Developing a Student Threat Assessment System requires establishing a framework of policies, procedures, and management systems to proactively reduce the risk of a student progressing on the psychological pathway to targeted violence. When engaged as consultants, our team works in collaboration with school officials to lay the foundation for the program including:

• • Structuring a School Threat Assessment Team and assigning team member responsibilities
  • Authoring a Student Threat Assessment Plan document that describes procedures for reporting, case intake, screening potential threats, assessment and decision-making, and threat management actions.
  • Developing a documentation system for guiding and recording interviews, investigation activities, assessment findings, threat management actions, and case tracking.

When the Student Threat Assessment System plan is complete and ready for implementation, a training session is conducted for all school staff members assigned to the STATS team. As part of this training session, a tabletop exercise is conducted to demonstrate how the assessment process works in practical application.

The video below provides an overview of the psychological pathway to targeted violence in schools, threat assessment principles, and risk management options.