Anonymous Incident Reporting and Management System

Region 7 ESC, a Kilgore TX-based education service agency, seeks to improve safety and wellness conditions for its eastern Texas school district partners.  Its East Texas School Safety Initiative (ETSSI) will provide a proven anonymous reporting system (ARS) with trauma-informed features to its high-poverty school community.  The program will be monitored 24/7/365 through a crisis center team with extensive experience working with Texas schools.  Emergent incidents will be directed immediately to law enforcement or other emergency services to ensure prompt attention to today’s most pressing school challenges – safety and mental wellness concerns. ETSSI will also provide students, staff, and families with immediate 24/7/365 access to a trained crisis counselor while providing access to local community and school self-help resources, also available at all times. This tech-enabled ARS will house all solutions and distribute access via all modern-day modes of communication, including mobile app, Chromebook, website app, and telephone hotline access.  This technology framework is highly secure and compliant with all relevant education-focused data privacy laws and desirable attributes, including SOC2, COPPA, HIPAA, and FERPA.

The citizens of Region 7’s service area learn, work, and live in a high-poverty area with challenging school safety and mental health conditions with significant barriers to accessing resources due to a highly rural environment. With this Category 2 funding request for $999,835 from the STOP School Violence Act, through ETSSI, Region 7 seeks to provide these much-needed resources to its underserved and deserving students and school community members.