Texas School Safety Center receives grant to help public schools implement behavioral threat assessment programs

INSIDE TXST

Jayme Blaschke | October 20, 2023

The Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) at Texas State University has been awarded a grant from the Department of Justice’s STOP School Violence Prevention Program in support of school behavioral threat assessment programs to provide a proactive, evidence-based approach for identifying individuals who may pose a threat and for providing interventions before a violent incident occurs.

The three-year, $1.5 million grant will fund “Operationalizing School Behavioral Threat Assessment: Enhancing a Statewide Violence Prevention Model through Targeted Technical Assistance.” This project will expand Operationalizing School Behavioral Threat Assessment technical assistance sessions, prioritizing those with heightened needs, such as rural districts and districts that have had a functioning school behavioral threat assessment team for fewer than three years. 

Since 2019, Texas public school districts have been required by the Texas Education Code to establish trained, multi-disciplinary, school behavioral threat assessment teams to serve each school campus. The TxSSC provides state-mandated basic training as well as advanced training and resources to assist districts as they implement the school behavioral threat assessment process. 

“In an effort to strengthen statewide fidelity of implementation, sustainment and enhancement of the school behavioral threat assessment process, the TxSSC saw a need to work directly with district teams to assist with taking the theoretical knowledge gained in the training and put it into practice at the school level,” said Kathy Martinez-Prather, Ph.D., director of the Texas School Safety Center.

During the Operationalizing School Behavioral Threat Assessment technical assistance sessions, district- and campus-level school behavioral threat assessment teams will meet with a specialist who will provide targeted guidance and resources customized to the unique needs of each district, including an action plan with a timeline. Sessions will focus on intervention management and the importance of mental health support for students in need. 

TxSSC is an official university-level research center at Texas State tasked in Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code with key school safety initiatives and mandates. It serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of safety and security information through research, training, and technical assistance for K-12 schools and junior colleges throughout Texas. 

For more information visit https://txssc.txstate.edu.