Readout of Federal Commission on School Safety Event Hosted by DHS Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen

On August 16, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen hosted the fifth Federal Commission on School Safety meeting, which focused on best practices for school building security, active shooter training for schools, and school-based threat assessments. The Commission meeting was chaired by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and attended by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II.

The Department is committed to using the experience and expertise it has developed over the past fifteen years to better secure our schools. While schools present unique security challenges, DHS has led national efforts to protect the American people and our critical infrastructure from terrorist attacks.

The participants on all three panels shared their insight into what schools can do to create safe and secure learning environments. The panels focused on a diverse set of measures that can be tailored to the needs of individual schools from enhancing physical security to best practices to mitigate the threat of active shooters to establishing school-based threat assessments that can help avoid incidents through early intervention.

Over the last few months, the Commission has hosted several listening sessions, formal Commission meetings and field visits. For more information, please visit the FCSS website: https://www.ed.gov/school-safety. Those with recommendations on how to increase school safety can send them to safety@ed.gov.

Watch today’s Commission meeting here.