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In response to a critical need for uniform school crisis preparedness and response efforts across districts, the National Association of School Psychologists developed PREPaRE, a model and training curriculum aimed to equip school-based professionals to engage in comprehensive school crisis prevention and intervention practices. The PREPaRE acronym stands for: Prevent/Prepare for psychological trauma; Reaffirm physical health, security, and safety; Evaluate psychological trauma; Provide interventions (and) Respond to psychological needs; and Examine the effectiveness of prevention and intervention efforts. The model spans four crisis preparedness phases: Prevention, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. This chapter provides a detailed overview of the development and structure of the PREPaRE model's core components and the organizational framework of the Incident Command System. It delineates elements of the basic school crisis response plan, assessment of mental health risk following a crisis event, and the provision of crisis interventions within a multitiered system of support framework. Additionally, it summarizes ongoing effectiveness and implementation research used to evaluate and improve the model based on immediate training outcomes assessed through pre and postmeasures and training transfer to applied school contexts. Implications for research and public policy regarding school safety and crisis prevention and intervention, as well as the future of PREPaRE curriculum development, are discussed.

In the current study, the researchers tracked the steps that were taken (in the past 20 years after the occurrence of the 921 earthquake) to enhance the safety of students and teachers on campus by rebuilding the schools according to higher standards. Additionally, the researchers analyzed the process of school reconstruction in Taiwan after the Chi-Chi earthquake, as well as the resilience of the rebuilt schools.

This paper collected extensive relevant literature to serve as a basis for data analysis. Subsequently, they examined the conditions of selected schools before and after they were affected by the earthquake, as well as the reconstruction process of these schools. The purposive sampling method was also adopted to assemble a unique and representative sample.

This study concluded a new disaster risk reduction education system in Taiwan, from safe learning facilities, school disaster management and risk reduction and resilience education perspectives. It encouraged school and community collaboration regarding establishing a comprehensive disaster management framework.

The paper kept tracks of how schools recovered and restored after the 921 earthquake based on global disaster management trends and local disaster risk reduction education. It also highlighted the major changes within the school resilience system and the importance of disaster risk reduction education in Taiwan.

Purpose – In the midst of the second wave of data collection for a Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) research project, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This tragic incident provoked responses across the United States, including intense political discourse, organized student protests, and active shooter drills. In order to assess the potential influence of a major threat to school safety on the perceptions of adolescents, this chapter analyzes the survey responses of middle and high school students in St. Louis County.

Methodology/approach – Approximately one-third of the sample was surveyed prior to the shooting and the remaining students completed surveys within three months after the shooting. The authors examines the potential influence of the shooting on students’ reports on a number of school safety issues, including fear and perceived risk of victimization, likelihood of reporting guns on campus, and engaging in avoidance behaviors.

Findings – Results indicate that the shooting significantly influenced students’ perceptions of school disorder and likelihood of reporting a weapon at school, especially in white, less disadvantaged schools. The results also reflect meaningful effects based on the timing of data collection post-shooting, with many of the significant changes appearing within three weeks after February 14, 2018.

Originality/value – This study explores how external events may influence student perceptions of school safety. Moreover, this study offers a methodological contribution by demonstrating an assessment of the Parkland shooting as a potential threat to internal validity.

Schools are vulnerable to strong-magnitude earthquakes. The purpose of this study is to develop a seismic evacuation safety index (ESI) to assess school’s safety as a function of the following parameters: means of egress, disaster preparedness and disaster response. Moreover, the study aims to simulate and study an evacuation model to estimate evacuation time for a realistic understanding of the evacuation processes.

The paper used a semi-quantitative risk assessment method in developing the ESI. This was used to evaluate schools and classify them according to their level of evacuation safety. To estimate the evacuation time of each school, cellular automata theory and static floor field were used.

The paper provides primary school stakeholders important parameters that they should consider in preparing pre-disaster plans to ensure safe evacuation of school children.

ESI focuses only on the means of egress, disaster preparedness and disaster response as the contributing factors. The structural conditions of each school building and assessment of non-structural elements are not considered.

The ESI and the evacuation model can be used as a basis for evacuation planning and decision-making. This can help building owners and administrators in strengthening their disaster risk management plan by enforcing mitigating measures.

ESI is an original idea and fills the gap regarding the safe evacuation of school children especially during a major seismic event.

We describe a holistic approach to promoting school safety that merges an emphasis on student voice with staff training in restorative practices. We first describe current approaches to keeping schools safe based on the existing research literature. Given that most of these approaches rely on access to credible information about potential threats to school safety, we then discuss student voices as one critical source of information, especially at the middle and high school level. We report on a recently developed tool designed to encourage students to share threats to school safety they are aware of with adults. Initial testing identified potential barriers and facilitators to students' willingness to share information. We discuss teacher training in restorative practices as one approach that might address some of these barriers, including anti-snitching cultures in schools, students' lack of trust in adult responses to student-identified concerns, and punitive school climates. Based on recent work, we identify barriers and facilitators to implementing restorative practices in schools. We provide recommendations about potential strategies to merge student voice with school personnel's training in restorative practices to minimize peer victimization that can escalate into violent behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to use an inclusive lens to explore pathways and considers, through the voices of children and adult participants, the complexities in implementing effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) in schools comprising children with disabilities. It identifies obstacles and suggests policy recommendations that consider their needs in DRR.

This paper draws on a case study of two schools supporting children with disabilities in the New Zealand regions of Hawke’s Bay and Auckland, each with differing experiences of past natural hazards and disasters. Data from children’s workshop activities, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, workshop photographs, school safety and policy documents were coded in Nvivo software to categorize data and to identify themes for cross-case analysis and discussion.

The research reveals three key pathways that schools can take in promoting inclusiveness in DRR. They are the provision of safe and accessible school building designs and facilities, avenues for children’s involvement and leadership in DRR initiatives, and in decision-making processes. Schools also offer opportunities for a collaborative effort towards inclusiveness in DRR within the school and with other stakeholders.

Based on the findings, the paper suggests four broad policy recommendations for consideration towards strengthening the role of schools in disability-inclusive DRR.

The paper contributes to ongoing DRR efforts and adds new information to the disaster literature on the role of schools in disability-inclusive DRR.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an assessment of seismic structural vulnerability of a sample of public schools using Lang survey questionnaire. The structural integrity of public schools in Lebanon is a source of deep concern due to their outdated design and deteriorated status, their apparent lack of compliance with seismic design regulations, the unknown status of their safety and stability, their substandard maintenance and their low construction quality. These schools have not undergone any strengthening improvements to enhance their load-carrying capacity or their resistance to earthquake activity.

This paper is based on survey questionnaire illustrating the seismic risk exposure of public schools in Lebanon. It offers an assessment of seismic structural vulnerability of a sample of public schools using Lang survey questionnaire. It stresses the needs of retrofitting of public school buildings to enhance their functional capacities against future destructive earthquakes.

The findings of the survey emphasize the seismic structural vulnerability of the majority of public schools in Lebanon and call for deeper assessment and investigation that involve government officials for strengthening and retrofitting of public school buildings as part of holistic disaster risk-reduction strategy to prevent the induced serious risk to children in the event of a devastating earthquake.

This article should alert school administrators, public leaders and government officials regarding the seismic threats and their subsequent effects on the structural safety of public school buildings in Lebanon. The assessment of seismic structural vulnerability has rarely been performed or even discussed in the Lebanese-related literature.

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) researchers and practitioners have found that schools can play a critical role in DRR education, with many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) developing initiatives to actively involve children in DRR education programs. This paper reports on a case study on an innovative Chinese NGO school-based program focused on participatory child-centered DRR (PCC-DRR) education, from which a PCC-DRR education framework was developed so that similar programs could be replicated, especially in developing countries.

After nearly a year of research involving follow-up interviews, fieldwork and secondary data collection from annual reports, news reports and official websites, a case study was conducted on the PCC-DRR education program developed by the One Foundation (OF), a resource-rich NGO in China, that focused on its education strategies and project practice in Ya'an following the 2013 Lushan earthquake.

Based on constructivist theory, the OF developed a PCC-DRR education program that had four specific branches: teacher capacity building, child DRR education, campus risk management and campus safety culture, which was then implemented in 115 schools and consequently evaluated as being highly effective.

The innovative OF PCC-DRR education program adds to theoretical and practical DRR education research as a “best practice” case. Because the proposed framework is child-centered, participatory and collaborative, it provides excellent guidance and reference for countries seeking to develop school-based DRR education programs.

This study aims to test the mediated effect of school climate in the relationship of principal time use (PTU) to student academic achievement using data from Singapore's 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

Capitalizing on the large-scale data, the study examined how Singapore principals distributed their time across 13 leadership activities and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) how Singapore principals' time use was related to student achievement through molding intermediate school conditions, such as school climate.

The authors' findings suggest that Singaporean principals, when allocating time, generally emphasized (1) monitoring students' learning progress, (2) promoting school vision, (3) developing curricular goals and (4) monitoring teachers in areas related to curricular goals. Furthermore, after classifying the 13 principal activities into three broad domains, the authors find that Singaporean principals prioritize the domain of vision and goals over the other two domains – facilitating teaching and learning through a safe, positive school environment and problem-solving with teachers, as well as self and organizational improvement. Finally, the authors' SEM manifested a partial mediated model, suggesting principals' strategic time use could serve as a malleable factor in yielding optimal student outcomes through developing a positive school climate.

This study at present is one of the early attempts linking PTU, intermediate school conditions (e.g. school climate) and student outcomes using a mediated design and corresponding statistical modeling.