WFIS participated in the first of two OSPI school safety meetings on Thursday, October 6 in Tacoma. The meeting brought together statewide ESD’s, legislators, OSPI personnel and various educational groups committed to providing the best in school safety for Washington’s students.The meetings are focused on defining the best safety measures and figuring out how to fund them.
Mike Donlin, the Program Supervisor for the School Safety Center at OSPI, led the meeting by affirming a shared commitment to all in attendance – “We are here today for ALL of Washington’s kids. Public and private school children.”
Attendees were introduced to current safety-related initiatives, activities and programs with a review of funding resources for efforts that are being used, may become available and are coming to a close. The tasks of SB 6620 are to establish a statewide plan for funding school safety; monitor the progress of a statewide plan; and implement efforts to train school safety professionals integrating mental health services and security measures. Not small task!
An analysis of what school safety will cost is being conducted in an expansive study by Sean Spellecy’s team at New Dawn Security. WFIS member schools have had the advantage of participating in New Dawn’s webinars throughout the summer of 2016, and many schools have already implemented campus reviews and customized programs with New Dawn. Sean and his team will be presenting at the first Private School Safety Summit hosted in Seattle on February 23, 2017 by WFIS.
WFIS’s goal is to connect private schools to all possible safety systems as the state is developing them to ensure that our students are equally protected.
