Preventing School Violence in Breakthrough Public Schools

The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth (TLC) is acting as the fiscal agent in partnership with Breakthrough Public Schools (BPS). The project will develop and implement multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment (BTA) teams and provide specialized training for law enforcement and school resource officers (SROs). BPS serves high-poverty students from high-poverty neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. The project will address two gaps: (1) pervasive school violence and (2) enhancing multidisciplinary threat assessment teams (TATs). To implement an evidence-based school safety plan, TATs will review the current school safety plan and make recommendations for revisions to the plan to include evidence-based practices that follow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Threat Assessment Model’s eight steps. TLC will conduct assessments of schools and individuals to identify safety risks and individuals determined to be a potential threat to themselves or others receive a school threat assessment and are referred for services; TATs will complete the DHS School Security Survey to identify issues, and TAT case managers will investigate identified threats using a threat assessment and response protocol. TLC will enhance multidisciplinary teams that identify school violence threats and mitigate those risks; TAT members will receive raining on Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) and the Columbia Protocol.