FY 2021 BJA STOP School Violence - University of Nebraska

The goal of this project is to support implementation of Nebraska’s new statewide anonymous reporting system, Safe2HelpNE. The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is partnering with the Nebraska Department of Education, Boys Town, and Nebraska’s Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council to achieve three objectives: 1) Make threat assessment training accessible to schools opting into Safe2HelpNE. 2) Adjust threat assessment training to reflect lessons learned from implementing Safe2HelpNE. 3) Document the effectiveness of Safe2HelpNE. Nebraska passed legislation in 2021 creating Safe2HelpNE with the intent of reviewing its effectiveness after three years of operation. All Nebraska public and non-public schools may voluntarily opt-in to using Safe2HelpNE but must have a trained team to receive and act on the reports coming from the anonymous report line. This project assists schools that opt-in by funding their participation in team training and making educational resources available to the team via a protected website. Products resulting from the project include videos and resources schools can use to educate the school community about reporting their concerns, reports documenting the impact of Safe2HelpNE, enhancements to the Nebraska threat assessment training for schools based on what is learned through Safe2HelpNE and evolving evidence, and an annual virtual conference for Nebraska school teams working toward prevention of violence. All Nebraska students and school community members will benefit from the work proposed in this project.