2017 Texas Public Junior Colleges Safety and Security Needs Assessment Report

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) serves public junior colleges in Texas by providing education, training and resources relating to safety, security and health. Therefore, it is important to conduct regular needs assessments in order to ensure that the information provided is relevant and applicable to the current safety needs of junior colleges. Further, assessments of these campus environments assist stakeholders, administrators, educators, and other staff to plan, prepare and respond effectively to issues of safety and security. Toward this aim, the TxSSC conducted a needs assessment of all Texas public junior colleges in the spring of 2017. The main objectives of this assessment were:

1. To determine the safety and security needs and concerns of Texas public junior college districts.
2. To explore how the TxSSC can effectively disseminate information and provide educational opportunities to public junior colleges to meet these needs.

“Assessments of these campus environments assist stakeholders, administrators, educators, and other staff to plan, prepare and respond effectively to issues of safety and security.”

Methods

The objectives of this study were met by administering an online questionnaire that was distributed to junior college administrators using Qualtrics. The questionnaire included two parts and contained approximately 52 questions. The first part asked junior college administrators about various topics relating to safety and security issues at their campuses. While the second part asked how they would prefer to receive information and resources from the TxSSC. All fifty public junior college districts were invited to participate in the study.

Findings

• All forms of violence were reported as ‘moderately concerning” issues most often by districts.
• The difficulty related to identifying minors and the presence of sex offenders on campuses were reported as ‘very concerning’ or ‘moderately concerning’ issues by the majority of districts.
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• Forty percent of the junior college districts reported alcohol use as a ‘moderately concerning’ issue, while 33.3 percent reported it as a ‘very concerning’ issue at their campuses.
• A majority of the districts reported drug use, sale, or abuse as a ‘moderately concerning’ or ‘very concerning’ issue at their campuses.
• Fifty percent of the junior college districts indicated that the ability to provide assistance to students with special needs or disabilities during an evacuation is a ‘very concerning’ safety issue to them.
• Sixty three percent of the junior college districts reported they are ‘extremely interested’ in the development of standards for safety and security.
• Sixty percent of the districts reported staying up to date with the CLERY Act and Title IX were ‘extremely concerning’ issues for their campuses.
• Ninety percent of the districts reported the use of law enforcement officers on their campuses. Among districts that reported the use of law enforcement officers, forty percent indicated training and resources relating to the roles of officers would be extremely useful to their campuses.
• Forty three percent of the districts reported additional training, education or assistance on mitigation/prevention, preparedness and response would be extremely useful to them. Also, fifty percent of the districts reported training on the continuity of operations for emergency planning would be very useful to their districts.
• A majority of the districts indicated live online webinars, recorded videos and additional toolkits would be useful to them. Also, 43.3 percent of the districts expressed that, additional toolkits would be very useful to their districts.

“Sixty three percent of the junior college districts reported they are ‘extremely interested’ in the development of standards for safety and security.”

“Ninety percent of the districts reported the use of law enforcement officers on their campuses. Among districts that reported the use of law enforcement officers, forty percent indicated training and resources relating to the roles of officers would be extremely useful to their campuses.”