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All activities related to safe schools, crisis response, alcohol and drug prevention, health and well-being of students, and building strong character and citizenship will be located in the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. It will also take the leadership role in the Department's Homeland Security efforts. According to the Department, the new Office of Innovation and Improvement will make strategic investments in promising practices and widely disseminate their results. It will also lead the movement for greater parental options and information in education. Both offices will be directed by new deputy undersecretaries of education. Former Texas appeals court justice Eric G. Andell, currently senior advisor to Secretary Paige, will lead the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Nina Shokraii Rees, deputy assistant to the vice president for domestic policy, will head the Office of Innovation and Improvement. Of the new Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Secretary Paige said it will help bring together into a single unit programs that are currently scattered in several offices. "Folding all programs that deal with safety, health, and citizenship into one office will enable us to better respond to the critical needs of schools in these areas and also help us to develop a broad-based, comprehensive strategy," he said. "Ensuring that all schools are safe, free of alcohol and drugs, and teach students good citizenship and character is essential if we are to ensure that no child is left behind." Secretary Paige said that school shootings in recent years and the terrorist attacks of September 11th sent a clear message that schools need to be better prepared to deal with an entirely new class of emerging threats. Schools must be ready to deal with everything from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, to shootings, accidents, and terrorist attacks. The significance of the elevation of the new Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools was emphasized by Judge Andell. "By consolidating the various health, citizenship, and safety programs into one office, we can more coherently present the Secretary's message, encourage innovation, and ultimately achieve greater impact," he explained. "In elevating this to an Office, we are not only demonstrating the Secretary's commitment to these issues, but also strengthening our position to advocate for the importance of school safety, health, and citizenship efforts and to build relationships both with our federal agency partners and with the Hill to ensure that these programs continue to exist, grow, and develop in the future." Echoing the Secretary's remarks from last summer about the importance of strengthening school safety efforts, William Modzeleski explained that the elevation of the new office ensures that school safety "has a place at the table" when key Department decisions are made. "School safety and substance abuse prevention are not add-ons. They are an intrinsic part of a comprehensive approach to education that includes the health and mental health of students, the environmental design of schools, building the character of young people, and a host of other issues," observed Modzeleski, who has directed the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program located in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education for over a decade, and will serve as an associate deputy undersecretary in the new office. A primary goal of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools will be to assist schools in developing plans to deal with the variety of threats they face and which, if not addressed, could impede teaching and learning. Creation of the new offices will result in minimal costs to the Department, since the funds for the staff and other activities will transfer from their existing offices to the new ones. Fewer than 200 of the Education Department's
5,000 employees will be affected by the moves. |
