Facilitators from the National Association of School Psychologists based in Bethesda, Maryland, presented a workshop entitled PREPaRE – A Comprehensive School Safety Planning Program at the Diocesan Center on Feb. 9. More than 70 administrators, teachers and school staff attended the daylong workshop, which focused on developing safety and crisis team plans for each school as well as assessing possible vulnerabilities of Diocesan schools. The facilitators led the interactive program where each school had the opportunity to discuss their individual school’s safety needs.
Moreover, the aim of the workshop also addressed the current communication policies, including the expanding reach of social media avenues available to not only the schools, but to students and parish communities. The goal of the program was to help improve each school’s specific climate, and help students’ be resilient and adaptive during these challenging times.
Various small group discussions were held, then followed by larger group feedback sessions, as to how to better implement both physical safety measures to schools’ campuses as well as also meeting the ongoing psychological safety initiatives designed to keep all students, teachers and administrators safe.
The workshop was hosted and coordinated by the Diocesan Secretariat for Education.
