Educational and Community Leadership

Risk Management System

trainingJoel L. Smith
The Risk Management System is a system designed to align a student who has demonstrated risk factors (for not graduating from high school) with a responsible adult who has resources available to ameliorate the student’s risk, and then progress monitor the amelioration process.  The RMS demands an answer to the SO WHAT question: so what if you know that the student is exhibiting at risk behaviors, what are you going to do about it?  The system is designed to accept questions about student issues from school staff, as well as generate support referrals automatically based on the systemic identification of new risk factors (such as a student being absent for a specified number of days or in recognition of academic performance trending negatively).  It is also designed to expect progress monitoring (it is, in practice, a self monitoring system).  It was designed with the inherent capability to refer students who have not responded to interventions to the next professional with more resources at their disposal to address the risks. Students can be referred to community partners who specialize in addressing those more intensive risks.

By June, 2009, Joel had succeeded in moving this visionary conceptualization past planning toward creation and implementation.  Joel was then asked to be a Project Bridge Core Team member.  Project Bridge is the community based leadership team assembled by the School Board of Broward County’s Office of Prevention Programs, the lead recipient of the Safe Students, Healthy Kids grant. These members, some of whom were in Joel’s original planning team, share the vision regarding the importance of the Risk Management System.  This level of commitment insured the continuation of the initiative.  The Risk Management System was piloted in approximately 25 schools commensurate with the start of school in August 2010.



Risk Management FlowChart
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Risk Management FlowChart

 

It's Always the Right Time to do the Right Thing-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.