Information released Tuesday by the Office of Attorney General Josh Kaul seeks to remind Wisconsin residents that resources are available through the state’s Office of School Safety (OSS).

According to the release, since 2018, OSS “has developed crucial materials for educational communities that prevent school violence.”

Quoted within the release, Kaul said: “DOJ’s Office of School Safety works diligently to help keep our schools safe, and its services will be available throughout the 2024-25 school year. We are committed to working to secure longterm funding for the Office of School Safety so it can continue helping to keep schools safe far beyond this school year.”

As stated in the release, one of these services, titled: “Foundations of Targeted Violence Prevention” is an eLearning module made available to the public in 2023 by OSS in partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis, National Threat Evaluation and Reporting (NTER) Office.

The release described the program as an eLearning course, aimed at educating the public on the prevention of acts of targeted violence.

In these acts, the release read, rather than behaving impulsively, perpetrators undertake a process of planning and preparation. With the course, community members can determine how to identify the behaviors that occur in this planning stage, learn where to report concerning information, and understand how the information they report keeps Wisconsin communities safe.

There is a national and state of Wisconsin version of this course, the release continued, both of which are developed based on research from federal homeland security partners.

The Wisconsin version contains resources for reporting threatening or potentially concerning behavior specifically in Wisconsin. The national version can be found on the DHS website. These courses are available to anyone at any time.

“They are one of the ways in which OSS empowers individuals to participate in keeping their communities safe,” the release noted.

Additionally, the release stated, the Office of School Safety provides programs that are crucial for protecting educational staff and students.

In 2020, OSS launched “Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO),” a 24/7 statewide confidential reporting system free to all Wisconsin schools. It provides a single point of contact for reporting concerns before violence can occur.

Those interested in learning more about the program are encouraged to visit the following website: speakup.widoj.gov.

The Office of School Safety also offers a variety of free trainings concerning violence prevention, protection, mitigation, crisis response, and recovery. These include trainings for Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM), Standard Response Protocol (SRP), and the Standard Reunification Method (SRM). OSS offers regional trainings to communities that request it.

OSS also has twelve trained Critical Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) around the state. These teams provide all Wisconsin K-12 public, private, charter, and tribal schools access to a regional team to support them if crisis events occur. CIRTs are made up of multi-disciplinary volunteers including law enforcement officials, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and school administrators. They provide resources to help aid the recovery process for school communities impacted by critical incidents, including long-term mental health services for those who require them, the release stated.

About Office of School Safety funding

According to the release, earlier this year, Gov. Tony Evers signed Assembly Bill 1050 into law, which provides bridge funding for the Office of School Safety to continue its school safety initiatives in Wisconsin through September 2025. This bridge funding will allow the state to potentially provide stable funding for the OSS as part of the 2025-2027 biennial budget. While this bridge funding has allowed OSS to continue its success in keeping students and teachers safe, longterm funding is still needed.