001it's the beginning of the fourth quarter and it is always a good time to refresh our information on school safety practices student safety is embedded in literally every step that we take we do it uh with every um Endeavor that we undertake in the district and it will always remain our top priority um I will share though that that in includes responding immediately when concerns arise because concerns will always arise they as they have over recent days uh in our district as part of the culture of safety we constantly update our policies our programs and our training designed to promote child safety and to protect students from threats uh not just at school but all around them in society so I wanted to cover several areas of our safety work and then we can discuss
002if there are other areas you'd like to talk about uh Members First of all just that um that immediate response when concerns arise our district has the highest standards for our employees they are entrusted with the most noble of uh duties and that is caring for educating and supporting our community's children when a safety concern is reported our team immediately investigates including involving local law enforcement we're very fortunate to have our SRO right in the buildings in the school uh buildings at secondary and close by our elementaries they support us based on the findings of Investigations we then take immediate action in accordance with the law and with our Lawrence board of Education policy and I will point out uh members and you are already aware that that was the case at prie Park that
003action was taken immediately once we were aware of the concern um we are constantly reviewing our safety protocols I just want to give a shout out uh to Lorie stitham director of special education services and members of our team who are currently working through every school building every classroom area every Service delivery area and I will be sharing more detailed information with the members about that process to just double and triple check that every single area of our building has visual site um from a hallway or from an area where people uh are moving and that there are no areas where an adult and a child would ever be alone in a private area together uh this uh process is to ensure clear Sidelines into all physical spaces where children are served so that these
004spaces remain open and observable at all times all student services are to be delivered in clearly visible areas and this is to protect everyone involved in every one at school uh folks have asked about our uh fingerprinting and background checks I just want to point out that criminal background checks either uh kbi Kansas Bureau of Investigation Department of Children and Families they are required for every District team member prior to that individual being cleared for Duty that comes right up front names are checked against the kbi registered offenders registry the checks for violent drug and sex offenders as well fingerprinting and an FBI background check are conducted for staff members who've not lived in Kansas for the past 10 consecutive years uh certainly we uh as all districts do hire folks uh from within the
005state and outside the state the checks are completed regardless those are a requirement in addition the department for Children and Families background check is completed on the child abuse and neglect central registry for every new employee the Kansas Department of Education also requires a background check and fingerprinting on all new teacher license applicants so that is completed as well and then related Services State Licensing agencies so that would be for speech for occupational for all the Rel Services they also require background checks and or fingerprinting licensed status is reviewed for all certified staff during the application and hiring process another area that we do um continually is this process of mandatory reporting every team member in usd497 is aware and they are trained and retrained that we are mandatory reporters by law uh the italicized
006part under this section is directly from board policy GA a and it is our consistent practice that any District employee who has concerns that a child may have experienced harm due to physical mental or emotional abuse neglect or sexual abuse is required to promptly report the concern to the Kansas department for children and fam's office or if the DCF office is closed we reach directly to local law enforcement in the case of a weekend or uh evening hours and I do want to share uh members publicly that that step was taken promptly in uh the situation we recently experienced at Prairie Park and that those actions are documented with DCF and clearly um uh occurred um over the coming days we are also working and I appreciate the engagement and support and uh more um
007uh ideas for how we can support that we are hearing from parents we hear those and we're doing our very best to be responsive to them as they align to trauma informed care and I really appreciate Kylie Luckett and members of our team who who are trauma informed trained and so we line up every action of support to ensure that it's supports every member of the community uh those who maybe have been victimized and those who maybe have experienced secondary uh trauma as well so over the coming days we will continue to share information and resources with parents including uh creating a website resource on our usd497 uh page to share updated information to support parents in talking with their children about safety the most common request we've heard from parents is how do I
008speak with my child and I just want to share that any parent who's having that question this evening um we have a team of Crisis counselors ready and all they have to do is reach out to their principal or email any of us and we will get them connected for that individual care we are sharing uh today in our message uh the Children's Advocacy Center who's been they've been working closely with us throughout this time they offer sound and trusted guidance uh for parents and caregivers across many areas of child safety um and that includes um what to say uh to your child at any rate the child's the Children's Advocacy Center does offer those initial questions that you could ask your child it's offered they have several resources in a developmentally age appropriate way
009of how parents might speak to their children and we're including that the link is here in the message today and we just have been partnering with them they are an excellent resource we'll continue to add resources we have heard that perhaps having too long of a list of resources is overwhelming for some folks so we're really working to focus those resources for parents we really value our partnership with school families and maintaining those open lines of communication so again we encourage folks to reach out to us we have trained counselors ready and we look forward to conversations individually around the needs of students and families thank you