Enhancing School Safety
Enhancing School Safety
Overview of SCSS
Safe Communities Safe Schools (SCSS) is an adaptive model for school safety grounded in community engagement, capacity building, and data-based decision making.
Safety is a product of every school’s individual climate, including settings, systems, and relationships. That is why our model supports schools to establish a diverse team of stakeholders who will collect and interpret data as well as develop, implement, and monitor an action plan specific to that school’s goals, culture, and resources.
Balancing data-driven prevention and intervention strategies, the comprehensive plan reflects both community voices and student needs. Our research-based model is designed to build a school’s unique capacity to promote social, emotional, and physical safety—because every educator deserves a safe place to work, and every student deserves a safe place to learn.
The Safe Communities Safe Schools Model
The SCSS Model addresses social, emotional, and physical well-being through prevention and intervention. It includes:
1 – Flexible Approaches
Customized processes enhance school culture, climate, and overall safety.
2 – Data-driven Decision Making
Individual- and system-level data identify strengths, challenges, and gaps.
3 – Individualized School Action Plans
Tailored plans foster effective and lasting school safety efforts.
Our Partners
Over the SCSS Model’s long history, our team has had the opportunity to partner with schools, researchers, and local, state, and national organizations, government agencies, and legislators. All these partnerships have informed the SCSS Model’s growth and expanded its impact.
Past and current partners include:
- National Association of School Resource Officers
- National Police Foundation’s Center for Mass Violence Response Studies
- National Center for School Safety
- The Colorado School Safety Resource Center
SCSS currently partners with Safe2Tell, a live, anonymous, 24/7 reporting tool led by law enforcement, to accept reports whenever a Colorado youth or concerned adult perceives a threat to their safety or the safety of others.
CSPV also currently partners with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival on Shakespeare & Violence Prevention. This school touring project combines professional Shakespeare performances with violence prevention research. Over 92,000 students throughout Colorado have experienced this innovative program since its inception in 2011.
The partnership with CSPV has been transformational in my understanding of violence prevention. CSPV is truly pioneering new methods for how the arts can support violence prevention initiatives and help build flourishing, vibrant communities.
Our History
The SCSS Model was developed with funding from the Colorado Trust by multiple stakeholders in 1999 following the tragedy at Columbine High School. The SCSS Model’s first iteration was an actionable process for schools that integrated the Columbine Commission’s recommendations, violence prevention efforts, evidence-based programs, and prevention science to improve school safety and climate.
From 2008-2012, CSPV received funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for the development of auto-generated reports for the SCSS School Climate Surveys. To date, the SCSS School Climate Surveys are a mainstay of the SCSS Model and have been provided to nearly 200 schools nationwide.
