Table of Contents
Letter
Dear Principal and Teachers:
On June 13, after the tragic loss of life and injuries at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, President Clinton directed the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to develop an early warning guide to help "adults reach out to troubled children quickly and effectively." This guide responds to that Presidential request. It is our sincere hope that this guide will provide you with the practical help needed to keep every child in your school out of harm's way.
America's schools are among the safest places to be on a day-to-day basis, due to the strong commitment of educators, parents, and communities to their children. Nevertheless, last year's tragic and sudden acts of violence in our nation's schools remind us that no community can be complacent in its efforts to make its schools even safer. An effective and safe school is the vital center of every community whether it is in a large urban area or a small rural community.
Central to this guide are the key insights that keeping children safe is a community-wide effort and that effective schools create environments where children and young people truly feel connected. This is why our common goal must be to reconnect with every child and particularly with those young people who are isolated and troubled.
This guide should be seen as part of an overall effort to make sure that every school in this nation has a comprehensive violence prevention plan in place. We also caution you to recognize that over labeling and using this guide to stigmatize children in a cursory way that leads to over-reaction is harmful. The guidelines in this report are based on research and the positive experiences of schools around the country where the value and potential of each and every child is cherished and where good practices have produced, and continue to produce, successful students and communities.
We are grateful to the many experts, agencies, and associations in education, law enforcement, juvenile justice, mental health, and other social services that worked closely with us to make sure that this report is available for the start of school this fall. We hope that you and your students and staff, as well as parents and the community, will benefit from this information.
Sincerely,
Richard W. Riley
Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
Janet Reno
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
The full text of this public domain publication is available at the Department's home page at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/earlywrn.html and in alternate formats upon request. For more information, please contact us at:
U.S. Department of Education
Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
Room 3131 Mary E. Switzer Building
Washington, D.C. 20202-2524
Email: David_Summers@ed.gov
Telephone: (202)205-9043
TDD: (202)205-5465
FIRS 1-800-877-8339,
8 a.m. - 8 p.m., ET, M-F
This guide was produced by the Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice of the American Institutes for Research in collaboration with the National Association of School Psychologists, under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs (grant# H237T60005).
The development of this guide was supported by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, Office of Special Education Programs, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Dissemination of the guide was supported by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program.
Dwyer, K., Osher, D., and Warger, C. (1998). Early warning, timely response: A guide to safe schools. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
August 1998
