Client: Originally the U.S. Department of Defense; now school districts throughout the United States Challenge: Protect children by working with school authorities to provide the training and tools necessary to implement a comprehensive safe school planning strategy Solution: Using a collaborative approach that involves school leaders and the community, the CSC Safe Schools program provides a wide range of training exercises, learning materials and support services. This enables schools to take active measures to reduce the likelihood of violence and respond to it effectively when it occurs. Results: Nineteen U.S. school districts have adopted Safe Schools, and interest in the program continues to grow. In addition, more than 5,000 individual schools in the U.S. and Canada have purchased the Safe Schools Handbook and implemented its central concepts; the Bureau of Indian Affairs has purchased over 200 of them. Thanks to the program, Sissonville High School in West Virginia was able to respond to threats from a gunman calmly and effectively — and resume a normal school day an hour later. Related Information Find out more about the CSC Safe Schools program. Explore CSC’s full-spectrum security services. Learn more about CSC’s identity management and credentialing services. Read a feature story about the Safe Schools program. Contact us and let our experience help you produce results.

"Because of the training, and especially the full-scale exercise that we ran at the high school, the student body and staff handled an emergency situation with ease and confidence. We're lucky. I wish every school could have this training."

Dave Reaser, assistant principal of Sissonville High School in Kanawha County, W.V.


From disgruntled students to armed intruders and hostage takers, schools today confront the specter of violence in ways that are more serious than ever before.

Traditional and simpler approaches to school security are no longer effective in this new climate. What is needed is a comprehensive security plan that addresses every aspect of the risk and gives school administrators the tools they need to respond to, or better still, prevent the violence.

Safety Begins with Preparedness
CSC’s Safe Schools program offers training exercises, learning materials and support services to school leaders throughout the United States, teaching them how to respond in an emergency. Through extensive planning, exercises and simulations, Safe Schools prepares school personnel to face potentially serious situations effectively.

The program began as a Department of Defense initiative to protect DoD schools in the United States and eight other countries. As of early 2007, it had widened to include 19 U.S. school districts, according to CSC’s Safe Schools program director Bob Michela. "Interest in the program is on the rise," Michela noted in a Fall 2006 interview. "CSC has begun working with representatives from Stafford County Public Schools in Virginia on an 18-month program to implement a safe school planning strategy." He also reported that public schools in Texas and Kansas were pursuing funding to partner with the Safe Schools program.


Risk Reduction and Incident Response
In a balanced approach, CSC’s Safe Schools program emphasizes risk reduction as well as incident response. All stakeholders are identified and included in the planning phase. School administrators learn how to prevent violence and reduce the risk of an incident occurring.

Recognizing that effective incident response requires collaboration between school officials and emergency responders, Safe Schools brings principals together with law enforcement, emergency medical services, and other emergency responders. The program also provides school officials with the tools needed to assess their security vulnerabilities by conducting training, visiting schools, leading community forums, and facilitating drills and full-scale exercises.

Sissonville High School: Demonstrating the Power of Safe Schools
Perhaps the best example of the program’s success is Sissonville High School in the Kanawha County school district of West Virginia, where the county had adopted Safe Schools for its 73 elementary and secondary schools. The Kanawha County program included a five-hour simulation of a hostage incident at Sissonville High School.

Four months after the simulation, the theoretical turned frighteningly real: A young man with a gun threatened to kill a student as she waited for a bus outside the school. Thanks to the Safe Schools training, school administrators knew immediately what to do. As a result, the young man was disarmed and arrested, the girl was unharmed, and a normal school day resumed after little more than one hour. (Read the whole story.)

Safety by the Book
As part of the training, CSC provides a comprehensive handbook that supports schools in implementing the Safe School plan. In addition to the school districts that participate in the Safe Schools program, more than 5,000 individual schools in the U.S. and Canada have purchased this handbook and implemented its central concepts; the Bureau of Indian Affairs has purchased over 200 of them. CSC also sends out a monthly newsletter with information on security policies and prevention programs, and provides a 24/7 contact number to enable schools to reach a CSC security consultant at any time.


Identity Management and Credentialing
At the request of schools, CSC can also provide identity management and credentialing services to support the Safe Schools program, including access control through technologies such as tokens and smart cards, and advanced credentialing and authentication technologies to grant entry to authorized personnel while blocking unauthorized personnel.