From Theory to Practice: The Importance of Multidisciplinary Training & Comprehensive Understanding

May 22
3 min read

Presentation in a classroom with several people standing, one speaking. Attendees seated with laptops. Text: Safe and Sound Schools event. — From Theory to Practice

School safety requires a team effort, yet there are often misunderstandings about what types of training each team member truly needs. While the importance of a teams-based approach is widely recognized, training is often unintentionally limited to just a few individuals. This can make navigating crisis situations difficult as there is no clear coordination across roles or shared understanding of safety goals.

These gaps create a difference in execution when it matters most. Time, competing priorities, and the misconception that certain roles “own” safety alone can be difficult for teams to navigate. Effective school safety systems depend on a strong shared foundation across the entire team.

The multidisciplinary approach is only effective when the whole team trains together, integrating individual knowledge and expertise into a unified understanding of school safety.

Individually, team members may understand parts of their role but if there is a disconnect about how their actions tie into the broader system, it can create inconsistencies. Educators may understand that they should recognize concerning behaviors in their students but be unsure of who to report their concerns to. Mental health providers may be prepared to support students but lack alignment and understanding among the rest of the team can decrease the likelihood that plans are followed with fidelity. Administrators may have safety plans in place, but without team-wide understanding, implementation becomes difficult.

How teams approach training and who to train on what is critical. To address moving from disconnected efforts to coordinated action, teams need to understand safety as a living system.

Comprehensive multidisciplinary training is not just about inviting more people in. It is about creating a shared understanding of safety goals, actions, responsibilities, and how it all connects. When teams are trained together, and can see the full picture, they gain a better understanding of how their decisions impact the broader system.

One of the most rewarding things about my job is the ability to see these best practices become a reality. Recently, I had the opportunity to train school level and state level teams and see how they took the unique safety concerns from their area and brainstormed how they would implement these practices to address their concerns. Experiences like this are what help to alleviate disconnected efforts and unite team understanding within a living system.

As a result of these experiences and additional work being done by my own team at Safe and Sound, I’m excited to soon train on both PREPaRE and our Comprehensive School Safety Framework in a 1.5 day experience.

This combined approach is designed to provide multidisciplinary teams with an opportunity to take the foundational safety concepts from PREPaRE and apply them in the context of their own safety systems, with the goal of taking these concepts from abstract to implementation.

Participants will explore prevention, preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery through a connected systems-based lens while strengthening understanding across different roles and disciplines. Together, the training is intentional in helping teams move from siloed efforts into more coordinated and connected practices.

Want to join me? I invite you to register now!

At Safe and Sound Schools, our Comprehensive School Safety Framework connects prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery in six key domains, helping teams understand safety as a system that works together. These domains span mental and behavioral health, school climate and resilience, operations and emergency management, safety and security, leadership, law, and policy, as well as health and wellness. Each piece connects to the others and together, they reflect the full scope of school safety.

When teams understand how their roles connect across these areas, they are better equipped to align efforts and build more effective systems.