Genesee Regional Comprehensive Threat Assessment Program

Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD), in Genesee County Michigan, serves over 67,000 students and 8,500 educators in 22 individual school districts and 13 charter schools.

GISD currently has a Genesee County Emergency Operation Plan (EOP) which addresses how to respond in a crisis, however, it does not include a threat assessment.  As a result, the GISD applied for, was awarded funding in 2019 from BJA, and created a comprehensive Threat Assessment Protocol for all school districts in Genesee County. 

While this has been an important step, there is currently no system in Genesee County to collect threat data.  As a result, GISD is challenged to identify school violence risks, to evaluate the level of risk at each building, or to respond in a timely manner.

This proposal builds on the work funded by the 2019 STOP grant by expanding training within Genesee County as well as outside of the county into 3 regions of Michigan reaching 15 counties to support Threat Assessment Teams.  It also adds software technology, EDPlan Behavioral Threat Assessment (BTA) for Genesee County that integrates with the existing student information system to digitize threat data and make it timely, trackable, and shareable with Threat Assessment Teams.

To prevent and reduce school violence in three regions of Michigan, over three years, the objective of this project is to increase school safety using the evidence-based solutions of 1) creating 50 Threat Assessment Teams and 2) installing threat data software for Genesee County schools to measure safety and the long-term impact of school safety efforts. 

One important aspect of this software is the scale of use countywide. Student mobility from district to district and school to school is very high across the districts and county.  In an electronic threat assessment module, students can be supported and interventions can be applied regardless of where students attend school. 

Threat Assessment Teams will be trained using the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG), developed in 2001 by Dr. Dewey Cornell.  EDPlan BTA conforms to best practices in student privacy and adheres to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and HIPAA. This software will help school personnel identify students who are exhibiting behaviors along the pathway to violence and intervene with supports designed to de-escalate those behaviors and mitigate risk.  By implementing this solution, GISD will be able to set baselines of safety and measure the impact of its school safety efforts.