These past few school years have been tough for our students, educators, and families overall. From COVID learning disruptions to teacher shortages and persisting school safety issues. Our nation wants to make sure students are “on track” and set up for success, but that can be hard to do when their safety is often put into question.
When your safety is in jeopardy, it can be hard for educators to focus on teaching and students to learn. To combat this issue, we have seen many districts create safety plans that utilize training, technology tools, and law enforcement to create a robust system. Unfortunately, situations still occur in our schools and our districts are provided little to no guidance from our government on best practices for school safety.
As we begin the new school year, we hope to see school safety legislation introduced and passed in more states and on a federal level, as well as creating safer learning environments to combat teacher shortages and student learning disruptions.
Prioritizing school safety will play a major role in mitigating the national teacher shortage.
Schools nationwide have been grappling with the profound impact of the ongoing teacher shortage, a crisis that has been further exacerbated by the pandemic. From student behavior issues to limited resources and funding, teachers have faced a multitude of challenges on a daily basis. One key issue that has come to the forefront for educators is school safety.
According to a recent survey, workplace safety is a major priority for current teachers. In the 2023-24 school year, we will see our districts work towards reshaping how we protect and support our teachers in an effort to end the national shortage. As we know, safer schools are better schools — leading to greater teacher satisfaction and retention, and overall student achievement.
This upcoming school year, our schools will invest in solutions that will protect everyone on campus and allow educators to focus on teaching their students. As we place a renewed emphasis on prioritizing school safety, we acknowledge that it is a pivotal step toward addressing the critical shortage of teachers nationwide. By proactively addressing the challenges faced by educators and ensuring secure learning environments, we can pave the way for a brighter future in education.
School safety legislation will advance on the state and federal stage.
As we approach the 2023-24 school year, we will see states from both sides of the political spectrum pass legislation that will enforce more funding and resources towards protecting our
schools. This past school year, we saw New Jersey and Virginia, among others, invest millions into digital maps of school campuses that local law enforcement would have access to in the event of an emergency. In the next school year, we will see even more states invest in digitized mapping as a means to protect our schools.
We also saw Alyssa’s Law, which requires public elementary and secondary schools to install silent panic alarms, introduced and passed in many states from Texas to New York and Florida. Alyssa’s Law, or otherwise known as Alyssa’s Act, has been introduced at the federal level, but in the 2023-24 school year we hope to see this passed and put into action by our federal government — enforcing this law and protecting our schools nationwide.
This upcoming school year, we look forward to continuing the conversation around school safety and learning together how we can make our schools safe for all, and ultimately empower teachers and build student success.
