Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency – CISA
Overview: A core mission of kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) schools throughout the United States is to create safe and secure environments to help promote the achievement of schools’ education objectives. Our nation’s schools are a precious resource and disruption to schools’ educational mission by security threats would have debilitating impact on the Nation’s public health and safety. Accordingly, CISA has developed this guide to help secure schools as a key part of the Nation’s critical infrastructure. As schools strive to achieve this education mission, one of the challenges they face is minimizing the risk of acts of crime and violence. The 3rd edition of the K-12 School Security Guide (guide) is designed to help local education agencies across the United States adopt a systems-based approach to school physical security planning and implementation. This guide demonstrates how taking a systems-based approach to layered physical security can help schools create safe and secure learning environments without asking staff members to become security experts. The purpose of the guide is to provide guidance to local education agencies on how to plan for and implement this type of approach to school security.
It is intended to inform safety and security planning for the range of K-12 schools across the U.S., and is applicable to the diverse geographical contexts ranging from rural to urban, and schools at various levels of maturity in their security planning process. The guide specifically focuses on the most common incidents of crime and violence that K-12 schools in the United States face today.
The guide is designed and organized for local education agencies to employ in conjunction with the K-12 School Security Assessment Tool (SSAT), a web-based tool that provides further guidance on school physical security planning and implementation. Together, this guide and the companion tool outline action-oriented security practices and options for consideration across the K-12 school community.
