The persistent threat of gun violence has underscored a need to elevate the baseline-level of security for K-12 schools nationally. By their very nature schools have been exploited as soft targets. The task of hardening the K-12 community is no small undertaking, but the benefits of doing so are immeasurable.
As such, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP) is pleased to present K-12 School Security: A Guide for Preventing and Protecting against Gun Violence (2nd ed., 2018). The Guide provides preventive and protective measures to address the threat of gun violence in schools. It is delivered in two parts: the first portion is a PDF with general security best practices and considerations in narrative format; while the second portion is a Microsoft Excel-based security survey. These documents will be made available at https://www.dhs.gov/publication/k-12-school-security-guide.
Together, these documents outline action-oriented security practices and options for consideration based on the results of the individual school’s responses to the survey. While the primary audience for the Guide is the K-12 community, institutions of higher education or pre-K schools may also benefit from the information presented. Please feel free to disseminate the Guide to anyone you think could benefit from this information.