Santa Ana School Police Department Helps Develop Statewide ‘Safe Schools Website'
SANTA ANA, CA – November 6, 2009 – Santa Ana Unified School District Police Department has been selected to help develop and test a safe schools web-based tool that will be used by K-12 school districts across the State. The tool, which includes various emergency preparedness scenarios and tips for best practices for school emergency first responders such as School Resource Officers, educators, and administrators, was publicly demonstrated at the 2009 California School Resource Officer's Conference (CASRO) held in San Diego recently. The effort is a collaboration of the California Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA), California Department of Education, the California Secretary of Education's Office and the California School Resource Officer's Association.
This school safety online database program will serve school districts and law enforcement as a one-stop clearinghouse for school safety information and news updates in order to better prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies. The website, which will allow for the collection of information to address hazards and emergencies, will include capability to store locations of schools, street maps, site and floor plans with emergency procedures.
“Being selected to participate in development of a safety tool underscores the quality and respect our school police department has as a valued service provider not only within our school district, but throughout the surrounding school community,” said School Police Chief David Valentin.
As a beta tester for the software, Santa Ana Unified School District Police Department will make recommendations on refining the program based on input received from strategic partners. Local school districts will then provide additional input to the model, approve the software, and CalEMA will distribute the product to school districts Statewide.
###
