Accountability-based programs that are developed and implemented within a comprehensive approach to school safety should incorporate several key elements. The following principles are the foundation of successful accountability-based school safety programs:

• Emphasis on student involvement. No program, no matter how well crafted or implemented, can successfully promote school safety without the involvement of students. In many districts, students and parents sign “contracts” with the school that will govern the students’ academic and social conduct in school. These “contracts” are developed by the students and parents in consultation with teachers and other school personnel, often including school resource officers. Where appropriate, such as in the case of juveniles on probation, the local juvenile justice system may be involved. Students should be encouraged to behave responsibly and to report the dangerous or threatening behavior of their peers. They should be held accountable for knowing and following school rules, resolving problems nonviolently, and respecting the feelings of other students and the authority of school staff and faculty.

• Meaningful offender- and offense-specific responses to every act of misconduct. Often, initial acts of misconduct are ignored, paving the way for subsequent misbehavior. If the goal of increasing school security is to be reached, each act of misconduct should be met with a measured, appropriate consequence. To do this, schools must implement policies and procedures for monitoring infractions of rules and other student misconduct. At the same time, schools must be careful not to infringe on students’ rights to due process.

• Graduated sanctions appropriate to the seriousness of the misconduct and the history of the offender. As students commit additional, more serious acts, the school’s response to those behaviors should also increase in severity. As outlined in OJJDP’s Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders, a model graduated sanctions system combines treatment and rehabilitation with reasonable, fair, humane, and appropriate sanctions.