WILMINGTON, DE (April 6, 2017) – The Secure Schools Alliance Research and Education (the Alliance) organization has released a list of free safety and security facility assessments for K-12 public schools.
 
The Alliance partnered with the Police Foundation and Dr. Erroll Southers of TAL Global to develop the list, which is intended to offer school administrators, superintendents and law enforcement access to the best safety and security facility assessments at no cost to schools.
 
“This is the first time anyone has released a comprehensive list of current, no cost, school safety and security assessments for K-12 public schools,” said Alliance Executive Director Robert Boyd. “Every school facility is different and private security consultants charge schools thousands of dollars to assess their security needs. We have made this information available in one place, allowing schools, superintendents and law enforcement access to the best publicly available assessment formats at no cost.”
 
The list is based on a review of existing open-source federal and state information. By selecting a link users can access the most comprehensive assessment tools prepared and used by state and federal agencies.

“Our firm is retained to conduct school vulnerability and security assessments and unfortunately, many public schools cannot afford the type of comprehensive services that we provide,” said Southers, who is a renowned expert on protecting critical infrastructure and homegrown terrorism. “Those of us in the security domain have a moral obligation to help protect our educational institutions. By working with local law enforcement, school leaders can use these resources to evaluate the readiness of their facilities in the event on a security incident. These are excellent no cost resources and we applaud the Alliance for making them available.”
 
This list is the second of five tools and data sets to be released by the Alliance in 2017. The first was a first-of-its-kind interactive map of state by state school security policies, resources and legislation. Future releases will include three briefs prepared by the Police Foundation: “Starting the Conversation About School Safety,” “Partner Roles and Responsibilities for Securing Schools” and “Secure Schools: Part of Healthy Learning Environment.”
 
“This is an important resource and we are pleased to have supported the work,” said Chief (ret.) Jim Bueermann, President of the Police Foundation. “Secure school facilities are critical to healthy communities.”
 
“The no-cost assessments are intended to be used to determine the safety and security needs of an individual school facility and are not a one size fits all solution,” said Boyd. “In addition to an assessment, each facility needs a plan. No cost planning guidelines are available through the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools.”
 

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About the Secure Schools Alliance
The Secure Schools Alliance and Secure Schools Research and Education are taking a leadership role in launching a national conversation about the issue of school safety and advocating a course of action for addressing it. This convening of education, industry, public safety, law enforcement, corporate and community leaders will work together to ensure the security of our nation’s schools through federal and state policy, legislation, research, pilot programs and the promotion of best practices. The goal is to improve the security infrastructure, security technology and life safety systems of all public K-12 schools.
 
About the Police Foundation
The Police Foundation is a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization that, consistent with its commitment to improve policing, has been on the cutting edge of police innovation for over 40 years. The Police Foundation’s work is informed by available evidence and aims to increase public safety and strengthen communities. The professional staff at the Police Foundation works closely with Law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, victim advocates, and community based organizations in order to develop research, comprehensive reports, policy briefs, model policies, and innovative programs that will continue to support the work of law enforcement personnel as it relates to increasing strong community-police partnerships.
 
About TAL Global
TAL Global is an international security consulting and risk management firm that provides a comprehensive array of Executive protection, investigations, workplace violence handling, aviation security, disaster mitigation planning and risk management services. Our extensive international network of professionals enables us to deliver the highest level of security and loss prevention services – at home and around the globe.
 
Contact:
Robert Boyd
rboyd@secureschoolsalliance.org
https://www.secureschoolresources.org
302 387 2945