What to Look for in Leading School Safety & Wellbeing Trainings: A Checklist for Prevention Measure When it Comes to School Safety
Your checklist for evaluating student safety & wellbeing programming that's current, accessible, and built to last.
Introduction
Student training is a powerful prevention measure when it comes to school safety. The right resources, education, and support empower students to seek help for themselves or their peers in difficult moments.
The impact of the right programming is clear. Yet, in reality, finding the right resources isn’t so straightforward. As a result: Does your school system rely on outdated training that lack current best practices? Do you find up-to-date programming, only to struggle with access and onboarding?
It can be difficult to find a relevant training curriculum that meets students where they’re at, and that’s easy to implement on a busy schedule.
Luckily, there are industry-leading options that are both current and instantly accessible.
Read on for a checklist of what to look for in industry-leading safety & wellbeing training, and how you can launch the best curriculum as quickly as possible.
01 | Up-to-Date, Expert-Driven Cirriculum
Too many schools rely on outdated curriculum from the last few decades. It’s important to select programming that’s relevant, up-to-date, and expert-driven to meet students where they are at.
Specifics to Look For:
- Expert-Updated Curriculum: Review input from schools, experts, researchers on critical topics that foster safety and personal growth.
- CASEL & Governmental Standards Alignment: Seek out content that aligns with CASEL standards and learning objectives published by state and federal education boards.
- Targeted Grade-Level Learning: Look for content tailored to grade levels 5-8, 9-12.
- Current Training Topics: Ensure programming includes a selection of relevant topics that are updated to speak to today’s students. Examples below.
Relevant Training Offerings Can Include:
- SEL & Wellness: Build student self-awareness, relationship, decision-making, self-management, and social awareness skills for better learning and fewer behavioral issues.
- Topics include: Mental Health & Wellness 101; Abuse & Addiction; Stress & Anxiety Management; Self-Control & Anger Management
- School Safety: Teach students warning signs and actions to take to protect their school, classmates, and themselves.
- Topics include: Suicide Prevention; Sexual Abuse & Molestation; Creating Connected & Inclusive Cultures; How to Recognize the Warning Signs of At-Risk Behavior
- Trauma-Informed Care: Teach students about trauma: What does it look like? How and why does it happen? How can we manage it?
- Topics include: Brain Basics; Resiliency & Coping Skills; Restorative Justice Teaching Empathy & Compassion
02 | Instant-Access Learning on a Simple LMS
Digital learning helps you offer more resources to more students. Ideally, online learning — often in the form of video modules — combines with in-class or hybrid learning for maximum impact.
Yet, digital access issues can get in the way of even the best programming. It’s important to assess the learning management system (LMS) the training curriculum is offered on. Your training shouldn’t just be up-to-date with the latest best practices — it needs to be instantly accessible and scalable, too.
Programs should be housed on an LMS that integrates seamlessly with your school’s technology, and that facilitates rapid set-up for instructors and instant access for learners.
Specifics to Look For:
- Fast Access (<10-Min Setup): Ask about fast set-up time that takes 10 minutes or less without requiring a lot of time or information.
- Simplified LMS: Seek out an LMS that doesn’t complicate finding the right topic and sharing with students. Look for turnkey reporting for quick insights into course completion.
- Security & Privacy Protections: Check that the learning network provides the highest level of security, privacy, and compliance.
03 | Flexible Instruction Options
Every classroom has different individual, group, and blended learning needs. It’s important digital learning can adapt to these needs, and be combined with other materials for maximum impact on student learning.
Specifics to Look For:
- Short-Form Content (20-25 Mins): Look for content that is broken into 20-25 minute sections to meet class time and ideal student attention span.
- Multi-Purpose Platform: Consider programming that works with any internet-connected device, and is adapted for classroom, advisory, assembly-based learning, or assigned to students as a self-directed activity.
- Links to Share: Assess content — and LMS capabilities — for the ability to share training links with students.
- Individual & Collaborative Activities: Seek out learning with individual and collaborative activities like worksheets and discussions that move students from fact recall to application, analysis, and evaluation stages for long-term impact.
04 | Sustainability Efforts
If you want to create a safer, healthier school, it’s important your education efforts are sustainable and front-of-mind for students, staff and administrators.
Another critical aspect of successful safety and wellness training is the presence of a sustainability program — ideally supported by a dedicated account specialist — that ensures long-term buy-in and safety in your school.
Specifics to Look For:
- Sustainability Program: Go with a partner that provides a sustainability program to keep safety training and prevention measures strong in your school.
- Webinars, Trainings, Refreshes: Seek out a partner that offers annual refreshes and webinars, trainings, and other resources your administrators need to stay on top of best practices.
- Account Specialist Support: Ensure your partner provides you with a dedicated account specialist who can manage every step of the program from setup to annual refreshes.
05 | Expert Account Support
Training programs are only as good as the expert support your administrators receive from the start of onboarding through yearly refreshes.
It’s important to seek out expert support with your safety and wellness curriculum to ensure seamless onboarding, training, and sustainability.
Specifics to Look For:
- Included Account Specialist: Go with a partner that provides a sustainability program to keep safety training and prevention measures strong in your school.
- Onboarding Program: Seek out a partner that offers annual refreshes and webinars, trainings, and other resources your administrators need to stay on top of best practices.
- Data Reporting Support: Ensure your partner provides you with a dedicated account specialist who can manage every step of the program from setup to annual refreshes.
- Partners like STOPit Solutions take pride in creating training curriculum that supports students and administrators with industry-leading learning and easy-access technology. STOPit believes better student safety and wellbeing training is possible with the right industry-leading support, content, and technology.
