The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is implementing several programs that are designed to help its schools ensure they are safe and supportive, thereby improving student outcomes. Below are descriptions of three such programs.

Safe and Supportive Schools
With a U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students Safe and Supportive Schools grant, MDE is addressing the needs of students at risk of educational failure in the state's lowest achieving schools. The initiative will help schools raise levels of academic achievement by using results from student, parent, and staff surveys and student incident data to drive decision-making in the selection of programmatic interventions. The goals of the initiative focus on three major areas: (1) develop a comprehensive measurement system; (2) build capacity at the state and local levels to facilitate safe and supportive school environments; and (3) implement research-based interventions to increase levels of school safety and engagement.

Building State Capacity for Preventing Youth Substance Use and Violence Prevention
With a U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students Building State Capacity grant, MDE is helping schools implement and sustain a complex change process that will address substance use, violence, and related mental health issues systemically as part of a positive school climate that will promote academic achievement. The State’s strategic plan will provide a sustainable infrastructure of partnerships and capacity within the State to provide resources and training to schools in prevention programming. 

Safe Schools/Healthy Students
Since 1999 the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice have collaboratively funded and supported the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative. The SS/HS Initiative is a discretionary grant to implement a coordinated SS/HS comprehensive plan of activities, curricula, programs, and services that focus on creating safe school environments, promoting healthy childhood development, and preventing youth violence and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use, henceforth referred to as the SS/HS comprehensive plan. An eligible applicant is a local educational agency (LEA) or a consortium of LEAs that partner with their local public mental health, law enforcement, and juvenile justice agencies to develop and submit a community-specific SS/HS comprehensive plan that addresses five elements. Michigan has two 2008 Safe School Healthy Students grantees.

 

The Michigan Department of Education is assessing school safety and conditions for learning in the state by addressing the limited school utilization of available data through the development of a comprehensive measurement system that allows for reliable comparisons of data. The state, through the Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth (MiPHY) (a voluntary, online survey for students) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) survey, currently gathers data related to student health and safety that is under-utilized by schools. Michigan plans to use student, parent, and staff survey results and student incident data to drive decision making in the selection of programmatic interventions.

The MiPHY is administered to students online every other year in the even years. Data are collected from 7th, 9th, and 11th graders. Schools decide whether to do a census survey, or select a sample (if eligible). Measures include alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use, violence and unintentional injury, depression and suicide, sex, physical activity, nutrition, and Hawkin’s and Catalano’s Risk and Protective Factors.

On a biannual basis, Michigan collects data on priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults as part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). Below is data for a selection of YRBSS indicators for Michigan and the United States.