Introduction - Page 1  Page 2  Page 3

While all SESIR incidents are serious, not all incidents are necessarily illegal or criminal. Look over these SESIR reporting considerations.

• Law Enforcement Action

While all SESIR incidents are serious, not all incidents are necessarily illegal or criminal. Therefore, for SESIR incidents, schools must involve law enforcement consistent with the district's zero tolerance policy as required in 1006.13(2), F.S. The zero tolerance policy defines criteria for reporting to a law enforcement agency acts that poses a threat to school safety, defines acts that pose a threat to school safety and defines petty acts of misconduct which are not a threat to school safety and do not require consultation with law enforcement.

• SESIR by incident/discipline by student 

SESIR focuses on the specific incident, not the offenders. If ten students are involved in one episode of vandalism at the school, from a SESIR perspective, that would be reported as one incident. Therefore, for accurate SESIR data, be sure to remember that SESIR is by incident. Discipline resulting from the SESIR incident, on the other hand, is by student. Each student involved in the vandalism incident would most likely have a discipline action filed. Your school needs a means to keep this distinction straight when entering the data into your software system. One SESIR report for the incident, then a discipline action filed for each student involved.
 
SESIR Legal and Statutory Basis

1001.212(8), F.S. Office of Safe Schools (review and evaluate reports for compliance)

1001.54(3), F.S. Duties of Principals (school reports are accurate and timely)

1002.33(16), F.S. Charter Schools (charter schools shall comply with SESIR requirements)

1006.07(9), F.S. District School Board Duties... (adopt policies for SESIR reporting)

1006.09(6), F.S. Duties of Principals (standardized form)

SBOE Rule 6A-1.0017 School Environmental Safety Incident Reporting
 
The most fundamental reason for using SESIR is to make schools safer for children. You are familiar with the benefits of a safe school – it promotes academic success, responsible citizenship, and personal growth and it contributes to the future productive employment of its students. 
Here are some of the ways that SESIR contributes to safe schools:
 

1. SESIR standardizes the definitions of serious crimes and violent acts in schools. How does this help make schools safer? When all schools within a district (and state) are using the same definitions to define criminal and/or violent incidents, the accuracy of the data increases. We then get a clearer picture of what’s going on in the schools in each district, schools can more specifically document results to funding agencies, and set more concrete and justifiable goals for interventions. 
    
2. SESIR furnishes the data needed for a strong grant application to fund prevention programs and other interventions to build school safety. The data are compiled and made available in an easy to read report at a school, district, or state level. Not only is the needs assessment completed in this manner, but schools then have a ready means to document on-going progress and the end results of interventions, all of which are appealing to foundations and other funding sources.
   
   The SESIR annual reports also provide relevant incident and discipline data to present to school boards or school advisory councils.
    
3. Our SESIR data are reported to the federal government.

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