School Safety

School and student safety is always our main priority. Having a uniform, planned, and practiced response to any incident is the foundation of a safe school.

CCPS has adopted the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) for the 2023-2024 school year. This protocol is approved by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety (VCSCS). Our School Resource Officers have played an integral part in training our administrators and teachers in the new protocols. They will also continue participating in our ongoing safety drill and exercises and helping our students understand the SRP in their schools.

The SRP is action-based, flexible, and easy to learn. It rationally organizes tactics for response to weather events, fires, accidents, intruders and other threats to personal safety.

The SRP’s development was created with extensive collaboration between experts such as first responders, public safety, school, districts, and communities. Its tactics are data-driven, researched and based on experience and contemporary practices.

The benefits of SRP become quickly apparent. By standardizing the vocabulary, all stakeholders can understand the response and status of the event.

For students, this provides continuity of expectations and actions throughout their educational career. For teachers, this becomes a simpler process to train and drill.