Grantee: School Board of Broward County
Project Title:
Broward Comprehensive Universal Reduction of Violence
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded grant funding to eight local districts under the OJJDP FY 2019 Comprehensive School-Based Approach to Youth Violence and Victimization Program (CYVP). This grant program supported a comprehensive effort to address youth violence and victimization through implementing evidence-based prevention, intervention, and accountability efforts in a school-based setting. The goals of the program were to: (1) reduce the incidence of school violence through accountability efforts for offenders; (2) respond to victimization, exposure to violence, and trauma as a result of violence that occurs in the school, community, or family; (3) improve school safety and climate; and (4) prevent violence, delinquency, and victimization in the targeted community. LISC Safety & Justice provided technical assistance and training to enhance CYVP grantees’ capacity to reach their goals.
Introduction
Broward County in South Florida encompasses Fort Lauderdale and other beach communities just north of Miami. Broward is the 6th largest school district in the country, with more than 254,000 students K-12. The students represent 170 different countries and speak 147 languages. The area is very mobile and the student population is ever-changing, with many students entering and leaving each year. More than 55% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Broward has a 97% graduation rate and a 98% promotion rate.
Project Purpose
Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) identified three major areas of concern for which it applied for the CYVP grant: 1) high rates of acts against persons; 2) barriers to access to existing services such as mental and physical health care; and 3) a significant increase in rates of middle school cyberbullying.
Approach
Acts against persons: The district intended to approach the first concern using both school-wide (Tier 1) and individually targeted (Tiers 2 and 3) services. The most important school-wide strategy was Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which sets a culture of expectations for behavior with positive reinforcements and tailored interventions. All BCPS schools had PBIS teams because adoption of the program was already mandatory in the district. However, only about a quarter of the 240 schools had been trained to implement it. BCPS’ first priority was to train all schools on what PBIS is and how to do it. It then planned to assign district staff to meet quarterly with the school teams to review data and discuss interventions. For more personalized Tier 2 and 3 interventions, the district identified schools with the highest rates of acts against persons and provided more intensive supports to reduce their incident numbers.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted this work, which was slated to begin in early 2020. With school and office buildings shut down, BCPS could not hire staff or hold trainings. BCPS had hoped the Tier 1 PBIS implementation would make a significant impact to improve violence, but this work was delayed by about two years. As schools have reopened, the district remains committed to embedding PBIS in all schools. The School Climate and Discipline Department has funding for its original cohort of PBIS workers and has secured funding for ten additional support workers who will provide hands-on assistance to schools.
Utilization of support resources: To address low usage of mental health and other services, BCPS has two aims. It wanted to improve ease of access to services in a way that was user-friendly for schools and it wanted to decrease the stigma around the need for mental health or violence prevention services. One concern was that there simply was not enough awareness of the services available among the people who needed them. BCPS created a “school resource locator.” This publicly accessible web page allows users to search programs and services by need, student’s age, geographic location, and payment type (e.g., self-pay, free, or Medicaid).
Collaborating with outside entities that provide services within the district, BCPS included the school resource locator into a joint mental health campaign supported by both the schools and the service providers. Every school now uses the campaign and every classroom in the district has a poster declaring “help is here.” In addition, every staff member who has had youth mental health or first aid training now wears campaign lanyards that say, “I'm here to help.”
The district has also added mental health and violence questions into the annual customer survey that all families must complete. These elements have combined several efforts that had been taking place singly, both inside and outside the schools, into a cohesive campaign that is now mandatory throughout the district.
Cyberbullying: Addressing online behavior became even more necessary during the pandemic as student use of technology increased overnight. BCPS used grant funds to design a “Think Before You Post” curriculum with lessons for grades 3-5 and 6-12. The district launched the curriculum as an opt-in program for most middle schools, but required schools with the highest levels of electronic misconduct to implement it. As the grant progressed and data showed decreases in occurrence at the targeted schools, the district revamped the curriculum to a research-based, positive community norms approach. They used student focus groups to inform the content and hired graphic designers to make the lessons clear and visually appealing. Think Before You Post will now be mandatory curriculum for grades K-12.
Results
BCPS data shows that the mean percentage of students experiencing violent acts reduced slightly district-wide. However, the four schools receiving more intensive services all had significant reductions in acts against persons. Results for cyberbullying were similar. Incident rates remained generally the same across the district, but incidents declined in three of the four schools receiving intensive interventions.
The district is also seeing higher student participation in pro-social clubs such as SAVE Promise that give young people opportunities to engage in positive activities outside of their classrooms. BCPS officials view these clubs as an avenue to create a norm of non-violence and to shift behavior. At the start the grant in 2019, a few schools had Choose Peace/Stop Violence programming through United Way of Broward County. Now every secondary school and elementary school has been offered the program; several secondary schools and about 95% of elementary schools are participating.
Principals in BCPS traditionally have a great deal of autonomy to set the programs for their schools, so it is not easy for the district to make programming mandatory. District officials say it is a tribute to how effective the PBIS, mental health, and cyber bullying campaigns have been that high numbers of schools were willing to adopt the programs when they were optional. It speaks to the power of word of mouth between principals about what is really working for them. In turn, it became easier for the school district to embed these efforts more widely because schools can clearly see their value in reducing violence and victimization.
Related Resources
Webinar: Student- and Community-led Violence Prevention Strategies for Schools
See all of LISC's resources on comprehensive school-based approaches to addressing youth violence and victimization.
The Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) works to prevent and respond to youth delinquency and protect children.
Resources on this page are supported by Grant 2019-MU-MU-K011, awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).
OJJDP provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to youth delinquency and victimization. The Office helps states, localities, and tribes develop effective and equitable juvenile justice systems that create safer communities and empower youth to lead productive lives.