The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has released a letter updating school administrators on the Safe and Supportive School Program. From the letter:
“TEA will continue to support [local education agencies] LEAs with the legislatively required reporting of the activities of their [Safe and Supportive Schools Program] SSSP teams in accordance with TEC, §37.115(k), through a Qualtrics survey. The survey for the 2021-2022 school year will collect the same data that was collected in previous surveys (2019-2020 and 2020-2021). The survey for the 2021-2022 school year submission will be released on June 1, 2022, with a response due to the agency by June 30, 2022. Here is a sample copy of the 2021-2022 SSSP Survey.
Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, LEAs will be required to report SSSP team activities by campus as required by TEC, §37.115(k). The data reporting window will be June 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023. Here is a sample copy of the 2022-2023 SSSP Survey. It is strongly recommended that LEAs develop procedures for each team to collect, maintain, and store data regarding threat reports and threat assessment outcomes that align to these data reporting instruments developed by the TEA. The Division of Safe and Supportive Schools will develop tools and resources to support this recommendation, and these will be made available to LEAs during the fall semester of the 2022-2023 school year.”
TEA also highlighted the following rules currently being drafted in relation to the SSSP:
- The mandatory school drills rule, projected to become effective on May 17, 2022. This rule provides guidance and best practices for conducting school drills.
- The active threat exercises rule entered the public comment period on March 25, 2022.
- The SSSP rule is in the drafting process and will address the establishment and operation of SSSP teams. The Division of Safe and Supportive Schools will gather input and stakeholder feedback on the SSSP rule throughout the drafting process.
For more information on TEA draft rules and rulemaking, see the Commissioner’s Proposed Rule Page here. For more information on the letter and the full text, please see the TEA website here.
