Report: school security efforts still missing the mark

By Joel Griffin, assistant editor

Security solutions provider CDW-Government (CDW-G) announced the findings of its annual School Safety Index on Monday and despite making some improvements with regards to physical and IT security, the survey found that most schools are failing to keep pace with the number of breaches they’ve suffered.
 
The survey, which included more than 400 K-12 school IT and security directors, also found that many school districts are not utilizing current solutions to their full potential.
 
Among the report’s highlights include:
 
  • Both IT and physical security breaches are increasing. Over the past 12 months, 55 percent of survey respondents indicated that their districts had suffered an IT security breach, while 67 percent reported suffering a physical security breach.
  • The majority of IT breaches occur within the schools themselves (63 percent from students and staff), while physical security breaches are perpetrated more by unidentified persons (42 percent).
  • As in years past, school officials cited lack of budget and staff resources as key factors behind their districts falling short when it comes to security.
 
Bob Kirby, CDW-G vice president for K-12 education, said that as in years past, budgets remain the biggest hurdle for school districts to overcome when the need to make security improvements arise.
 
“Probably the biggest impediment or inhibitor for schools to be able to improve their security remains budget,” he said “(School security directors) tell you they would like to do more, but they just don’t have the funds.”
 
According to Patrick Fiel, ADT public safety advisor for education, the time has come for many school districts to stop using the budget as an excuse for not making significant changes to their security operations.
 
“These security directors or whoever is pushing for funding needs to do more than what they’re doing. They can’t hide behind the budget, because if that’s the case, a lot of schools won’t get anything done,” he said. “So, I think (schools have) got to put security to the forefront, balance security with education and then take it to the superintendent and to the school board  and say ‘hey, these breaches of security are very expensive and by putting in the solutions we’re recommending, we could reduce our costs considerably and save the school money down the road.’”
 
Fiel added that the willingness of a school to address its security concerns usually boils down to leadership.
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