Best Practices
Bullying Prevention and Intervention The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiatives highlighted in this report illustrate a variety of innovative and noteworthy approaches to the problem of bullying. This report presents brief descriptions—“snapshots”—of bullying prevention efforts from SS/HS communities across the country and highlights key themes that contribute to their success.Over the past decade, what we know about bullying has increased dramatically. Through research and best practices, we now have the knowledge, tools, and strategies to ensure that students are safe to learn in bullying-free environments.
SS/HS sites serve as models of effective bullying... |
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Good Behavior Game As part of a 1-year pilot funded by SAMSHA, eight SS/HS sites began implementing the PAXIS Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) in November 2012. The pilot is supported with training and technical support from the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention and the PAXIS Institute (PAXIS). The National Center provides ongoing technical support through bi-monthly meetings, webinars, site visits, and tip sheets. During the first round of implementation, 17 coaches and 94 teachers were trained to implement PAX GBG across 79 classrooms. Classroom data from November 2012 to February 2013 suggested student misbehavior decreased significantly in implementing classrooms across the eight sites. Reflecting this early success, the pilot expanded to 76 new classrooms in March 2013. Because of the 1-Year SS/HS Pilot of GBG, over 2,000 students will regularly play the PAXIS Good... |
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Mentoring Mentoring, the pairing of an experienced person with a less-experienced person, is a long-standing strategy for personal development. Contemporary mentoring programs match vulnerable young people with caring adults to build positive behavioral, social, and academic performance outcomes. Mentoring currently enjoys significant attention and support, which has yielded new research on the efficacy of this intervention strategy, as well as best practices. While current evaluations demonstrate modest effects, the research has identified critical practices across the various program models that contribute to more consistent results. To the right are a number of organizations and Web site resources to assist with developing and managing effective school-based and community-based mentoring programs. These resources include information on both developing and managing mentoring programs. |
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Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
This Snapshot features how seven Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) sites have modified PBIS to meet the needs of their students in unique and innovative ways such as in alternative high schools and by integrating PBIS into other initiatives such as alcohol and other drug prevention and... |
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Restorative Justice Today’s model of restorative justice/restorative practices is founded on centuries-old American Indian/Alaskan Native peacemaking systems. Restorative justice/restorative practices is a strengths-based approach that can be utilized in guiding schools and communities to a values-based approach to responding to wrongdoing and conflict and a way of repairing harm to an individual and the community. Restorative justice is cylindrical in nature, with a balanced focus on the person harmed, the person causing the harm, and the affected community. Restorative justice/restorative practices is not based on legal philosophies or techniques; it is a way of thinking—or being with each other. Restorative justice/restorative practices has become a best practice in many communities because its dynamics of participatory democracy, talking things out, consensus building, and respect-based communication have moved from the school and courthouse settings to an internalized habit in the people who have... |
School Mental Health
This snapshot highlights key characteristics of effective school mental health (SMH) and the strategies that 13 federally funded Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees from Fiscal Years have used to build and sustain comprehensive mental health programs.
Students who are mentally healthy come to school ready to learn, to develop academic and social skills, and to contribute to a positive school environment. They possess a strong sense of self, respect for others, and the ability to express a range of emotions constructively and appropriately. Taken together, these traits enable children and adolescents to thrive in schools and beyond.
Since children spend many of their waking hours in school, schools are... |
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School Resource Officers Safer schools are a key outcome for SS/HS sites. SS/HS law enforcement partners often use school resource officers (SROs) as an effective strategy for increasing school safety. SROs will be most successful when
SROs can have many roles:
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Stories of Sustainability
Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) funds are meant to spark positive system changes in schools and communities by providing the infrastructure and resources to establish cross-sector partnerships, identify and implement effective programming, and institutionalize long-term improvements over time. Sustainability is a major focus of the grant program, and grantees are encouraged to plan for sustainability from their first day of... |
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Supportive School Discipline
A number of approaches to supportive school discipline have been shown to increase school safety without increasing suspensions and expulsions. One such initiative is Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS), a cross-agency collaboration among the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Launched in 1999 in response to a national increase in school shootings, SS/HS addresses the underlying factors... |
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based model that provides a schoolwide systematic approach to preventing and improving problem behaviors and creating a positive school climate. PBIS implementation requires a careful balance of fidelity and adaptation. Its messages may be tailored for individual schools, different age groups, and different settings within the school. The adaptability of PBIS also allows for innovation.
In 2012, the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention set out to discover how Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) grantees from the 1999–2006 fiscal year (FY) cohorts had been able to sustain major components of their SS/HS work after the end of their funding.
Supportive school discipline is a systemic constellation of programs and practices that promote positive behaviors while preventing negative or risky behaviors. It is positive rather than punitive, and aims to create a safe learning environment that enhances all students’ outcomes.
