MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of School Safety has released the second edition of its Comprehensive School Safety Framework. This framework identifies model school safety practices and is designed for all Wisconsin school leaders to use as a guide and to adapt to fit their needs locally. 

“School officials throughout Wisconsin work diligently to keep our kids safe at school,” said AG Kaul. “The Comprehensive School Safety Framework supports that vital work by making information about school safety best practices readily available in one place.”

School safety is complex–there is no one size fits all approach. Instead, multifaceted school safety strategies must be employed. The Comprehensive School Safety Framework outlines those strategies which include:

• Conducting school safety needs assessments, creating useful, applicable School Safety Plans, and regularly practicing these plans through school safety exercises and drills.
• Implementing SPEAK UP, SPEAK OUT (SUSO), our statewide tipline. SUSO provides students and communities with a trusted method for getting help and reporting concerns when students are struggling or there is a potential safety threat.
• Creating a multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment and management team, empowered with the knowledge and training needed to intervene when a student may pose a threat, provide support to struggling youth and prevent potential violence.
• Promoting effective routine security practices.
• Creating safe school climates.
• Building crisis response resources proactively, in order to respond effectively after crisis events, reduce trauma, and get kids back to learning more effectively.

About the Office of School Safety

OSS provides programs that are crucial for protecting educational staff and students. In 2020, OSS launched Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO), a 24/7 statewide confidential reporting system free to all Wisconsin schools. It provides a single point of contact for reporting concerns before violence can occur. Learn more at speakup.widoj.gov.

OSS also offers a variety of free trainings concerning violence prevention, protection, mitigation, crisis response, and recovery. These include trainings for Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM), Standard Response Protocol (SRP), and the Standard Reunification Method (SRM). OSS offers regional trainings to communities that request it.

OSS also has twelve trained Critical Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) around the state. These teams provide all Wisconsin K-12 public, private, charter, and tribal schools access to a regional team to support them if crisis events occur. CIRTs are made up of multi-disciplinary volunteers including law enforcement officials, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and school administrators. They provide resources to help aid the recovery process for school communities impacted by critical incidents, including long-term mental health services for those who require them.

About Office of School Safety Funding

In 2024, Gov. Tony Evers signed Assembly Bill 1050 into law, which provides bridge funding for the Office of School Safety to continue its school safety initiatives in Wisconsin through September 2025. This bridge funding will allow the state to potentially provide stable funding for the OSS as part of the 2025-2027 biennial budget. While this bridge funding has allowed OSS to continue its success in keeping students and teachers safe, long-term funding is still needed.