Enhancing School Safety Through Digital Intelligence: Evaluating Campus Shield

Miami-Dade County Public Schools, (M-DCPS), the fourth largest school district in the continental U.S. has a highly diverse and multi-cultural/multi-lingual population comprised of 354,900 students, is pleased to submit this proposal in collaboration with WestEd and the Police Foundation to the National Institute of Justice solicitation entitled Developing Knowledge about What Works to Make Schools Safe. Specifically, we request support for implementing, pilot testing, and experimentally evaluating the effects of an innovative, intelligence fusion center, Campus Shield, for proactively identifying and addressing school safety threats and issues to serve the dual purposes of prevention and planning, and resource allocation. The Campus Shield intervention will also include access card and security camera installations, and linkage to mental health services through access to Mental Health Specialists. This unique, multi-component approach that links law enforcement analysis and mental health services represents an innovative strategy for addressing urban school safety. This project will provide a rigorous experimental test of the effectiveness of the Campus Shield package on school safety and will contribute knowledge to the field about the impact of such complex interventions. ca/ncf