Critical incidents that require emergency intervention are increasingly common in America’s schools. School districts, in turn, are seeking ways to keep students and staff safe. CENTEGIX, a national leader in safety solutions for K-12 schools, recently conducted a national Educators Survey to gain insight into current safety practices and staff perceptions of safety in the education workplace.
The 2024 National Educator Survey Report gathered data from 530 respondents across the nation, including K-12 teachers, school administrators, and district administrators. Respondents were widely distributed among gender and age categories. These School Safety Survey results grant insight into teachers’ most pressing concerns and the most effective tools for addressing them. For administrators developing school safety plans, this valuable information informs safety protocols, technology selection, and ways to create a workplace culture of safety.
National Educator Survey Results
Teachers are Concerned About Safety
80% of School Survey respondents report that they regularly think of their physical safety while at work and 30% of educators report thinking of their safety daily. This level of concern is reasonable, given that public schools recorded about 857,500 violent incidents and 479,500 nonviolent incidents during the 2021-22 school year.
At one Massachusetts high school, conditions became so chaotic that administrators called the National Guard for assistance. While this is an extreme example, it’s indicative of a widespread problem: high levels of violence in schools negatively impact teaching staff. In this instance, teacher stress levels resulted in dozens of teachers calling out of work, exacerbating problems stemming from a lack of supervision.
School Safety Survey respondents confirm this trend: Over half (51.7%) reported thinking about their physical safety daily or most days. While many respondents feel that their schools have provided adequate support under these conditions, over one-third (33.6%) say they feel somewhat supported or not supported. To ensure that teachers have the physical and emotional resources they need to perform their jobs, schools need to implement school safety plans that create a culture of safety.
Critical Incidents Result in Lost Instructional Time
Disruptions of all kinds interrupt instructional time. Survey respondents reported these top five types of disruption:
- physical altercations (66%)
- bullying (62%)
- medical emergencies (60%)
- inappropriate behavior (56%)
- threats and intimidation (51%)
18% of survey respondents said they lose more than four hours of instructional time each week due to disruptive student behavior. This is equivalent to 18 days of school each year. Disruptive incidents interrupt instruction and often lead to heightened emotions for teachers and students; these are clearly not ideal learning conditions.
Altercations and Bullying Are Common
Every administrator, teacher, and parent hopes never to learn of a violent incident in their school. Unfortunately, they are increasing. And nationwide teacher shortages can exacerbate the problem. From 2019 to 2020, about 20% of middle and high school students reported they were bullied at school, and 47% said it happened in the classroom.
According to experts, “Despite the central role that teachers can have in preventing and reducing bullying, they often feel insecure about how to deal with bullying.” Teachers need support to respond confidently and effectively to the problems students face every day. Building a culture of safety in schools is critical to preventing bullying. Schools can do so by emphasizing “higher quality teacher-student relationships, more active teacher responses to bullying and less passive responses.” These responses are associated with lower levels of victimization.
Staff and Student Support for Medical Incidents
Medical incidents are common in American schools. 60% of survey respondents reported that medical incidents occurred in their schools the previous year. Students, teachers, staff, and visitors may experience a medical emergency on a school campus. About one in five kids in the United States has a special health need or a chronic medical condition that requires ongoing medications. These include:
- seizures
- asthma attacks
- severe allergies or anaphylaxis
- diabetes
- behavioral and mental health conditions
These conditions also affect many adults, who may also experience cardiac arrest, stroke, or other emergencies. In addition, injuries may occur on campus that require first responders.
Notification and Response Times Vary
According to survey respondents, notification times are highly variable. While over half reported that the appropriate personnel was alerted of safety incidents within two minutes or less, 47% took three or more minutes to notify the proper personnel, with 6% taking more than 11 minutes.
Many school personnel also report that response times vary. 44% reported a response time of 6 minutes or more, including 9% who reported 11 minutes or more. Two minutes or less is the ideal response window to mitigate adverse impacts in emergencies. Administrators who enlist school safety technology to reach this goal facilitate faster response times and a supportive environment for staff and students.
Barriers to School Safety: Staff Speak Up
An analysis of survey responses indicated staff perceptions regarding several barriers to school safety:
- There is a lack of administration support and planning for handling incidents. When administrators fail to address incidents appropriately and provide necessary support to staff and students after incidents occur, staff feels less safe.
- There are insufficient security measures and resources. Teachers indicated that they feel less safe when their school buildings are outdated and lack appropriate security measures (and the resources to purchase and implement them).
- There is a lack of consistency and coordination. Staff feels less safe when schools implement security protocols inconsistently, communicate poorly, and fail to coordinate effectively among the school board, administration, parents, and law enforcement agencies.
In order to make teachers feel safe and supported, a school safety plan must include technology that is fast, reliable, easy to use, proven, and discreet. Among these, survey respondents indicated that speed and reliability are the most important features of school safety technology. According to school staff, safe schools are those where emergency notifications and responses are as quick as possible and safety technology can be relied upon to prompt a predictable and effective emergency response.
School Safety Impacts on Teacher Retention
Workplace safety directly impacts teacher retention and mental health. 77% of K-12 educators believe workplace safety directly impacts teacher retention and recruitment. Put simply, teachers want to work in safe schools.
The American school system’s ongoing struggle to hire and retain staff is direct evidence of this: over half of survey respondents 57% have had a coworker leave their job because they felt unsafe. A lack of adequate safety protocols and technologies has a concrete negative impact on teacher retention.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™: the Foundation of School Safety
CENTEGIX incident response solutions empower and protect people every day. Schools nationwide have implemented the CENTEGIX Safety Platform to accelerate emergency response and provide peace of mind in the workplace.
The Safety Platform solutions combine to form the foundation of a comprehensive safety plan in environments where every second matters in an emergency. The Safety Platform is designed to address precisely the factors that educators feel are most important to keep them safe:
- speed
- reliability
- ease of use
- enables discreet safety alerts
- proven to be effective
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert is a wearable mobile panic button for rapid incident response. In an emergency, school staff use their CrisisAlert badge to request a response to their exact location on campus discreetly. Its features include:
- A private, managed network. CrisisAlert does not rely on cellular coverage or Wi-Fi to send an alert.
- Two kinds of alerts. Staff can request help for less severe safety incidents or initiate a lockdown campus-wide.
- Precise location information. Combined with CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint, CrisisAlert indicates where emergencies are in progress, resulting in reduced response times from administrators and first responders.
- Total campus coverage. Staff can use their CrisisAlert badge to request help from any location on school property, including outside.
CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint™
CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint digital campus maps streamline communication and response times in schools. It helps create safe schools by enabling staff to:
- Define and customize safety plans.
- Quickly disseminate information in emergencies.
- Facilitate rapid incident response by making safety asset locations available to first responders.
- Update digital maps in real time.
CENTEGIX Enhanced Visitor Management
CENTEGIX Enhanced Visitor Management feature empowers school staff to check in, authenticate, and locate visitors in real time, thus ensuring that only permitted, verified visitors are on your campus at all times. Enhanced Visitor Management promotes safety in schools with the following functions:
- automated check-ins and check-outs
- customized visitor lists
- quick background checks
- visitor location visibility
- automated data gathering for reporting purposes
- automated check-in for campus visitors during large events
- digital record-keeping for student check-in and check-out during reunification
CENTEGIX rapid incident response technology creates a culture of safety in America’s schools. The Safety Platform is a comprehensive school safety system that nurtures this culture and accelerates emergency response. By creating school safety plans that make staff feel supported and safe, administrators improve teachers’ job satisfaction and restore instructional time. CENTEGIX tools combine to make CENTEGIX schools safer, better workplaces for staff and students.
To learn more about how CENTEGIX Safety Platform can help your school implement a culture of safety, schedule a demonstration today.
