Questar III BOCES Partners with STOPit Solutions to deliver School Safety Solutions to New York Schools

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STOPIT

Oct 05, 2022, 08:00 ET

 Questar III and STOPit Solutions to Provide Safety & Wellness Programs for New York School Communities

HOLMDEL, N.J., Oct. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Questar III BOCES, today announced that it has partnered with STOPit Solutions, a pioneer in safety and wellness solutions that create healthier places to learn, work, and live, to deliver comprehensive safety and wellness solutions to 18 school districts in upstate New York State. The school districts, along with the BOCES, will implement STOPit's Anonymous Reporting System (ARS), 911-Direct Panic Alert System and Enhanced Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), and Safety & Wellness Training Curriculum for students and staff.

The school districts include: Questar III BOCES, WSWHE BOCES, Hudson City School District, Lansingburgh Central School District, Hoosick Falls Central School District, Ichabod Crane Central School District, Chatham Central School District, Wynantskill Union Free School District, Brunswick Central School District, East Greenbush Central School District, Cairo-Durham Central School District, Hoosic Valley Central School District, Taconic Hills Central School District, Rensselaer City School District, New Lebanon Central School District, Berlin Central School District, Coxsackie-Athens Central School District, and Woodland Hill Montessori School.

"The timing of the grant award couldn't be better given the amount of mental stress our school communities have endured during the pandemic," said Questar III's Director of Health and Safety, Craig Hansen. "We continue to stress to our students, staff, and families to say something if they see something that doesn't seem quite right. We accomplish this by connecting our members with a variety of educational tools and resources such as STOPit Solutions. STOPit Solutions will be able to provide the students in our districts with additional resources to help address their mental health and safety issues."

"Student mental health cases and concerns are at an all-time high and mental health resources are in great demand. Students and staff are the eyes and ears of the district. If you can provide them a safe, confidential space to share what they are seeing, hearing, and feeling, they will feel empowered to help," said Parkhill Mays, CEO of STOPit Solutions. "STOPit has a suite of technology services and curriculum, and a world class crisis center that helps take the burden off of school administrators while providing much-needed resources for students and staff. When states like New York invest in our solutions, it gives students and school staff the ability to quickly gather, disseminate, and respond to information about an evolving and potentially harmful event that can provide at-risk students the help they need."

STOPit's ARS includes technology and training for the entire school community to prevent, detect, and contain risk. At-risk students are identified so they can get the help they need, and when a student is on a pathway to violence, intervention can save lives. Combined with STOPit's SEL, Safety and Wellness Curriculum, schools can:

  • Prevent: Foster students' personal growth, resilience, and protection of themselves and others. Train students in social and emotional learning, instill a safety mindset, and provide trauma-informed care knowledge. 
  • Detect: Train internal and external members of the school community to review and assess the level of risk an individual may be to themselves or others—then develop a plan to protect the individual and possible targets. 
  • Contain: Save lives by leveraging an alert system that instantly informs and requests help from staff and/or 911 for any emergency or non-emergency issue. Enable faster responses, more effective actions, and better outcomes when time is of the essence.

K-12 schools are responsible for ensuring a safe learning environment that promotes the physical, social, and emotional well-being of all students, teachers, and staff. It is critical to be aware of and take the necessary steps to prevent and address the range of issues that may harm individuals, groups, or the school community as a whole. STOPit enables a community to work together to help at-risk students and create a safe and healthy school environment.

To learn more about the STOPit Anonymous Reporting System and SEL Curriculum, please:

About Questar III BOCES: Questar III BOCES delivers more than 275 educational and administrative services to 22 school districts in Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene counties. Questar III also provides statewide services to more than 640 school districts in New York. Founded separately in the 1950s and 1960s, the BOCES merged to become Rensselaer-Columbia-Greene BOCES in 1977. It later adopted the name Questar III in 1994, emphasizing its cooperative leadership in excellence and innovation. Questar III educates approximately 1,600 students in various programs including career and technical education (CTE), New Visions, pre-K and special education. It also provides affordable management and administrative services ranging from grant writing to financial planning.

About STOPit Solutions: STOPit Solutions is the leading provider of safety & wellness solutions that help protect the physical, social, and emotional well-being of millions of students, employees, and citizens throughout the United States and abroad. It achieves this by providing over 7,000 schools, workplaces, and communities award-winning technology-based solutions that help intervene on safety and well-being concerns, respond and mitigate critical incidents, and educate individuals on personal safety & wellness. As a result, STOPit Solutions has been able to save and change the lives of millions while creating safer, healthier places to learn, work, and live. Visit stopitsolutions.com to learn more.

SOURCE STOPIT

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