OSPI staff shared updates on statewide school safety data collection, noting limitations. While districts report having Comprehensive School Safety Plans, threat assessment programs, and student wellbeing plans, OSPI does not collect the plans themselves and lacks data on how often interventions occur or their outcomes. Safety staffing data (district staff, SROs, private security) is collected at a high level but cannot be linked to training, incidents, or individual roles.
Weapons incident reporting continues for both public and private schools, with 2022–23 marking a four-year high followed by a decline over the past two years. Most incidents do not involve firearms, and little contextual information is collected. Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB) reporting by public schools remains limited to policy documentation and exclusionary discipline data; adult-to-student incidents are handled separately through HR processes and are not captured systemwide.
Educational Service Districts (ESDs) highlighted their role as Regional School Safety Centers supporting prevention, threat assessment, behavioral health navigation, and response planning. Washington has adopted the Salem-Keizer Cascade Threat Assessment Model, a two-tiered system that emphasizes early intervention and community-level response for high-risk cases. ESDs provide training on crisis response, de-escalation, and identifying swatting and hoax threats, which have increased statewide. Private schools can access all supports offered at their ESD.
Breakout discussions underscored data gaps, staffing losses due to budget constraints, and the need for stronger coordination across agencies. In the two breakout sessions that WFIS participated in, discussions occurred about how HIB incident data does not currently follow students through grade levels and about when schools use the WA state sample HIB form.
The meeting concluded with an update from the Gang Task Force Subcommittee, which is advancing pilot grants and recommendations focused on mentorship and cross-sector partnerships.
