Statement claims

Today, the highly skilled men and women of the U. S. Secret Service lead the field of threat assessment by conducting research on acts of targeted violence and providing training using the agency’s established threat assessment model for prevention.

Our agency is dedicated to expanding research and understanding of targeted violence, including those that impact our nation’s schools.

Our agency, through our local U.S. Secret Service field offices, continues to coordinate and provide this training to our community partners.

As such, the U.S. Secret Service, along with many of our partners, have redoubled our efforts and are poised to continue enhancing school safety.

In the wake of these tragedies, the U.S. Secret Service has launched an initiative to provide updated research and guidance to school personnel, law enforcement, and other public safety partners on the prevention of school-based violence. I am pleased to release this operational guide, Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model, as the first phase of this initiative.

As we have seen in recent months, the pain of each act of targeted violence in our nation’s schools has had a powerful impact on all.

With the creation and distribution of this operational guide, the U.S. Secret Service sets a path forward for sustainable practices to keep our children safe, extending our expertise in the field of threat assessments to provide school officials, law enforcement personnel, and other public safety professionals with guidance on “how to” create a Targeted Violence Prevention Plan.

This guide will serve as an important contribution to our partners on the Federal Commission on School Safety - the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Attorney General.

I am proud of the continued efforts of the U.S. Secret Service, and we remain committed to the prevention of targeted violence within our nation’s schools and communities.

When incidents of school violence occur, they leave a profound and lasting impact on the school, the community, and our nation as a whole.

The content in this guide is based on information developed by the U.S. Secret Service, Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division, National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC).

The goal of that study, the Safe School Initiative (SSI), was to gather and analyze accurate and useful information about the thinking and behavior of students who commit these types of acts.

This guide provides actionable steps that schools can take to develop a comprehensive targeted violence prevention plan and create processes and procedures for conducting threat assessments on their campus.

These steps serve as minimum guidelines and may need to be adapted for a particular school or district’s unique resources and challenges.

For institutions that already have prevention plans or threat assessment capabilities in place, these guidelines may provide additional information to update existing protocols, or to formalize the structures of reporting, gathering information, and managing risk.

All publications related to studies conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) are available from https://www.secretservice.gov/protection/ntac/.

Ensuring the safety of our schools involves multiple components, including physical security, emergency management, and violence prevention efforts in the form of a threat assessment process.

This process begins with establishing a comprehensive targeted violence prevention plan.

The plan includes forming a multidisciplinary threat assessment team, establishing central reporting mechanisms, identifying behaviors of concern, defining the threshold for law enforcement intervention, identifying risk management strategies, promoting safe school climates, and providing training to stakeholders.

It can also help schools mitigate threats from a variety of individuals, including students, employees, or parents.

This guide provides basic instructions for schools on creating a targeted violence prevention plan, the focus of which is to decrease the risk of students engaging in harm to themselves or the school community.

These recommendations serve as the starting point on a path to implementation that will need to be customized to the specific needs of your school, your student body, and your community.

The first step in developing a comprehensive targeted violence prevention plan is to establish a multidisciplinary threat assessment team (hereafter referred to as the “Team”) of individuals who will direct, manage, and document the threat assessment process.

The Team will receive reports about concerning students and situations, gather additional information, assess the risk posed to the school community, and develop intervention and management strategies to mitigate any risk of harm.

Some schools may pool their resources and have a single Team that serves an entire district or county, while other districts may choose to have a separate Team for each school.

While the information in this guide refers to this group as a Threat Assessment Team, schools can choose an alternative name.

These include threatening or engaging in violence, bringing a weapon to school, bullying or harassing others, and other concerning or criminal behaviors.

Keep in mind that concerning behaviors occur along a continuum.

These include a marked decline in performance; increased absenteeism; withdrawal or isolation; sudden or dramatic changes in behavior or appearance; drug or alcohol use; and erratic, depressive, and other emotional or mental health symptoms.

If these behaviors are observed or reported to the Team, schools can offer resources and supports in the form of mentoring and counseling, mental health care, tutoring, or social and family services.

Students may elicit concern from those around them in a variety of ways. They may make threatening or concerning statements in person, online, or in text messages; they may engage in observable risky behavior; or they may turn in assignments with statements or content that is unusual or bizarre.

Schools can establish one or more reporting mechanisms, such as an online form posted on the school website, a dedicated email address or phone number, smart phone application platforms, or another mechanism that is accessible for a particular school community.

Students exist in more than one system and they come in contact with people beyond their classmates and teachers at school.

Family | Law Enforcement Social | Judicial Neighbors Online | Student | Teachers Classmates Hobbies | Employment

All students face stressors such as setbacks, losses, | Stressors can occur in all areas of a student’s and other challenges as part of their lives.

Many students can experience bullying, a stressor which can take place in person at school or online at home.

These could include behaviors that may have elicited concerns about the safety of the student or others, such as unusual, bizarre or threatening statements; intimidating or aggressive acts; indications of planning for an attack; suicidal ideations or gestures; or a fixation on a specific target.

Planning does not need to be elaborate and could be as simple as taking a weapon from home and inflicting harm on classmates at school.

At the very least, carrying out an attack requires that the student has access to a weapon and the ability to get that weapon to school undetected.

For example, the student might say that he/she is handling a romantic break-up well, but posts on social media indicate the student is struggling to move on, and friends report that the student is more upset or angry about the break-up than reported.

options Once the Team has completed a thorough assessment of the student, it can evaluate whether the student is at risk for self-harm or harming someone else at school.

Remember, the Team is not attempting to predict with certainty if violence will happen. Instead, evaluate the presence of factors that indicate violence might be a possibility.

Teams can then develop risk management strategies that reduce the student’s risk for engaging in violence and make positive outcomes for the student more likely.

Often, the Team will determine that the student is not currently at risk for engaging in violence, but requires monitoring or is in need of guidance to cope with losses, develop resiliency to overcome setbacks, or learn more appropriate strategies to manage emotions.

Resources to assist the student could take the form of peer support programs or therapeutic counseling to enhance social learning or emotional competency, life skills classes, tutoring in specific academic subjects, or mental health care.

Most programs and supports will be available within the school, but the Team may need to also access community resources to assist with managing the student.

Teachers and staff in safe school environments support diversity, encourage communication between faculty and students, intervene in conflicts, and work to prevent teasing and bullying.

Students in safe school climates feel empowered to share concerns with adults, without feeling ashamed or facing the stigma of being labeled a “snitch.”

At one school, administrators used a faculty meeting to identify students who lacked a solid connection with an adult at school. They provided faculty with a roster of enrolled students and asked them to place a mark next to students with whom they had a warm relationship. For students without a mark next to their name, popular, well-liked teachers and staff were asked to reach out and develop positive connections with them.

One teacher asked her elementary students to write down names of classmates they wanted to sit next to. If a student’s name did not appear on anyone’s list, the teacher placed that student’s desk next to a friendly or outgoing classmate in an effort to help the student develop friendships.

These programs actively teach students what appropriate behavior looks like in a variety of settings, including in the classroom, with their friends, or among adults.

Teachers frequently praise prosocial behavior they observe and encourage students’ good behavior.

The final component of a comprehensive targeted violence prevention plan is to identify training needs for all stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and administrators; students; parents; and school resource officers or local law enforcement.

Effective training addresses the goals and steps of an assessment, the type of information that should be brought forward, and how individuals can report their concerns.

Training can include who should be notified when concerning or threatening information is discovered, what information should be brought forward, how school staff might learn about information, and the steps school staff can take to safely intervene with concerning or threatening situations.

Training can also educate students about other actionable steps they can take to cultivate a safe school climate, including ways they can safely intervene with bullying, gossip, or name-calling.

The model highlights that students can engage in a continuum of concerning behaviors and communications, the vast majority of which may not be threatening or violent.

This section provides information and links to resources that can help schools create threat assessment teams, establish central reporting mechanisms, train stakeholders on assessment procedures, and promote safe school climates.

It also provides links to resources related to emergency planning, responses to violence, and mental health.

The U.S. Secret Service provides the listed non-government resources as a public service only. The U.S. government neither endorses nor guarantees in any way the external organizations, services, advice, or products included in this list. Furthermore, the U.S. government neither controls nor guarantees the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of the information contained in non-government websites.

THE NATIONAL THREAT ASSESSMENT CENTER (NTAC). Provides links to best-practices in threat assessment and the prevention of targeted violence, including resources on conducting threat assessments in K-12 schools, building positive school climates, and requesting training from NTAC personnel.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS (NASP). Provides information and links to research on conducting threat assessments in K-12 schools.

THE NATIONAL BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION TEAM ASSOCIATION (NABITA). Provides education, resources, and supports to campus behavioral intervention team personnel and those who work to provide caring interventions of at-risk individuals.

THE VIRGINIA STUDENT THREAT ASSESSMENT MODEL. Provides guidelines and resources for schools to conduct threat assessments of students, including links to research on threat assessment.

The provided links were active at the time of the publication of this guide. Organizations may have updated or changed their links since this guide was published.

Provides resources, reports, and information about school safety and violence prevention.

Provides information, resources, and training to enable law enforcement to work and intervene with children, teens, and young adults.

Resources focus on reducing crimes and victimization among youth populations.

Provides training, information, and resources to school-based law enforcement officers.

Provides links to resources and information, including training material, computer software, and videos for law enforcement officers who work in K-12 schools.

Conducts research and provides support to professionals implementing evidence-based programs that promote positive youth development, reduce problem behaviors, and prevent violence and other antisocial behaviors.

Provides information and resources related to bullying, school violence, drugs and tobacco, technology safety, and emergency management.

Provides school safety training and services to school districts, law enforcement organizations, and communities. Provides links to grant opportunities, training courses, and conferences.

National clearing-house for school safety information.

Provides resources, training, and information related to violence prevention, response, and recovery from incidents of school violence.

Provides strategies to consider when creating safe learning environments and considers the full range of possible violence that can occur in schools.

Resource guide developed by the U.S. Department of Education for schools to create nurturing, positive, and safe environments to help boost student achievement and success.

Publication by the New Jersey School Boards Association to provide guidance and direction on school safety issues.

The final report provides recommendations and resources to ensure the physical and emotional well-being of students.

Clearinghouse and technical assistance center that supports schools, school districts, and state agencies to create and implement a multi-tiered approach to social, emotional, and behavioral support.

Provides links to resources, information, and training on PBIS tools and strategies.

Prevention and intervention of bullying STOPBULLYING.GOV. Provides information from government agencies on bullying, cyberbullying, risk factors, responses to bullying, and prevention efforts.

NATIONAL PTA. Provides resources regarding bullying prevention and creating positive school climates.

YOUTH VIOLENCE PROJECT, BULLYING RESOURCES. Provides an aggregate of online and in-print resources for parents, teachers, and students to intervene, prevent, and respond to bullying.

NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS (NAMI). NAMI is dedicated to assisting those affected by mental illness and their families. They provide information specific to conditions and symptoms experienced by teens and young adults, as well as resources for education and advocacy for all those who suffer from mental health symptoms.

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH (NIMH). Provides links to resources for assistance with mental health and mental illness, information related to mental health symptoms and disorders, and outreach to various stakeholders.

MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID. Provides resources for free and low-cost training on mental health, symptoms of mental illness, and intervening with those with mental health symptoms.