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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety

  Raymond J. McNulty, president of the International Center for Leadership in Education discusses that in order to see real change in our schools and move the needle on closing the achievement gap, school leaders need to try some things that aren’t “proven.”  Organizations need to experiment with “next practices” not best practices that have been researched and proven. Lessons Learned:  As Einstein said long ago, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  Lessons learned have clearly shown that schools need to replace traditional and status quo methodologies with new and innovative tools to help improve student achievement,Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, School Safety

  Attention Governors, State Education Directors, Superintendents, School Boards, Principals and community leaders: What is Brain Drain?  Most often ‘brain drain’ is defined as ‘the human capital flight’ or the loss of skilled intellectual and technical labor through the movement of such labor to more favorable geographic, economic or professional environments. But a more serious and more damaging ‘brain drain’ is taking place within our schools on a daily basis and the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention last week validates this more serious ‘brain drain’ is taking place. According to The White House Blog: Every day, thousands of kids, teens, and young adults aroundRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Regulatory Compliance

  A new study by the Ponemon Institute shows organizations that perform internal audits spent less per capita on compliance than those that didn’t perform internal audits. Larry Ponemon is chairman of the Ponemon Institute and he commented:  “I believe that the reason why internal audits reduce compliance cost is that they help prioritize the organization’s overall compliance efforts.  This leads to greater efficiency in managing the total compliance burden. In other words, companies that do not conduct audits appear to be less efficient in their ongoing program management of data protection and privacy efforts.” From my experiences and from lessons learned I agree thatRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, School Safety

  Seems like ‘winning’ is a popular word these days thanks to all the TV and radio shows that have jumped on the Mr. Sheen train. But is Mr. Sheen really winning or is he really reaching out for ‘HELP’? With the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention coming up tomorrow, it seems like ‘HELPING’ is a better word of the day.  As White House Blog points out, thousands of kids, teens, and young adults are bullied every day.  And estimates are that nearly one-third of all school-aged children are bullied each year which is upwards of 13 million students.  How are communities and schoolsRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

  Pictures are worth a thousand words.  Pictures tell stories.  So what does a picture tell about alarming trends in schools? Financial Funding is Decreasing and the ‘funding cliff is coming’… School Safety obligations and costs are increasing School Safety liabilities and costs are increasing Regulations and Federal Mandates (OCR Dear Colleague Letter) for schools are increasing Compliance costs are increasing Legal Defensibility responsibilities and costs are increasing Behavioral and mental health responsibilities and costs are increasing Bullying and Cyber Bullying related costs are increasing Suicide related costs are increasing   Funding is decreasing for many reasons and funding will continue to be an ongoingRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Incident Reporting, School Safety

  In response to the January 2011 shooting at a Nebraska high school that killed one school administrator and seriously injured another, Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial has introduced LB 516.  The bill would allow security guards, administrators and teachers to carry a concealed handgun at Nebraska public and private schools, including colleges and universities. The policy would be optional and would require a two-thirds majority vote by a school’s governing body, like the school board.  In Texas, lawmakers are also preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus Is allowing administrators and teachers to bring weapons into aRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance

  I recently came across an interview on BankInfoSecurity entitled, “Banks Must Assume Customers Will Compromise Themselves”. In this interview, Tom Oscherwitz, chief privacy officer and vice president of government affairs for ID Analytics, discussed why online security measures are failing due to basic authentication techniques.  With the use of current social networking sites, such as Facebook, customers are often revealing all the information fraudsters need to figure out their log-in credentials. Many experts (and vendors) are recommending banks increase their security measures and implement expensive fraud detection technology solutions and measures.  Unfortunately this is merely reacting to a symptom rather than preventing the problem. Read More →

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In: Success

Lynchburg, VA – Rehab Associates of Central Virginia (RACV) is proactively targeting escalating obligations and rising costs associated with information privacy, compliance, employment, risk management and security across multiple locations with Awareity’s award‐winning MOAT (Managed Ongoing Awareness and Trust) tools. What started out in 1966 as a small physical therapy practice, RACV has evolved into a thriving group of nine strategically located practices throughout Central Virginia. ITGS Consulting (a member of Awareity’s Strategic Alliance Program) and RACV’s management recognized that success in the 21st century depends on all employees (and third‐parties) understanding their individual roles and responsibilities. MOAT’s web‐based tools empower RACV’s managers to uploadRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, School Safety

  In recognition of National School Counseling Week 2011, Awareity would like to help focus your attention on the vitally important and long-lasting contributions school counselors provide in our nation’s schools. School counselors can have a tremendous impact on students of all ages.  Counselors not only help students plan for the future, but also help students deal with the everyday struggles and stresses of being a classmate, friend, peer, child, sibling, etc. Students face escalating challenges with bullying, cyber bullying, violence, safety, truancy and many other stressors.  Did you know these stressors can cause as many as 160,000 students skip school every day because theyRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Regulatory Compliance

  I wrote a couple blogs in December 2010 about importance of solving bullying problems and about the importance of awareness, accountability and measurability in solving problems.  The underlying message in each of those 2010 blogs was to point out the need to SOLVE problems rather than just talking about what SHOULD be done. So in honor of Groundhog Day and the movie Groundhog Day, today is the perfect day to shed some light (or shade) on the dreaded “should all over yourself syndrome”. And for you Tony Robbins fans, you may have heard Tony tell us all to:  “Stop shoulding all over yourself”. SoRead More →