Wednesday, July 2, 2025

A unified approach to assessing safety in educational institutions

Note: it should be borne in mind that the author lives and works in Russia, so in this article, he considers the situation on the example of his country. Measures to ensure the safety of schools, other educational institutions and places with a mass stay of children that he proposes are developed by him for use in Russia, taking into account the existing law enforcement system and the situation there.

Often, after another tragedy, in expert discussions addressing the protection of educational institutions, participants use the term «security level» with various adjectives such as high, low, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, compliant, minimal, etc. However, the question arises: what exactly do they mean by this concept? What can this level be, how is it determined, and what factors influence it?
After studying publicly available information on these issues, I concluded that there is currently no unified (or even widely accepted) system for formally assessing the security level of educational facilities. Most reports containing such evaluations and conclusions are based on the personal opinions of the specialists who prepared them, relying on compliance with regulatory documents, as well as numerous guidelines, recommendations, and informational letters from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the National Guard, and other executive and local government bodies. These documents mostly contain general, and often vague, wording, making it difficult to judge how accurate and objective the conclusions drawn from them are.

After reviewing publicly available foreign practices, I also found nothing concrete; the situation on this issue appears to be similar there, despite the clear need for such a tool.
I am not a proponent of excessive standardization in security matters, but I consider this area an exception. Due to the absence of an assessment system that could, based on formal criteria, objectively calculate the security level of an educational facility with minimal influence from the «human factor»—and since I need such a tool in my work—I decided to try creating it myself.

The table presented in this article is intended to assess the security level of an educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats. The evaluation is based on 64 criteria, covering:

- Characteristics of the educational facility’s territory and location,

- Buildings and structures,

- Presence of physical security and its specifics,

- Technical security measures and their capabilities,

- Additional active and passive protective measures.

Each item, if present and—just as importantly—fully operational, is assigned the number of points indicated in the table. If absent or non-functional (fully or partially), it receives 0 points, and so on for all items. The points are then summed to produce a final score. In addition to the total score, there are factors that negatively affect the final assessment, all of which are outlined in the «Final Score Calculation Formula» section.
When completed, the table clearly shows the level of protection of the educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats, its capabilities, and, most importantly, obvious shortcomings and vulnerabilities in the security system. Based on the resulting score, measures and costs for improving the facility’s protection level can be planned.
Furthermore, using annual assessment data for one or multiple facilities, comparative and trend analysis can easily be conducted, clearly evaluating the situation in this area for a specific school, city, region, or even country over a given period—comparing both overall scores and individual indicators or sections. This is a convenient and, most importantly, objective tool for monitoring the situation. A decrease in the score, even by 1 point compared to the previous period, will immediately indicate a worsening situation and the need for action.

Author’s note: I believe that once completed, this table should be classified as at least «For Official Use Only» (or preferably with a higher restriction level), with very limited access granted to its contents. This information is too critical, and if it falls into the hands of someone planning a mass killing or terrorist attack, it could become a «lethal weapon,» significantly increasing the number of potential victims...

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A unified approach to assessing safety in educational institutions

Note:  it should be borne in mind that the author lives and works in Russia , so in this article, he considers the situation on the example ...