Pillars of Governmental Environmental Public Health | A Guide to Scalable Environmental Public Health Programs
Characteristics of a Successful School Safety and Inspection Program The ultimate measure of program success is to establish schools as healthy, safe, and equitable learning environ- ments for all students. This goal encompasses not only regulatory compliance but also the creation of educational settings that actively support student health, safety, and academic achievement. Successful programs ensure that all facility components, from food service areas to class- rooms and recreational spaces, contribute to an environ- ment where students can learn and thrive without health or safety concerns. Success in school safety and inspection programs could be demonstrated when school facilities can serve as models for other establishments. For example, bringing operators of struggling facilities into well-managed schools to demon- strate best practices in safety and compliance standards.
Educational effectiveness can be measured through the school staff’s ability to identify and address potential haz- ards between formal inspections. Programs that operate on multiyear inspection cycles should track reductions in both major violations and repeat violations as indicators of successful knowledge transfer and technical assistance.
Staffing
Meaningful Outcome Measures
PURPOSE
METRIC
Program effectiveness
• Percentage of permitted school cafeterias inspected annually * • Decrease in the number of major or repeat violations per school per inspection cycle • Percentage of school inspections completed during peak season (September– November) annually • Average number of school safety inspections completed per inspector annually * • Number of critical violations identified per 100 school inspections annually
The number of staff for school safety and inspection pro- grams varies based on local funding mechanisms, jurisdic- tion size, and inspection frequency requirements. Research findings indicate that some programs use county-level funding based on income tax revenue and the number of schools requiring inspection, creating direct connections between local resources and program capacity. Inspection scheduling affects staffing needs significantly. Programs operating on rotating schedules, such as full school inspections every 3 years with kitchen inspections each semester, require different staffing models than annual inspection programs. To meet the demands of per- forming school inspections during school operational peri- ods, research findings indicate that programs might use multiple staff members who can perform these inspections quickly and then return to other EPH programs, demon- strating how shared staffing approaches can address the timing constraints of educational facility inspections. Calculations to determine the number of staff needed might consider the percentage of FTE time dedicated to school routine inspections. Factors include school types within the jurisdiction, inspection capacity per workday for different school categories, and the balance between routine and non-routine inspection activities. Survey data indicates a median of 140 school inspections per FTE annually across programs. Staff time could be allocated to other program
Workload management
Public health protection
* EPH professionals who participated in focus groups, key informant interviews, and/or the national field survey consistently identified this metric as moderately to extremely useful. A key measure of program effectiveness and educational impact is the reduction in repeat violations cited during inspections. Violation severity is typically weighted based on population impact and problem scope, with system-wide issues such as malfunctioning plumbing that affects entire schools receiving higher priority than localized problems like individual classroom handwash sink failures.
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