Safe & Drug-Free Schools
& Communities Act

Safe & Drug Free Schools & Communities Act

CIU20 coordinates and administrates this federally funded program for all the nonpublic schools in Intermediate Units 14, 20, 21, and 29.

Part of the program is the provision of training for teachers, principals, and support personnel in SAP, (Student Assistance Program). This high school level team approach assists a student how has academic, behavioral or emotional issues which affect school success. The IST (Instructional Support Team) team process is provided to students at the elementary level who have academic, behavioral or emotional issues that interfere with school success. Most of the elementary schools offer a school wide violence prevention program named Second Step. Columbia University’s TeenScreen program is offered at the middle or high school level as a proactive approach to suicide prevention and mental health support. Crisis trainings include national Organization of Victims Assistance (NOVA), and Cherie Lovre’s Crisis Team Training.

A major component of this program is the Student Crisis Assistance Manual. This manual, created by members of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Advisory Board, has been adopted by the State of Pennsylvania as the official document for managing crisis situations in schools. The manual can be found here in both pdf and Word format.

Topics covered include: drug and alcohol issues, child abuse, death in the school community, suicide, medical emergencies, natural disasters, child custody issues, missing children, weapons, and violence and Megan’s Law..