New training standards for safety and security coordinators, staff released
The PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) and the School Safety and Security Committee (SSSC) recently adopted and released two sets of training standards for school safety and security coordinators and for school staff. The standards were developed pursuant to Act 55 of 2022 and are designed to set a baseline for each topic. Please note that they are guidance and are not the training as required by law; those trainings have not yet been developed by the PCCD and SSSC. PSBA President David Hein is PSBA’s representative on the SSSC.
- Training for school safety and security coordinators: Click here to access the approved Criteria for School Safety and Security Coordinators. Act 55 requires all school safety and security coordinators to complete up to seven hours of training within one year of their appointment as the coordinator. The PCCD and the SSSC intend to develop and offer the training that meets these criteria and will seek to develop a training curriculum and training process over the next several months. Once the training is publicly available, newly appointed school safety and security coordinators will have one year to complete the mandatory training.
- Training for school employees: Click here to access the new School Safety and Security Training Standards for all school employees. Under Act 44 of 2018 and Act 55 of 2022, school entities are responsible for providing their employees with the mandatory training on school safety and security subjects based on the needs of the school entity. Prior to the passage of Act 55, training was limited to three hours of instruction every five years. Act 55 amended this requirement to three hours of instruction annually and requires that the training provided meet these standards. Please see the standards for more information on training topics and the training process. The PCCD and the SSSC have the additional responsibility of providing training that meets these standards in a geographically disbursed manner and free of charge to school entities. PCCD and the SSSC intend to develop these trainings over the next few months.
The PSBA post-conference event, Connections: School Safety + Mental Health, will cover the new training standards.