NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Steve Halvonik 717-787-1381
Letter to Governor Rendell
School Safety Survey Results School Districts
School Safety Survey Results Cyber/Charter

Auditor General Jack Wagner Makes Safety
And Security Checklist Part of Public School Audits

Product of Survey Showing Deficiencies in Some Safe Schools Plans

HARRISBURG, September 27, 2007 – The Department of the Auditor General has developed a school safety and security checklist that it will begin implementing with its regular school audits, effective the fourth quarter of 2007, Auditor General Jack Wagner said today.

“Children are our most precious and vulnerable members of society and all of us must do everything we can to make sure they have a safe and secure learning environment,” Wagner said.

Among the proposed safety and security measures auditors will be checking for beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007:

• Reviewing whether each school auditee has developed memorandum of understanding with its local law enforcement agency on reporting acts of violence on school property, as required by the Public School Code.
• Determining whether each school auditee has a comprehensive safe-schools plan.
• Reviewing to determine whether each school auditee has a visitation policy and a student, staff and visitor identification policy.
• Conducting a random review of whether each school auditee has certain school security features, such as whether there are single points of entry and egress to buildings.
• Assessing whether each school auditee has a designated safety officer or crisis manager and a crisis team.
• Evaluating whether each school auditee’s emergency communications system is regularly tested and maintained, and has a back-up system in case of failure.
• Determining whether each school auditee provides for safe schools and emergency training for staff, faculty and students.

The checklist is the result of a recent Department of Auditor General survey that disclosed deficiencies in school safety and security, Wagner said.

A total of 491 Pennsylvania school districts, intermediate units, vocational-technical schools, charter schools, and cyber charter schools ( “public school entities”) responded to the school safety and security survey sent to all 722 public school entities in the commonwealth on Feb. 1, 2007. The final statewide survey results showed that, while 89 percent of school districts, intermediate units, and vocational-technical units (“local educational agencies”) and 81 percent of charter and cyber charter schools (charter/cyber charter schools) responding to the survey report having a comprehensive safe schools plan, their content varied greatly and many did not address key safety elements. For example, 53 percent of LEAs and 36 percent of charter/cyber charter schools that responded lacked a single point of entry to all school buildings.

A total of 20 percent of LEAs and 60 percent of charter/cyber charter schools responding to the survey reported that they had not developed memorandums of understanding with local law enforcement agencies for handling reportable acts of violence on school property – even though the Public School Code requires this for all LEAs, Wagner said.

Wagner reported the final statewide survey results and the Department of the Auditor General’s enhancements for school audits to Gov. Rendell in a letter sent this week.

Wagner called on all agencies of state and local government and the General Assembly to work collaboratively with the Department of Education, the Office of Attorney General, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the public school entities, and other stakeholder groups to improve school safety and security.

“This can only be accomplished by making a bipartisan and concerted effort to help our public school entities develop and implement comprehensive and practical safe schools plans,” Wagner said.

Wagner said that the Department of the Auditor General’s Bureau of Departmental Audits continues its performance audit of the Department of Education, with the main focus of the audit being the duties and responsibilities with regard to safe schools initiatives.

“It is vital for state and local officials to form a partnership with public school entities to provide for the safety and well-being of all of Pennsylvania’s school children,” Wagner said.

Auditor General Jack Wagner is responsible for ensuring that all state money is spent legally and properly. He is the commonwealth’s elected independent fiscal watchdog, conducting financial audits, performance audits, and special investigations. The Department of the Auditor General conducts approximately 5,000 audits per year. To learn more about the Department of the Auditor General, taxpayers are encouraged to visit the department’s website at www.auditorgen.state.pa.us.

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