Los Angeles County Office of Education

The Impact of CPI Training

• Created a safer environment for students and staff alike
• Significantly reduced classroom incidents
• Equipped staff with techniques and tools
• Increased staff confidence
• Combated undertrained or mistrained

Situation

The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE), the nation’s largest regional education agency, sought to implement a comprehensive, yet flexible and practical approach to reducing the number of violent incidents resulting in injuries, and create a safer environment in which to educate and care for children.

Solution

In response, LACOE has adopted policies based upon the CPI philosophy to systematize training and operational procedures. Using CPI models, LACOE established and maintains comprehensive training as part of their School Crisis Response Plans. This helps keep the staff and the over two million preschool and school-age children in their care safe.

Results

The results of the CPI training have included LACOE and educator Mark Scott working collectively to coordinate training for a complex array of schools, many of which serve challenging at-risk populations. Together they have made it a priority to implement ways to increase the safety, security, and integrity of students, teachers, staff, and parents on a daily basis. “The de-escalation components and the team intervention strategies have proved very effective in helping us prevent and avert a true crisis,” Scott added.

“Despite their best intentions and efforts, school staff frequently find themselves ill-prepared to address the many types of confrontational situations they face. CPI has helped us institute best practices and adopt a comprehensive approach to preventing school crisis.”

-Mark Scott
Educator
Los Angeles County Office of Education

Key results include:

• Staff now feel more comfortable in matching techniques learned to classroom experiences.
• Staff find the tools to be accessible and feel validated by the training.
• Increased awareness about the preventative aspect of crisis intervention.
• Learned methodologies allowing staff to successfully defuse situations, including critical incidents involving students with handguns.

Students have benefited from the training in unexpected ways, according to Scott. “Often a crisis emerges when students do not know what to expect from staff. The CPI model is designed to make staff behaviors more predictable. Standardized behaviors foster a more dignified treatment of students, parents, staff, and others.”

Additionally, Scott adds, “The public should know that with appropriate training and reinforcement, our schools are safer, and the likelihood increased that our children will be well cared for in an environment that is conducive to learning and growing.”

“The public should know that with appropriate training and reinforcement, our schools are safer, and the likelihood increased that our children will be well cared for in an environment that is conducive to learning and growing.”

-Mark Scott
Educator
Los Angeles County Office of Education

Download a PDF of this Customer Success Story:

Download