PublicSchoolWORKS Partners with SWPRSC on Kansas School Safety

By Roxanne Squires

SUBLETTE, Kan. – PublicSchoolWORKS (PSW) and Southwest Plains Regional Service Center (SWPRSC) recently announced their partnership to help Kansas school districts meet state and federal safety training mandates even with limited staff or budgets.

PublicSchoolWORKS has created a program consisting of 18 different online training courses to specifically address key staff training requirements driven by federal or state mandates, best practices in safety and areas of high liability exposure.

These courses run the gamut from legislation-mandated courses such as Bloodborne Pathogens training and Jason Flatt Act-mandated suicide prevention training courses as well as popular but non-mandated courses such as a Slips, Trips and Falls Prevention training and Ladder Safety training.

The SWPRSC serves 81 districts across Kansas, many of which are extremely rural and experience staff shortages. School districts with less than 100 employees can qualify for the program and receive a discounted rate through PublicSchoolWORKS partnership with SWPRSC. If a district meets this requirement – they can register by contacting Mike Ronen, the CFO of Southwest Plains Regional Service Center, who will in turn direct them to PublicSchoolWORKS for implementation.

“There is great value being provided to help our small districts,” said Ronen. “They can now provide staff with critical training without taking time away from their regular duties and can easily ensure everyone completes training. It is taking a load off of districts because it is managed for them. All they have to do is register for the program, get it set up with PublicSchoolWORKS, and start completing courses. It’s that easy.”

Once the district is enrolled, the PublicSchoolWORKS Staff Training System auto-emails employees to take their training courses, which they can conveniently access at all times and locations.

Additionally, if districts do not finish their training by the deadline, employees are notified with automated reminders to complete their training and designated administrators receive a report of employees who have not completed training so they can follow up directly. All training transcripts are saved online in the PublicSchoolWORKS system, which makes it easy to reference all training.

“We are proud to collaborate with the Southwest Plains Regional Service Center to increase access to quality safety training for small Kansas districts that before might have felt it was cost prohibitive,” said Tom Strasburger, vice president of strategic alliances at PublicSchoolWORKS. “Our vision is to enhance school safety by developing innovative programs that completely address specific safety needs or requirements, and we’re excited to see SWPRSC help its districts on the path toward making these goals a reality.”

Contributions to this report include information from PublicSchoolWORKS.