School Safety & Wellness: A Perfect Storm
- David Brake
- Sep 12
- 4 min read
School districts are facing a perfect school safety & wellness storm: exploding legal settlements, mass teacher exodus, and student wellness crises. Two affordable, evidence-based solutions can calm the storm before it hits.
Legal Settlements
Legal settlements for safety-related incidents in K-12 schools have exploded dramatically in the last decade. United Educators reported 54 settlements exceeding $2.5 million in 2024 alone—and 118 total settlements over $250,000. This represents a significant escalation from just 19 cases of $250,000 or more in 2015.
These aren't abstract statistics—they represent real districts facing devastating consequences.
Case-in-Point: The Carpinteria Unified School District in California, operating on a $42 million annual budget, now confronts potential liabilities of $20-40 million from safety-related lawsuits. They've already spent $750,000 on legal fees alone and been forced to cut staff and programs.
The Exodus of Educators
Nearly half of all teachers in the U.S. have thought about leaving the profession. When staff do leave, a particularly vicious cycle begins. Each departing teacher costs approximately $20,000 to replace in urban districts. Districts serving high-poverty and high-minority populations face 50-70% higher teacher turnover rates.
The US now faces a severe teacher shortage, driven by both inadequate production of new teachers (due to declining enrollment in college programs and some program closures) and alarming retention rates, particularly in high-need schools. While the exact five-year attrition rate varies by study methodology, the combination of supply and retention has created a perfect storm in our nation’s public schools.
Why do teachers leave? The most common reasons include concerns about school safety and challenges with a growing number of students that struggle with wellness.
The Student Wellness Factor
From a teacher's practical standpoint, student wellness means having students who arrive ready to learn, can form positive relationships, handle academic and social challenges constructively, and leave each day having grown personally and academically. It recognizes that a child's nervous system can function optimally only when the child feels a sense of safety and belonging, making student wellness fundamental to all other educational outcomes.
The Path Forward: Two Solutions Every District Can Afford
As district leaders and school boards deal with this school safety and wellness longtail, the encouraging news is that two of the most effective solutions are perhaps the most affordable options available. In fact, these two evidence-based strategies stand out as both affordable and highly effective.
1. Implement Comprehensive 360-Degree Safety and Wellness Surveys
Most school assessments rely on limited viewpoints or administrative observations, missing crucial perspectives that could prevent costly incidents. A comprehensive survey approach captures insights from students, staff, and parents—three stakeholder groups who each see different aspects of school life.
Students provide the most direct insight into daily school experiences, revealing issues adults might miss, including unreported bullying and safety concerns during different times of day. Their responses often uncover problems before they escalate into costly incidents requiring legal intervention.
Staff members offer professional observations about behavior patterns and systemic challenges, bridging the gap between administrative policies and ground-level implementation. Their insights reveal where safety procedures work well and where they fall short—critical information for preventing the liability issues that lead to expensive settlements.
Parents contribute external perspectives on how school experiences affect their children and community confidence in safety measures. Their feedback often highlights concerns that may not surface in other data sources but could signal brewing problems.
When analyzed together, these three perspectives allow school districts to see patterns of alignment and instances of mis-alignment. An AI-based analysis can highlight significant problem areas to be addressed.
This evidence-based approach enables leaders to allocate resources strategically, adjust policies based on actual stakeholder experiences, and demonstrate proactive safety management to legal and insurance stakeholders.
2. Focus on Student-Staff Connectedness
Research from the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey provides compelling evidence that student connectedness serves as a powerful protective factor. Students with high school connectedness show 18 percentage points lower rates of poor mental health (22.0% versus 40.1%) and demonstrate universal reduction in risk behaviors across every category examined.
When students have meaningful relationships with at least one adult at school, they experience fewer absences, better academic performance, higher graduation rates, and decreased mental health and disciplinary issues. Equally important, student connectedness enhances staff retention and recruiting while creating safer school environments for everyone.
The protective mechanisms are well-documented: connected students are more likely to seek help when experiencing problems, develop better conflict resolution skills, and engage in fewer risk behaviors. They report greater feelings of safety and are more willing to report concerns to trusted adults—creating an early warning system that can prevent incidents from escalating into costly crises.
The Investment Imperative
The evidence is clear: making school safety, security, and student wellness higher strategic priorities is best for students, staff, and the efficient operation of schools. It’s also a financially prudent move because of the potential savings that can be realized. The question isn't whether districts can afford to make these things a higher priority—it's whether they can afford not to.
How Can Grandview Help?
If you would like to learn more about how Grandview can help you bring this 360-degree (Student/Staff/Parent) School Safety & Wellness Survey to your school district, contact us today.
The Grandview Group, LLC
Tel: 877-845-8449
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With over 25 years of experience in educational, professional, and technology-based publishing, David is part of an AI-driven transformation in information publishing. He is the founder and CEO of The Grandview Group, a consulting company that helps publishers and authors develop and engage their target audience in information and insight gathering activities that inform business decisions and create product advocates.
