The Essentials for Budgeting Time and Money for Your School Safety Program

Two of the biggest challenges related to school safety are time and money. The solution to both problems is setting priorities and including them in your budgeting of time and money. This step is crucial, as it ensures that safety needs are not overlooked or underfunded, thereby enhancing the overall safety of your school.

While I am not a budgeting expert, I understand that budgeting without a well-thought-out plan leaves challenging issues to wait for another budgeting cycle. Like every other aspect of school operations and planning, safety funding requires a well-thought-out plan to fully fund all safety needs. This plan is not just a task but a roadmap that we all share to ensure the safety of our school community. Like every other aspect of school safety, this plan starts with assessing your vulnerabilities to identify what you have and need. Once you have identified your needs, you need to prioritize those needs, determine the costs, and create a plan to pay for them. This plan allows you to budget confidently and ensure your school's safety.

Funding school safety can be challenging and expensive. This is especially true if you start from scratch or have only a few safety measures. However, if we don’t start with a plan, we will never achieve the level of safety and security our schools deserve and communities demand. As discussed previously, our School Safety Directors are not just part of the process; they are integral to it. They should sit at the cabinet level and be present in every meeting where budgeting and scheduling are discussed. Their insights and expertise are invaluable. The budgeting of time is just as important, if not more important, than the budgeting of funds. Every school has a business cycle. After the start of the school year, once all of the problems have been resolved, school and district administrators begin the long process of planning for the next school year. If we don’t allow our safety leadership to participate in these processes actively, you will be another year behind in protecting the safety of your schools.

Remember that all your school safety efforts must follow the “3 Pillars of School Safety:” Policies, People, and Systems/Processes. Budgeting and time allotment are no different. You must have policies that drive funding and scheduling to develop and allow for a robust school safety and security program. Your people (students, staff, families, and communities) must be integral to your safety. You must also have systems and processes in place to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Here are a few of the essential aspects of a robust school safety program that should be considered while budgeting both time and money for your safety program:

Policies and procedures:
- Define roles, responsibilities, and expectations.
- Define authorities to enforce policies and procedures and the consequences for failing to do so.
- Establish training schedules, cycles, and expectations.
- Scheduling of drills, their types, and expectations.
- Define the roles, responsibilities, and expectations for all safety teams at every level.
- Establish funding sources and processes.
- ETC.

People:
- Ensure all your stakeholders are trained to the level that meets your expectations and know how to get them there should they still need to meet expectations.
- Develop staff members interested in school safety to become part of the sustainability program through succession planning and training.
- Develop a program that fosters a strong and sustainable safety culture.

Systems/Processes:
- Develop a process for the implementation of your safety program.
- Develop a process for improvement of your safety program through an after-action review process.
- Complete a security and safety assessment program to continually assess your capabilities and identify gaps.
- Invest in security systems that enhance your ability to alert, communicate, and manage emergencies.
- Focus on systems that address your schools' and districts' internal and external aspects.
- Invest in your people’s ability to handle all aspects of your safety program first, then move to security systems. Technology is of little help if your people don’t know how to respond without technology.

Budgeting for school safety includes not only the costs associated with safety but also the time needed to ensure your staff is fully trained to effectively engage in the entire school safety program.