The Office of School Safety and Learning support was established to help schools in Tennessee provide safe environments for their students to grow and learn. The office emphasizes the need for schools to work hand-in-hand with their communities to improve safety. Staff members coordinate training programs that target issues challenging today's schools. They also administer the 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Lottery for Education: Afterschool Programs, the Safe Schools Act of 1998 and the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act.
In 2005, Tennessee passed its first anti-bullying law. In 2009, two more anti-bullying laws were approved that expand upon that law. Technology has led to a problem never seen before: cyberbullying, which creates a whole new set of challenges to address. One of the new laws requires each local education agency adopt a policy prohibiting harassment or bullying. The second law approved this year broadens misdemeanor offense for harassment, so it now includes maliciously intimidating another person using any method of communication and causing them emotional damage, including bullying by e-mail or over the Internet.
The Schools Against Violence in Education Act or SAVE Act establishes requirements for local education agencies as they work to maintain safe schools. It also establishes a safety team to help school administrators plan and implement a safety strategy. Schools are required to submit a variety of documents describing their safety strategy, including an emergency response plan, which they are encouraged to work with their local emergency response agencies to create.
The funding from this act is provided to prevent violence or disruptive behavior in school, as well as prepare for the inevitability that it may occur. The funds are used to provide programs on violence prevention, school resource officers, conflict resolution, disruptive behavior management, improving security and training for school employees on how to identify potential perpetrators of school violence.
The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act is a federal law, providing funding for programs to prevent violence and drug and tobacco use. It teaches that in order for students to reach their full potential, they need an environment that is free of violence and drug use and lack of discipline. The principles of effectiveness require that Tennessee schools create educational programs based on research-based prevention activities; that they plan activities based on the needs of the community, as determined by objective data; that they find a way to measure performance; that they involve parents; and that they perform evaluations afterward.