Emergency Response Grant

Emergency Response Grant Update 

The first six months of the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES Emergency Response Grant ended on March 31, 2004.  The Planning Phase, from October 2004 to December 2004, included visitations to all district superintendents, arrangements for trainings in Positive Approaches to School Discipline and in Critical Incident Debriefing and Trauma Response conducted by nationally acclaimed presenters.  Also regional training programs in Victims of Violence, Debriefing, Threat Assessment and De-escalation were designed, scheduled, and publicized.  District Safety Coordinators began meeting in preparation for program implementation on a district level.

The mitigation phase of the Emergency Response Grant began in earnest in December of 2003 and continued for the next three months.  The major task was the completion of uniform school safety evaluations of all ninety-two schools in the BOCES region.  These evaluations helped to establish base-line information about the level of safety of schools, capacity of staff to prevent and intervene in crisis situations and the readiness of school personnel to respond to emergency events.  During this phase two other significant activities began.  The first was the initiation of school safety prevention and intervention training programs designed to improve staff knowledge about and skills in creating safer school settings.  The second set of activities focused on mobilizing component groups, (the Regional Crisis Team, Regional Youth Leadership Team, Character Education Study group, and Community Partners) to assist in supporting grant goals.  In all over a thousand professional staff from eighteen component districts and agencies took part in meetings, activities, and trainings sponsored by the Emergency Response Grant.

The Preparation Phase focused on two of the cornerstones of the Emergency Response Grant - preparing School-based Emergency Response Teams in every school to plan and practice their response to emergency situations and training District Safety Planning Teams to systematically recognize, assess and evaluate levels of school safety and plan strategies to prevent and manage issues of school violence.   Together they provide the foundation for schools to move forward into the final year of the Emergency Response and School Safety Grant.