Feb 5

Written by: Bret Rachlin
2/5/2010 5:22 PM

Two weeks ago this blog highlighted the challenges schools have when reporting safety and security incidents. While that article dealt with a Maryland school district, it’s apparent that Pennsylvania schools grapple with the same issue (Source: readingeagle.com, February 1, 2010, School safety reports imperfect, Berks educators agree).

This article explains how a conservative school district may appear to have more incidents per student because it reports more incidents, but that it doesn’t mean that it’s more unsafe. In fact, it may be safer due to its focus on identifying issues and resolving them. People reviewing the reports should not jump to conclusions. Frank Vecchio, Reading’s acting superintendent, said it best, “You have to be careful with the data.”

Overall, the school administrators’ comments in the article about the issue of incident reporting data represent a pragmatic view that the data should be taken in context, helping to reveal trends rather than trying to compare schools to one another. While some educators would like to have a system that supports an incident reporting system with rigid definitions, that should not be the goal. Ultimately, incident reporting requires subjectivity on behalf of the people doing the reports. Certainly they could report incidents based on guidelines like they are doing now, but the goal should be safe learning environments, not a perfect reporting system. Additionally, schools across the state of Pennsylvania (and across the country) are all unique, since they have different students from distinct communities. Of course, many problems schools face are similar across the country, but they are often dealt with in different ways to mitigate and reduce the number of incidents. It’s imperative that school leaders recognize that their safety and security programs are tailored for the specific issues of each school district.

Does your district focus more on how you report incidents vs. developing innovative ways to reduce them?

Tags: