By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//September 5, 2023//
By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//September 5, 2023//
As students across Wisconsin head back to school, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul along with law enforcement and school officials in Waukesha and Middleton, gathered Tuesday to inform communities that the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of School Safety (OSS) and all its resources remain available to help keep kids safe this school year.
Kaul held press conferences in both Waukesha and Middleton Tuesday along with Trish Kilpin, Director of the Office of School Safety, Donna Bembenek, President of Waukesha Catholic Memorial, Captain Dan Baumann, Waukesha Police Department, Jim Blodgett, Director of Safety and Security Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, and School Resource Officer Kim Wood, Middleton Police Department.
“As our kids head back to school, parents, educators, and students should know that the services provided by the Office of School Safety will be available throughout the upcoming school year,” said Kaul. “We will continue advocating for the state legislature to provide long-term funding for the Office of School Safety’s critical programs.”
After Wisconsin DOJ’s request to permanently fund current OSS programming in the next biennial budget went unfilled by the legislature, Wisconsin DOJ re-allocated $1,340,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to extend the operations of OSS including the Speak Up, Speak Out 24-hour tipline, critical incident response teams, and threat assessment consultation. The re-allocated money will fund OSS through the end of 2024.
OSS staff provide trainings that follow national best practices related to crisis prevention and response, free of charge, to any Wisconsin school that requests it. They also developed and maintain critical incident response teams for every region of Wisconsin, and they established and run the Speak Up, Speak Out Resource Center, including the 24-hour tipline. OSS has also distributed nearly $100 million in grants for safety enhancements, threat assessment training, and mental health training to public, private, charter, and tribal schools throughout Wisconsin. OSS is a repository for 5 documents for every private, public and tribal school in Wisconsin. OSS school safety consultants provide coaching and support to local school officials as they create emergency operations plans and school safety practices in their schools, according to Wisconsin Department of Justice officials.
Speak Up, Speak Out
On September 1, 2020, OSS launched Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO), a 24/7 statewide confidential reporting system free to all Wisconsin schools. SUSO is a comprehensive, one-stop place to turn with important concerns, offering a Threat Reporting System, Threat Assessment Consultation, Critical Incident Response and General School Safety Guidance. SUSO aims to promote the reporting of concerns before violence happens.
SUSO Fast Facts
Students, parents, school staff, or any community members can submit a school safety concern or threat via the SUSO website, mobile phone application, or toll-free number.
SUSO Reports can be made 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
OSS Training
OSS staff are certified to train a variety of courses that follow national best practices related to violence prevention, protection, mitigation, crisis response and recovery. OSS offers these trainings free of charge to any school or law enforcement agency in Wisconsin that requests it. Trainings offered in Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) equip school and law enforcement staff with the knowledge, protocol and model practices needed to determine if someone poses a threat to their school and how to intervene effectively based on the level of concern posed. Crisis Intervention trainings equip school staff to respond effectively when a crisis event occurs in a way that will promote psychological recovery for all staff and students. Other trainings help school staff establish standardized response and reunification for any school crisis, from fires and floods to acts of violence. OSS staff continue to expand the trainings offered to ensure that Wisconsin schools have a comprehensive toolkit to help keep kids and school staff safe.
School shootings are preventable, officials said. Two practices are proven to prevent school violence: an accessible, effective threat reporting system and BTAM. OSS leads the state in bringing both the practices to school.
OSS Training Fast Facts
Critical Incident Response Teams
In 2022, OSS established and trained twelve Critical Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) around the state. CIRTs are designed to provide all Wisconsin K-12 public, private, charter and tribal schools with access to a regionally based team to support them if a critical incident ever occurs at their school. Each CIRT is made up of volunteers who are part of a multi-disciplinary team. These teams include law enforcement officers, school administrators, counselors, psychologists, social workers, nurses, teachers, school safety experts, and representatives from other related professions. The mission of the CIRT program is to minimize the psychological impact of a school critical incident; provide resources to help stabilize the school community; work to identify individuals that may require long-term mental health services after a critical incident occurs; and offer support to school administrators and educators. Wisconsin is the first state to implement regionally based CIRTs on a statewide basis. Additional training academies are being held this summer, adding team members across the state.
CIRT Fast Facts
OSS was initially supported by more than $2 million in federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance. OSS is currently supported by more than $1.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding which were expected to end in December of 2023. Wisconsin DOJ requested the legislature permanently fund OSS in the recent biennial budget, but the request went unfilled.