Introduction to Broward Schools’ Struggle
Broward schools once again struggled to properly assess students who demonstrate potentially violent behavior, seven years after missing warning signs that were believed to have contributed to the Parkland massacre, an audit has found. The district’s internal audit reviewed how well the district conducted behavioral threat assessments, or reviews of students believed to be at risk of harming themselves or others, during part of the 2024-25 school year.
Findings of the Audit
The report found the district was noncompliant in 52% of the areas measured. While some were largely paperwork issues, some had a troubling impact on families. For example, the audit found that in one case of an imminent threat that was reported to law enforcement, there was no evidence that parents were notified as required. Kim Punzi-Elabiar, director of the behavioral threat management department, identified this as a “significant concern” in a management response to the audit. “Timely and transparent communication with parents and guardians is essential to maintaining trust and ensuring the safety of our school communities,” she wrote.
Response to the Audit
She wrote a memo was sent to all school administrators outlining “the expectations for timely emergency notifications in accordance with [state law], which mandates prompt communication to parents regarding threats to school safety.” The audit, which the School Board plans to discuss at Tuesday’s School Board meeting, covered the first two quarters of the 2024-25 school year. The district has been conducting similar audits semiannually since 2019, but officials said there were more findings than normal this year, which they largely attribute to the temporary use of new software.
District’s Priority on Safety
“Our top priority as a District is the safety of our students and staff, and we continue to be a leader in all areas of school safety,” district spokesman John Sullivan told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He said all Broward schools now have access to a state portal, which will replace the software used during the audit period. “Regarding the other findings, the District is actively addressing them and continues to make improvements in the areas identified,” he said.
Changes in Behavioral-Threat Assessments
The school district made changes in 2019 to the way it conducts behavioral-threat assessments in response to a scathing report by a commission investigating the 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland. The 2019 review found that school administrators botched a 2016 threat assessment conducted on the former student who killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day 2018. At the time, reports were not done quickly and completely, police and mental health officials were not always involved and school staff often failed to follow up on the students’ behavior.
Specific Findings of the Audit
Among the findings of the latest audit:
- An initial form addressing the potential threat is supposed to be completed within one school day, but it wasn’t in 22% of the cases. The delays ranged from one to three days.
- For 32% of the reports reviewed, schools did not document that the staff member who had personal knowledge of the threat, even though they’re required to be.
- In 86% of the reports reviewed, a copy of the final plan to assist the student was either not provided to parents or not documented.
- In 64% of student support plans, the district provided no documentation to show all needed actions were taken. In most of these cases, the required logs and referrals were not uploaded into the electronic system as required by the Behavioral Threat Assessment department. In other cases, they were incomplete.
Reaction to the Findings
District Audit Manager Ali Arcese told the district’s Audit Committee last month that she had reviewed the results with Michael Gregory, the new district police chief, and he found them alarming. “He just didn’t understand how with … the (computer) system that we have, how some of these things have not become electronically documented in the system,” she said. District officials said the poor compliance was the result of the switch from a software program called EdPlan to one called Focus during the 2024-25 school year. Focus remains in use for everything from maintaining individualized education plans for special-needs students to tracking daily school attendance.
Challenges with New Software
But Focus proved problematic for behavioral threat assessments, officials said at the August Audit Committee meeting. “EdPlan was easily visible, easy to maneuver,” Kim Punzi-Elabiar, director of behavioral threat management for the district, told the Audit Committee in August. But in Focus, if the educator completing the report didn’t check the proper box, the principal wasn’t alerted. “And if the principal didn’t check the box, I didn’t get an alert that it was ready for me to review. We did the best we could with what we had available,” Punzi-Elabiar said.
Plans for Improvement
She said the functionality of the new state portal, which the district started using in August, is similar to the EdPlan software. However, Marty Fertig, who chairs the district’s Audit Committee, said at the August meeting that compliance still should have been higher. “I’m just going to say after reading this, after going through these percentages, regardless of the technology we’re using or anything else, if 45% of schools are able to comply with documentation, then I feel that that should be higher,” she said. “In some of these cases, it’s alarming to see how many people are not documenting.” In an audit response, Punzi-Elabiar identified other ways the district plans to improve the process. “These findings highlight critical areas where procedural fidelity and documentation must be strengthened to ensure alignment with district policy and state requirements,” she wrote. “The Behavioral Threat Management (BTM) Department is committed to providing targeted training and reinforcing expectations with school-based teams to improve compliance and enhance the overall effectiveness of the threat management process.”
Conclusion
The audit’s findings highlight the ongoing challenges faced by Broward schools in conducting effective behavioral threat assessments. Despite changes made in 2019, the district still struggles with compliance, particularly in areas such as timely notification of parents and proper documentation. The introduction of new software has exacerbating these issues, but the district is taking steps to address them, including providing targeted training and reinforcing expectations with school-based teams.
FAQs
- Q: What was the main finding of the audit regarding Broward schools’ behavioral threat assessments?
A: The district was noncompliant in 52% of the areas measured, with issues ranging from paperwork problems to failures in notifying parents of imminent threats. - Q: What changes did the school district make in 2019 regarding behavioral-threat assessments?
A: The district changed its procedures in response to a scathing report following the 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, aiming to improve the speed, completeness, and follow-up of threat assessments. - Q: What software issues contributed to the poor compliance found in the audit?
A: The switch from EdPlan to Focus software during the 2024-25 school year caused problems, as Focus was less intuitive for behavioral threat assessments, leading to missed alerts and incomplete documentation. - Q: How does the district plan to improve its behavioral threat assessment process?
A: The district plans to provide targeted training, reinforce expectations with school-based teams, and utilize a new state portal that is similar in functionality to the previous EdPlan software, aiming to strengthen procedural fidelity and documentation.
