Safety Plan and Policies
New World Prep is committed to ensuring that our school is safe, secure, and an orderly environment in which teaching and learning take place each day. A safe and supportive school depends upon the efforts of all members of the school community-teachers, students, administrators, parents, counselors, social workers, safety personnel, related service providers, cafeteria workers, custodians, and bus staff—to treat one another with mutual respect.
The maintenance of order and security in and around our schools is essential to creating a learning environment in which students can meet high academic standards, educators can teach toward those standards, and parents can be assured that their children are learning in a safe and positive school setting.
State Law requires every school to develop a School-Wide Safety Plan that includes a comprehensive plan to address emergency management and crisis intervention and a Code of Conduct, which includes a discipline code. In addition, each school is required to develop a building level safety plan, which establishes building safety procedures, including visitor control, student evacuation and other school specific emergency procedures. New World Prep’s school wide safety plan sets forth and describes the school’s policies and procedures for maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment, including how the system responds to acts of violence or other criminal activities, how the system contacts and notifies parents and law enforcement officials, and what strategies are in place to detect potentially violent behavior and improve communication among students and between students and school staff.
New World Prep’s Code of Conduct includes the Behavioral Expectations to Support Student Learning. This document contains Student Interventions and the Discipline Code, as well as Student Rights and Responsibilities. The Code of Conduct includes procedures for enforcement for violations of the code.
Key Components of the NWP School Wide Safety Plan and Code of Conduct
- Policies for responding to threats and acts of violence or criminal behavior;
- A description of school safety personnel, including training and deployment;
- Procedures for notifying the appropriate law enforcement officials, parent and the school community of criminal acts or other emergencies occurring at the school;
- A description of prevention and intervention strategies available to students and parents.
School officials must be prepared to respond to threats or acts of criminal behavior, from physical assaults to bomb-threats. NWP policies set forth the procedures for notifying law enforcement officials of school-related incidents or crimes, crimes committed by students or school employees, or medical emergencies.
Students have a constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. A student’s person and possessions may be searched only if school officials have reasonable suspicion to believe that the search will turn up evidence that the student is or may be violating the law or NWP disciplinary standards. The extent and scope of the search must be reasonably related to the objective of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction.
New World Prep safety personnel (security) is selected and trained by New World Prep.
When exercising their responsibility, the following factors are considered:
- School population
- Special needs population
- The layout and size of the school facility
- School staffing
- Local crime conditions
- Impact on nearby schools
New World Prep has established a school-based safety team (BRT) for the purpose of developing a building-level school safety plan. The plan describes, among other things, the school’s building entry and visitor control procedures; the school’s chain of command, security assignments and schedules; intruder procedures; emergency communications systems, including the names and telephone numbers of appropriate law enforcement personnel; and evacuation procedures for all students, including those with limited mobility. This describes the Building Response Team’s roles and training to address all emergency response protocols for students and staff. This building level plan establishes the protocols for responding to emergency situations, such as hazmat spills, intruders, bomb threats, hostage-taking or shooting; whether to evacuate, shelter-in, or lockdown. The plan is updated annually and when necessary because of personnel changes and other factors. Pursuant to state education law, building level emergency response plans must be confidential and must not be disclosed.
The threat to commit or the actual commission of an act of violence at a school affects an entire school community. In the event of threats or acts of violence, school officials must be prepared to contact the appropriate law enforcement agencies and to notify, without delay, the school community, especially the parents of children enrolled at the school.
New World Prep Behavioral Expectations to Support Student Learning includes the Family Handbook and Discipline Code which clarify student Rights and Responsibilities. (see key documents)
The Family Handbook and Code of Conduct promotes responsible student behavior and an atmosphere of dignity and respect by establishing guidelines to help students understand the standards of behavior that all students are expected to live up to and the consequences if these standards are not met. It includes a range of permissible disciplinary and intervention measures that NWP may use to address misbehavior.
NWP promotes a positive school culture and climate that provides students with a supportive environment in which to grow both socially and academically. NWP takes a proactive role in nurturing students’ pro-social behavior by providing them with a range of positive behavioral supports as well as meaningful opportunities for social emotional learning.
School staff members are responsible for addressing inappropriate student behaviors which disrupt learning. Administrators, teachers, counselors and other school staff are expected to engage all students in intervention and prevention strategies that address a student’s behavioral issues and discuss these strategies with the student and his/her parent(s).
Intervention strategies are outlined in the Code of Conduct. Intervention and prevention approaches may include guidance support and services to address personal and family circumstances; social/emotional learning, such as conflict resolution/peer mediation/negotiation, restorative circles, anger management, stress management, and/or communication skills acquisition; the use of alternate instructional materials and/or methods; enrichment services; alternate class placement; and/or development or review of functional behavioral assessments and behavioral interventions plans which should be developed and/or review as an early intervention strategy.
Through the use of intervention and prevention strategies that engage students and give them a sense of purpose, school staff members facilitate students’ academic and social-emotional growth and assist them in following school rules and policies.
In the classroom, teachers use a variety of academic and behavioral techniques and approaches to achieve an optimal learning environment. Interdisciplinary teams that include support staff such as guidance counselors are part of every school. These teams meet on a regular basis to devise and implement strategies to address specific issues encountered by “at-risk” students.
The following key documents comprise the District’s School Safety Plan and Code of Conduct: