School personnel, mental health professionals, and first responders can reduce the risk in targeted violence by engaging in behavioral threat assessment, a critical component to providing a safe and healthy learning environment. Threat assessment is designed to prevent violence and involves identification, evaluation, and intervention. A multidisciplinary school threat assessment team provides schools with a structured approach to identify students exhibiting threatening or concerning behavior, gather information to assess if the student poses a risk of harm to him/herself or the school community, and manage the risk through appropriate interventions, resources, and supports. A threat assessment should focus on a range of behaviors, from lower-level concerns (e.g., self-harm, depressed mood, bullying) to imminent or direct threats of violence. It is critical that student threat assessments be multidisciplinary and focused on providing robust interventions to students assessed as posing any level of risk to themselves or others.
Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG)
The South Dakota School Safety Center has partnered with Dr. Dewey Cornell and Navigate 360, to provide the leading behavioral threat assessment model for schools. Dr. Cornell is the principal author of the evidence-based school behavioral threat assessment model known as Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG).
This free training opportunity is provided by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety and the South Dakota School Safety Center. CSTAG equips threat assessment teams with the knowledge and skills to identify, assess, and intervene when threats are made. Suicide and violence are preventable. CSTAG can help schools guide students to a safer path.
To learn more about this free opportunity to train and implement a behavioral threat assessment team in your school, click on the following link.
Additional Resources:
The South Dakota School Safety Center recommends the following resources regarding the importance of establishing and implementing a school threat assessment protocol.
- A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targets School Violence - US Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center: Protecting America’s Schools.
- US Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center: Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model - An Operational Guide for Preventing Targeted School Violence.
- US Department of Justice and US Department of Education - The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative/Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States
- The Virginia Model for Student Threat Assessment - by Dewey G. Cornell, Ph.D., University of Virginia
- SchoolSafety.gov - This site provides featured resources in helping schools identify and address threatening behaviors before they lead to violence.
- Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center - The REMS TA Center offers a variety of Federal agency partner resources related to planning for adversarial and human-caused threats that may affect school districts, schools, institutions of higher education (IHEs), community partners, and parents, including resources related to behavioral threat assessment.
- National Center for School Safety - The National Center for School Safety is focused on improving school safety and preventing violence.
