School site safety teams have discovered a number of successful approaches to violence prevention. A hallmark of these effective approaches is strong partnerships among school personnel, parents, and the community at large. Studies have shown when parents and other caring adults are on campus as part of a school's safety measures, their presence tends to have a greater effect on reducing unwanted incidents and disruptive behavior than the presence of school administrators alone.

Since most crimes tend to occur in places where there is less chance of being caught, safety experts cite numerous ways in which the environmental structure of a school can enhance or inhibit the potential for violence. A simple and inexpensive approach is a volunteer campus supervision program. In programs of this type, parents volunteer to work with administration to ensure the entire campus is supervised. To extend the safety net even further, schools and communities have collaborated to create "safe passage" programs in which parents, residents, and local business people watch the route to and from school. As an added benefit, not only do these types of programs provide increased adult supervision, but they send a clear message to students that adults believe their safety and education is important.

This guide presents the use of volunteer campus supervision programs as a promising strategy that promotes campus and community security through the presence of parents and other caring adults. The guide provides descriptions of three super-vision models that show promise in helping to maintain a safe, positive, and orderly environment, which allows the school community to focus on the business of teaching and learning.

Finally, Keeping Schools Safe offers guidelines and sample forms to assist educators, school staff, parents, and community leaders in designing volunteer campus supervision programs. Since every school has its own distinct personality and safety issues, readers are encouraged to use this document as a starting point for creating their own unique campus supervision programs involving parents and other caring adults.