October 5, 2007—CDW Government Inc. (CDW-G), a subsidiary of CDW Corp. and source of Information Technology (IT) solutions to governments and educators, has published its School Safety Index Self-Assessment Tool, which allows school leaders to participate in CDW-G’s School Safety Index survey and receive instant scores to learn how their school or district compares to the national school safety average CDW-G reported in June.
The School Safety Index published in June is based on a May 2007 survey of 381 school district IT and security directors on 14 elements of physical and cyber safety. It highlights the indicators of strong district safety programs, as well as the barriers to school safety.
Key findings of the School Safety Index included:
- Need for improved and ongoing cyber safety curriculum for students at all grade levels. Currently just 8 percent of districts have such programs
- Need for better faculty and parental emergency communication tools. Only 1 percent of districts reported that they are considering mass notification systems
- Tech-savvy students frustrate IT staffs by side-stepping security measures, such as firewalls, to access unapproved Web sites
The CDW-G School Safety Index Self-Assessment Tool is online. For a copy of the survey report, visit the CDW-G Web site.
