Helping keep school employees safe

Schools face unique challenges when it comes to keeping their employees safe on the job. We’ve put together resources to help you prevent the most common types of school employee injuries, followed by a full list of our safety resources for schools.

Safety training talks for schools

Our Supervisor Initiated Training (SIT) series is a great tool to help your managers talk with their staff about preventing common sources of injuries. Download our combo packs for building and grounds, food service, teachers, special education and transportation.

5-Minute Solutions

Mini training talks on safety related topics for five-minute meetings.

Preventing slips and falls in parking lots and school buildings

Slips and falls are common sources of injuries among school employees.

Visit our winter slips and falls page for resources to prevent injuries in your parking lots during slippery and icy conditions.

Water spilled around drinking fountains and in school kitchens can be another common injury source. So can standing on chairs instead of stepladders and tripping over cords and clutter. Visit our everyday slips and falls page for resources to prevent these types of injuries (and be sure to check out our Skip video on preventing slips and falls in kitchen environments ).

Injuries involving students

An SFM study found that about 40% of school employee injuries involve students. Most of these are due to staff responding to students who are acting out, but many are due to playing with students, or assisting and transferring students. Special education and general education assistants are the most at risk.

Although low in frequency, 16% of injuries while playing with students result in lost time from work and 29% of school claim costs come from injuries involving student interaction.

Encourage staff to demonstrate physical activities and “Facilitate, don’t participate” instead of actively participating in game play. Download our Facilitate, don’t participate Supervisor Initiated Training talk guide for details.

We offer the following de-escalation resources to help supervisors facilitate de-escalation training, learn alternative interventions, and even sample emails you can cut, paste and sent to employees as reminders.

Additional school resources

SFM has additional safety resources for schools, including posters, checklists, assessments and more.