School-Based Threat Assessment Policy 3225
Policy No. 3225
Students
School-Based Threat Assessment
The Board is committed to providing a safe and secure learning environment for students and staff. This policy establishes a school-based threat assessment program to provide for timely and methodical school-based threat assessment and management.
Threat assessment best occurs in school climates of safety, respect, and emotional support. Student behavior, rather than a student’s demographic or personal characteristics, will serve as the basis for a school-based threat assessment.
The threat assessment process is distinct from student discipline procedures. The mere fact that the District is conducting a threat assessment does not by itself necessitate suspension or expulsion. The District will not impose suspension or expulsion, including emergency removal, solely due to investigating student behavior or conducting a threat assessment. Further, suspension, or other removal from the school environment, can create the risk of triggering either an immediate or a delayed violent response, unless such actions are coupled with containment and support. However, nothing in this policy precludes District personnel from acting immediately to address an imminent threat, including an emergency removal, if the District has sufficient cause to believe that a student’s presence poses an immediate and continuing danger to other students or school personnel or an immediate and continuing threat of material and substantial disruption of the educational process.
Structure of Threat Assessment Teams
The superintendent or designee will establish and ensure the training of a multidisciplinary, multiagency threat assessment team (or more than one such team) to serve District schools. Given that the threat assessment team must be multidisciplinary and multiagency, it might include persons with expertise in: counseling, such as a school counselor, school psychologist, and/or school social worker; law enforcement, such as a school resource officer (SRO); and school administration, such as a principal or other senior administrator. It might also include other District or school staff; community resources; special education teachers; and practicing educational staff members.
Not every multidisciplinary team member must participate in every threat assessment. When faced with a potential threat by, or directed towards, a student receiving special education services, the threat assessment team must include a team member who is a special education teacher.
Although parents, guardians, or family members are often interviewed as part of the threat assessment process, neither the student nor the student’s family members are part of the threat assessment team. This does not diminish the District’s commitment that school personnel will make every reasonable attempt to involve parents and the student in the resolution of the student’s behavioral violations, consistent with Policy 3241 and Procedure 3241P (“Discipline for Student Misconduct”).
Function of Threat Assessment Team
Each threat assessment team member, whether a teacher, counselor, school administrator, other school staff, contractor, consultant, volunteer, or other individual, functions as a “school official with a legitimate educational interest” in education records controlled and maintained by the District. The District provides the threat assessment team access to education records as specified by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). No member of a threat assessment team, including District or school-based members, will use any student record beyond the prescribed purpose of the threat assessment team or redisclose records obtained by being a member of the threat assessment team, except as permitted by FERPA.
The threat assessment team:
- Identifies and assesses the behavior of a student who is threatening, or potentially threatening, to self, other students, staff, school visitors, or school property. Threats of self-harm or suicide unaccompanied by threats of harm to others should be promptly evaluated.
- Gathers and analyzes information about the student’s behavior to determine a level of concern for the threat. The threat assessment team may conduct interviews of the person(s) who reported the threat, the recipient(s) or target(s) of the threat, other witnesses who have knowledge of the threat, and where reasonable, the individual(s) who allegedly engaged in the threatening behavior or communication. The purpose of the interviews is to evaluate the individual’s threat in context to determine the meaning of the threat and intent of the individual. The threat assessment team may request and obtain records in the District’s possession, including student education, health, and criminal history records. The purpose of obtaining information is to evaluate situational variables, rather than the student’s demographic or personal characteristics.
- Determines the nature, duration, and level of severity of the risk and whether reasonable modifications of policies, practices, or procedures will mitigate the risk. The threat assessment team will not base a determination of threat on generalizations or stereotypes. Rather, the threat assessment team makes an individualized assessment, based on reasonable judgment, the best available objective evidence, and/or current medical evidence as applicable.
- Communicates lawfully and ethically with each other, school administrators, and other school staff who have a need to know particular information to support the safety and wellbeing of the school, its students, and its staff.
- Timely reports its determination to the superintendent or designee.
Depending on the level of concern determined, the threat assessment team develops and implements intervention strategies to manage the student’s behavior in ways that promote a safe, supportive teaching and learning environment, without excluding the student from the school unless appropriate.
In cases where the student whose behavior is threatening or potentially threatening also has a disability, the threat assessment team aligns intervention strategies with the student’s individualized education program (IEP) or the student’s plan developed under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504 plan) by coordinating with the student’s IEP team or Section 504 plan team. Although some of the functions of a school-based threat assessment may run parallel to the functions of a student’s IEP team or Section 504 plan team, school-based threat assessments remain distinct from those teams and processes.
Data Collection, Review, and Reporting
The superintendent will establish procedures for collecting and submitting data related to the school-based threat assessment program that comply with OSPI’s monitoring requirements, processes, and guidelines.
Other Tasks of Threat Assessment Team
The threat assessment team may also participate in other tasks that manage or reduce threatening or potentially threatening behavior and increase physical and psychological safety. This may include:
- Providing guidance to students and staff regarding recognition of behavior that may represent a threat to students, staff, school, the community, or the individual;
- Providing informational resources for community services boards or healthcare providers for medical evaluation or treatment, as appropriate; and
- Assessing individuals other than students whose behavior poses a threat to the safety of students or staff and notifying the superintendent or designee of such an individual.
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Cross References: |
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2161 - Special Education and Related Services for Eligible Students |
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2162 - Education of Students With Disabilities Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 |
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3240 - Student Conduct Expectations and Reasonable Sanctions |
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4310 - Relations with Law Enforcement and Other Government Agencies |
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Legal References: |
RCW 28A.320.123 School-based threat assessment program |
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RCW 28A.300.640 School-based threat assessment program—Model policy and procedure |
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34 C.F.R. Part 99 Family Educational Rights and Privacy |
Initially Adopted: November 28, 2022
Amended: October 13, 2023