General Practices and Procedures

We require visitors to present photo identification upon arrival at any of our school buildings. Our buildings log visitors, helping our employees make informed decisions about whom is admitted into our schools and being able to account for all persons in the event of an emergency.

Cameras are positioned in our buildings and school buses and are evaluated regularly and upgraded over time.

We provide teaching and learning opportunities for staff related to things such as, Emergency Preparedness Training and Suicide & Bully Awareness Training. Training is also provided for steps to be taken in more general critical incident scenarios like severe weather events.

Various drills such as fire drills, shelter in place drills, and lockdown drills are examples of measures taken by our school to prepare students for an emergency. We recognize developmental differences among our students and attempt to tailor those trainings and drills appropriately in an effort to prepare students without disrupting their comfort.

We want students to grow up seeing police officers as resources rather than foes. Therefore, we extend an open invitation to our police partners to visit and walk through our buildings, interacting with students and staff. We believe this is critical to the promotion of healthy relationships between the school, its students and law enforcement.

CCCS continues to focus on addressing students' social and emotional health, which correlates closely to maintaining safe, secure school environments. The framework used for academic and behavioral interventions include tiered systems of supports, school-wide positive behavior plans, anti-bullying initiatives, and protocols for handling complaints.

As one facet of providing a safe and secure learning environment for our students, we take proactive measures to prevent illegal materials in our schools. All hallway and gym lockers are property of the school and are loaned to our students. Thus, school officials may search student lockers if the building administrator has a reasonable suspicion that a student's locker contains an article which threatens the safety of the school.

As stated in school policy, these searches may include the use of canine units. Any illegal materials found as a result of a search may be used as evidence against the student in disciplinary or criminal proceedings.

The search of a student's person and personal property will be permitted when there is a reasonable suspicion that the student has on his or her person items in violation of law or school policy. The designated school official may use additional security devices to aide in the search. Students are encouraged to report any illegal materials to an adult.

We work intentionally to develop and send messages that keep our many stakeholders informed. We focus on providing clear and accurate information before releasing it to the public. While we understand that people may want immediate details, our goal is to provide information as timely as possible, ensuring that what we release is accurate. We also coordinate with our local police departments to ensure that the information shared is clear and consistent.  And our top priority is always attending to the safety and security of the people in our school.

We encourage parents/guardians to conduct mental and emotional check-ins with their children. It is important to allow children to learn and process information in an age-appropriate manner while also preventing any media messages from feeding fears.

As per Pennsylvania Act 44, schools & districts must convene a team of individuals who proactively assess the conditions, policies, and procedures of the organization in order to prevent or reduce the chance that potentially violent situations may occur. Our team meets on a regular basis with the common purpose of identifying, assessing, and managing students and is comprised of some combination of school administrators, counselor, and mental health professionals.