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Overview The topic of this Bulletin, Purpose Area 11 of the JAIBG program, is promoting school safety by increasing students’ accountability for their behavior. This Bulletin provides information to facilitate the development of constructive, well-conceived “accountability-based programs that work with juvenile offenders who are referred by law enforcement agencies, or which are designed, in cooperation with law enforcement officials, to protect students and school personnel from drug, gang, and youth violence.” It must be noted, however, that accountability-based programs operate most effectively when they are part of a comprehensive, collaborative approach involving a wide range of partners, including students, parents, school faculty and staff, community residents, members of community organizations, law enforcement and juvenile justice authorities, elected officials, and business representatives. Federal agencies must work in partnership with local juvenile justice systems and schools to establish and maintain accountability-based programs, and student accountability must work in concert with institutional accountability that addresses the underlying causes of student violence and misconduct. School safety programs that emphasize student accountability can build on the experiences of successful community-based delinquency prevention and intervention programs. OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (Wilson and Howell, 1993) and SafeFutures program are two examples that have proven effective in addressing juvenile delinquency. The Comprehensive Strategy provides a blueprint for establishing a continuum of care to meet the needs of at-risk or delinquent youth while protecting the public from harm. It promotes a systematic approach to prevention and the use of graduated sanctions in dealing with the offenses committed by such individuals and advocates the development of partnerships between the juvenile court, law enforcement, and community. SafeFutures extends the Comprehensive Strategy by integrating service delivery and ensuring that juveniles’ needs are met by an umbrella of service providers that will keep them from “falling through the cracks” of the juvenile justice and social service systems. The following programmatic strategies derived from the Comprehensive Strategy and the SafeFutures program are applicable to accountability-based school safety initiatives:
Accountability in a school environment means expecting students to comply with school rules and regulations that reflect community standards of behavior and, when necessary, addressing student misconduct with appropriate consequences, including school discipline. Programs can take a comprehensive approach to reducing delinquency and misconduct in schools by building student accountability into the school culture. Efforts to enhance school safety should be fully integrated into all aspects of school operation, including the learning environment, curriculum, administration, staff selection, and staff training. This Bulletin examines methods for increasing school safety through accountability-based programs that address the issues of violence, disorder, and fear. It documents the need for increased efforts to improve school safety, places accountability-based programs within the context of a comprehensive approach to school safety, identifies common features of successful school safety programs, and identifies and summarizes key elements of effective accountability-based school safety programs. Essential steps in program implementation are summarized, and the potential benefits of successful programs are described. Finally, this Bulletin highlights several current approaches to implementing school safety programs that exemplify JAIBG principles.
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