Leadership for Safe Schools: The Three Pillar Approach to Supporting Students’ Mental Health

Leadership for Safe Schools is every school and district leader’s guide to developing practical policies and carefully designed action plans to ensure that K–12 students are physically and psychologically safe, secure, and supported. With today’s students experiencing soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality―in addition to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the normalization of school shootings―school personnel desperately need multifaceted approaches that decrease violence, facilitate social connectedness, and promote emotional well-being. This book’s proactive, preventive, and responsive Three Pillar Model offers a coherent framework for creating safe and supportive schools and fostering student mental health.

Each chapter guides school leaders and administrators to implement evidence-based interventions and strategies, including:

• strategies for school safety, threat assessment, suicide prevention, and anti-violence efforts
• easy-to-apply improvements to school climate and culture
• social supports for diverse students, including the marginalized, victimized, and at-risk
• effective partnerships with families, communities, and other spheres of influence
• principles from positive psychology and social-emotional learning
• research-based strategies for trauma-informed care and crisis response

Whether you are a principal or superintendent; a school psychologist, counselor, or social worker; or a school resource officer, nurse, or proactive teacher, this book will be your all-in-one inspiration for fostering resilient learning environments and implementing multi-component prevention and intervention strategies to support students’ mental health.

Philip J. Lazarus is Associate Professor and former Director of the School Psychology Program at Florida International University, USA. He is Past-President of the National Association of School Psychologists and Founder and Past-Chairperson of its National Emergency Assistance Team. He is a licensed psychologist, a NASP PREPaRE trainer, and the author or editor of several books related to mental health.

Michael L. Sulkowski is Associate Professor of School Psychology and School Psychology Program Coordinator at the University of Alabama, USA. He is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, a NASP PREPaRE trainer, and an author of books on evidence-based interventions to facilitate student mental health.