Millions of children and adults across the nation spend their days in school buildings, and they need safe, healthy environments to thrive, learn, and succeed. This book explores the school environment using the methods and perspectives of environmental health science. Though environmental healht has long been understood to be an important factor in workplaces, homes, and communities, this is the first book to address the same basic concerns in schools. The editors are physicians and educators trained in pediatrics, occupational and environmental medicine, and medical toxicology, and the authors are experts in their fields drawn from across the United States and abroad. Each section of the book addresses a different concern facing schools today. In the first six sections, the various aspects of the school environment are examined. Chapters include the physical environment of the school, air quality issues, pest control, cleaning methods, food safety, safe designs of playgrounds and sports fields, crime and violence prevention, and transportation. In the last two sections, recommendations are made for school administrators on how to maximize the health of their schools. Appropriately evaluating the school environment, implementing strategies to address children and adults with disabilities, emphasizing health services, infectious disease prevention and recognition, and occupational health for faculty and staff are all addressed. The entire book is evidence-based, readable, generously illustrated, and practical. An indispensable resource for parents, school staff, administrators, government officials, and health professionals, this book is for anyone who cares about the health of our schools.

A hands-on resource for practitioners, this book provides step-by-step guidance for developing a comprehensive school safety plan. Moving from needs assessment to implementation and evaluation, chapters describe research-based strategies that are readily applicable in K-12 settings. Special features include reproducible checklists and other planning tools. Described are proven ways to: create a low-crime environment, identify and support high-risk students, reduce bullying and harassment, improve the schoolwide disciplinary system, and draw on community resources for change.

Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools brings together the collective wisdom of more than thirty experts from a variety of fields to show how school leaders can create communities that support the social, emotional, and academic needs of all students. It offers an essential guide for making sense of the myriad frameworks, resources, and tools available to create a continuous improvement system. Filled with recommendations gleaned from research and ongoing work in every US state and territory, this book is a critical resource for understanding and adopting evidence-based practices and making programmatic decisions to ensure the ideal conditions for learning, growth, and development. "Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools is an essential read for teachers, principals, district leaders, and organizations that work with schools to create challenging and supportive environments for all students." --Paul Cruz, superintendent, Austin Independent School District "Osher and colleagues not only connect the dots between big ideas--deeper learning, trauma, social and emotional learning, evidence-based programs, comprehensive community planning--but they model the continuous improvement approach in the way ideas are ordered across and within the chapters. This is a masterful volume: comprehensive, accessible, and way overdue." --Karen J. Pittman, cofounder, president and CEO, The Forum for Youth Investment "This book provides a very usable road map for creating safe, healthy, equitable, and caring schools. The editors and contributors successfully integrate research, practice, and policy to help educators develop and implement effective and sustainable models to nurture caring schools that all children and educators deserve." --Mark T. Greenberg, Bennett Chair of Prevention Research, Pennsylvania State University David Osher is vice president and an institute fellow at American Institutes for Research. Deborah Moroney is a managing director at American Institutes for Research and is director of the youth development and supportive learning environments practice area. Sandra Williamson is a vice president for policy, practice, and systems change at American Institutes for Research.

Publisher Description

Successful students are not only knowledgeable but also emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically engaged, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond their own borders. To help students meet this standard, a school must use a coordinated, evidence-based approach that supports learning, teaching and student growth in short, the school must create a healthy school community. This action tool, and accompanying online scoring and analysis tool, offers a practical strategy for structuring your school environment to support the development of students who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to make healthy choices. Updated to reflect current research, new standards, and best practices, the second edition of the action tool guides you through the four steps of the Healthy School Report Card process with rationale, tips from successful participants, and easy-to-use tools. Tools for organizing can help you develop a school-level process for working with your community. You can then use the scoring tools to assess your school's current health programming and create an evidence-based environment that supports learning and teaching. With the tools for reporting, you can use the Healthy School Report Card to meet required guidelines and identify and prioritize areas for improvement. The data you collect can assist your ongoing efforts to garner the support of policymakers, family members, and the community.

This book provides school administrators, school-based mental health professionals, and other educational professionals with the framework and tools needed to establish a comprehensive safe learning environment. The authors identify four necessary phases to achieve this (prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery) and provide numerous examples and tools to help readers create safe environments, while also addressing students’ academic, emotional, and social needs. An emphasis is placed on the importance of the balance between physical and psychological safety within a multi-tiered framework - it is not enough for students to know their school is secure; they must also feel they are safe and can turn to their teachers and school-based mental health professionals with their concerns. Aaccompanying downloadable resources contain several valuable resources, such as forms, handouts, articles, and monitoring tools.