Assessment Tool Identifies School Safety Weaknesses
VERNON HILLS, Ill. — CDW Government Inc. released a new security assessment tool for U.S. schools that will allow administrators to evaluate their district’s safety profile and learn how it compares to the national school safety average.
Using a point system, the School Safety Index Self-Assessment Tool scores a school district on 10 indicators of physical and network security and then shows areas for improvement.
Indicators of physical security include building access, local authority communication, education, faculty communication and parental communication. Weaknesses include physical breaches and security barriers.
Data monitoring, network access, user authentication, education and student protection are considered network security strengths, while IT breaches and barriers are assessed as weaknesses.
The assessment tool is part of the company’s School Safety Index survey published in June, which polled 381 district IT and security directors to determine a national school safety average and identify common security weaknesses among districts.
The study identified three main risk areas for school districts, including a lack of a network safety curriculum for students, antiquated faculty and parental communication systems and possible network compromise from students side-stepping IT safety measures.
On average, districts surveyed scored 55.3 points out of a possible 110 on the network security index. A majority of districts (81 percent) reported regular monitoring of student Internet activity, locating computer monitors in view of adults (89 percent) and blocking inappropriate Web sites (95 percent), the survey states. Only 38 percent use a closed district network to ensure more control over Internet access and communication.
School leaders cited increased technical expertise of students as one of the leading challenges to network security. Students can put a district network or themselves at risk by working around IT safety procedures, such as firewalls, and setting up proxy servers to access blocked Web sites.
Almost every district polled has an acceptable use policy for online activity, but 37 percent update their APUs less than once a year, making it difficult for districts to set policies for social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook.
Less than 10 percent of districts reported providing a network training program to students to prevent identity theft and accessing inappropriate content, according to the survey. Administrators say that filtering software is used more than student training to protect networks.
Out of a maximum 160 points, districts scored an average of 44 points on the physical safety index.
More than half (63 percent) use security cameras on campus, and many report they may install cameras within the next two years, the survey states. Nearly 25 percent of school districts reported real-time access to a sex offender database.
Many districts (48 percent) rely on intercom systems to communicate with faculty during an emergency. Fifty-four percent reported phone calls as the preferred method for reaching parents in a crisis situation. Only 1 percent of school districts are considering mass notification systems as a way of communicating with faculty and parents, according to the survey.