if any) are resolved.

• Each member of the team receives the necessary information and support so that he or she can participate on the team as an equal.

• Team members should take turns taking notes, or the team should have a secretary. These notes should be circulated to the team members in a timely fashion.

• One team member is responsible for liaison functions, which involves keeping the greater school and community informed and linking to other school and community teams.

• The team develops a process for solving problems and making decisions. For example, the team should determine how it will make decisions--by consensus, majority, or some other clear and agreed-upon process.

• Teams may strengthen their interpersonal relations through trust-building activities. There is a substantial knowledge base of ways that teams can build trust and work more effectively together.

Building a productive team takes time, and prior to reaching this goal the Schoolwide Team will move through several phases of team development. At times, team members may feel uncomfortable as the team experiences conflict and strives for resolution. Also, they may feel uneasy as they learn their roles and establish norms for communication and other routines. Over time, as members support each other and accomplish objectives, trust and mutual respect will emerge. As additional individuals are included at various points, team dynamics and functioning may be affected. This is a normal part of team development and functioning and should not be a cause for alarm. However, too much turnover and turmoil can render the team inoperable; therefore, it is important that team membership remain fairly consistent and provide stability to the planning and implementation tasks.

Logistics for the Schoolwide Team

Once the team has been established or expanded and has reviewed its charge, it should then consider logistics. Critical logistical tasks include obtaining administrative support, securing a planning budget, designing a communication process, and scheduling meetings and setting timelines.

Obtaining Approval and Buy-Ins

The first order of business is to obtain district or school approval and buy-in for the Schoolwide Team vision. Approval enables the team to obtain resources to support its efforts and to secure modifications in policies and procedures. Buy-in secures the ongoing, active, and usually visible support of key administrators.

Schools differ in the ways they develop and implement plans. Every member of the team should know in advance the administration's expectations for the team's work and any relevant restrictions or policy guidelines, such as reporting procedures and decision-making authority. If possible, the team should include someone who has the authority to approve procedures and allocate funds. If the team encounters resistance to one of its suggestions, it should document the need and demonstrate the connections between its concerns--such as improved academics or community support--and school safety.

Communities also differ in their understanding of the need for the team's work. Providing communities with information early will help them understand and support the need for a comprehensive prevention, intervention, and crisis response program. The team should determine the information needs of the community and tailor its communication strategy to address these needs.

Securing a Planning Budget

Resources and funding may be necessary for the work of the Schoolwide Team. School officials will need to know the anticipated costs. For example, will teaching staff require substitutes while they conduct team duties?

The team may need to prepare a budget for the administration to approve. Examples of budgetary considerations include release time or compensation for team meetings, secretarial assistance, meeting space, support for family participation, and reimbursement for incidentals.

Designing a Communication Process

One of the team's responsibilities throughout the planning and implementation process is to communicate its findings to the larger school community. The team may elect to prepare a formal report or simply reorganize its findings with a cover memorandum. In either case, a few suggestions follow:

• Prepare an executive summary. The executive summary should identify team members, state the purpose of the team's work, provide a brief overview of the team's work to date, and list recommendations for next steps. A brief version of the team's executive summary can be distributed via newspapers or mailings, or on the school's Web site or bulletin board.

• Consider face-to-face meetings. The team may decide to schedule face-to-face meetings with the school as a whole or with different stakeholder groups. The team should work with community representatives or a representative of the stakeholder group to identify potential questions and to prepare an agenda that maximizes the impact of each meeting. It is important to include the entire school and community in this knowledge-sharing. The team can invite community members and families to school meetings and consider having team members attend a variety of meetings with different groups, such as the PTA.

• Solicit feedback. Throughout this dissemination process, the team should solicit feedback from individuals regarding the accuracy of the team's findings and the effectiveness of its communication efforts. The school and community at large must be informed of the team's goals and progress. Also, the team can solicit feedback from the individuals who will be involved in the next stages--developing and implementing the violence prevention and response plan.

Scheduling Meetings and Setting Timelines

The team should schedule meetings according to tasks. Most teams will begin by meeting weekly. After start-up, there are four major milestones. They are as follows:

• Conducting the school assessment.

• Developing the schoolwide violence prevention plan.

• Designing the implementation approach for the plan.

• Implementing and evaluating the plan.

Achieving each of these milestones may require a different amount of time. It is important to note that it may take a full year to develop a plan and implementation strategy. It will take even longer to implement the plan completely and measure its effects. It is important to set realistic timelines and due dates throughout the process.

Implementation Considerations for the Schoolwide Team

Schools differ in the way they implement their comprehensive plans, but the following activities are important for all schools to make the most of their plan:

• Make a long-term commitment. Most likely, it will take several years to have all components of the plan in full operation. The team should set a reasonable timeline for reaching its goals and objectives.

• Obtain district approval. The team's goal is to obtain more than plan approval; it is to institutionalize change. This requires formal approval, which may require a vote by the school board. In addition, someone in a leadership role needs to champion the plan. This individual should ensure that there is sustained buy-in and support from the school community.

• Provide sufficient training. All team members--including staff, students, families, and community members--should receive training. After the initial training, all team members should be provided with ongoing relevant training and support. Training assists the school in developing the capacity of staff, students, and families to intervene. Examples of training methods include the following:

• In-service training for all faculty and staff.

• Written manuals, pamphlets, or flip charts.

• Practice responding to imminent warning signs of violence.

• Seek parental approval and involvement. Families must be involved in implementing the plan. There should be open lines of communication throughout the process.

• Seek support and involvement. The team should ensure that every member of the school accepts and adopts the violence prevention and response plan. This buy-in is essential if all members of the school are expected to feel comfortable sharing concerns about children who appear troubled. Too often, caring individuals remain silent because they have no way to express their concerns.

• Secure resources. Teams will require human, information, and fiscal resources to implement their plans. The teams should consider the anticipated costs of activities.

• Specify evaluation procedures. Evaluation is a critical component of the comprehensive school safety plan. It increases the effectiveness of management and administration of the plan. Evaluation data should be used when renewing the plan. When planning the evaluation component, the team should consider the following principles:

• There should be measurable goals, objectives, and benchmarks.

• The assessment should be based on objective data.

• Realistic timelines should be set, observed, and communicated to the larger community.

• The team should be held responsible for regular (preferably quarterly) evaluation of the prevention and intervention plan.

• Present the plan. The team may present the plan in various ways: events, town meetings, discussion groups, written products, and press releases.

• The team may need to use multiple strategies to reach a large number of people. Each school will have a preferred strategy for presenting the plan. The team should keep the following general guidelines in mind:

• Ensure that presentations are made available in the native languages of family members and the community.

• Schedule events at a convenient time for family members and community members.

• Provide logistical support (e.g., child care, transportation) to enable more people to participate.

• Make the communication process ongoing, structured, and detailed to ensure long-term community support.

Other Considerations

Despite prevention efforts, even the most effective schools will experience some form of crisis, whether it takes the form of violence, tornadoes, fires, or death of a student or a staff member. The immediate response to and long-term handling of the crises will affect the adjustment of students, school staff, and families. Schools that are best prepared will develop a multicomponent plan that addresses the physical and psychological well-being of students and school staff. With support from community agencies and the school system, the Schoolwide Team should design a crisis response plan. The plan should be shared with all members of the school. The components of the crisis response plan include:

• Specific procedures for internal and external communication.

• Evacuation protocols to protect students and staff from harm.

• A process for securing immediate external support from law enforcement officials and other relevant community agencies.

• A process for dealing with long-term effects of the crisis.

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