State School Security Marshal pleased with Ky.’s report results, looks ahead

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) — Kentucky’s School Safety Risk Assessment Report was released this week, reassuring parents when sending their kids off to school.

Each district receives its own risk assessment, but they are not released to the public in order to protect vulnerabilities. Its purpose is to help schools improve their level of safety.

“The report itself that just came out this week is a culmination of all of the risk assessments put together and gives us a good blanket of what’s going on in the state of Kentucky,” said State School Security Marshal Ben Wilcox.

After House Bill 63 was passed last year, the School Safety Risk Assessment Report has only continued to improve.

HB 63 requires that each Kentucky school campus have a school resource officer.

“We’re still not at 100% of the campuses covered, but with the passing of HB 63, we did have a 33% increase in officers covering our campuses,” Wilcox said.

Wilcox added there are three different sections in which they assess the school in accordance with the School Safety and Resiliency Act.

First is the access control portion which ensures doors are being locked, cameras are working and more.

Second is making sure trauma-informed care is up to date and there are clear emergency operation plans

And last is current trends where schools go above and beyond with their safety — which can help other schools improve as well.

“Compliance is checking the box, commitment is making sure we’re doing it and we’re doing it for the right reasons, and that’s what we’re seeing across the state,” Wilcox said.

Wilcox says he’s proud of Kentucky and hopes for the continued improvement and standard of school safety.

“The numbers look phenomenal, we’re on our fifth-year assessment, the schools have been assessed four times already, they understand and they understand why the mandates are in place. It’s not just, ‘Oh it’s a law we have to follow,’ no it’s a law we follow to keep our kids safe,” he said.

The School Safety Risk Assessment Report changes with new legislation and trends to ensure each report is diligent in evaluating the safety of schools.