Navigate360, the nation’s leader in K–12 school safety and student wellness solutions, announces an all-new Program Development and Operation (PDO) service for school districts—providing comprehensive, data-driven support that helps strengthen best practices and training around a school district’s behavioral threat assessments. The education industry’s first and only comprehensive offering, Navigate360’s PDO service fosters stakeholder collaboration and ensures school districts align with regulatory requirements.

Nationwide, school safety is a growing concern among educators, students and families. Recent data from Navigate360 shows alerts related to self-harm are up 51% year-over-year, and alerts related to weapons and harm to others are up 25% year-over-year. A formal process involving a diverse team of administrators, educators and student support personnel, behavioral threat assessments help education leaders determine a credible threat and how to respond. Although behavioral threat assessments are a widespread school safety strategy, implementing behavioral threat assessments with fidelity remains a challenge and is much more than just selecting a program and training staff.

“An increasing number of states and school districts are mandating formal behavioral threat assessment procedures, emphasizing the critical importance of continuous education and ongoing training for team members, tailored to localized needs and cases," emphasized JP Guilbault, Chief Executive Officer of Navigate360. "This shift underscores the growing demand for enhanced data accuracy to ensure fairness and consistency in these processes, necessitating continuous investment in training, support and evaluations. We eagerly anticipate collaborating with education leaders to empower their colleagues and staff with the knowledge and skills necessary to confidently support their students and foster a secure and inclusive learning environment year in and year out.”

Navigate360’s PDO service provides personalized, 360-degree support through an ongoing process of planning, implementing and evaluating a school district’s behavioral threat assessments process.

With Navigate360’s PDO service, school districts receive the following:

• Program assessment and improvement: Through evidence-based assessment, Navigate360 evaluates a school district’s behavioral threat assessment process against best practices and identifies key areas for improvement and expansion to ensure fidelity and continuous enhancement.
• Data-driven insights and guidance: The Navigate360 team works with school districts to create an implementation plan that aligns with the school district’s overall safety approach. Ongoing support and tailored consultations help education leaders make informed operational decisions—especially in complex cases and challenges. The team also works with education leaders to understand the context behind threats.
• Continuous support: Personalized support resources aid adoptions and support school districts in identifying, collecting and interpreting programmatic data—empowering education leaders to expand their behavioral threat assessment process.

The Navigate360 team supports each school district’s behavioral threat assessments phase, from evidence-based training and case management to ongoing evaluation and support.

“Behavioral threat assessments are complex and often difficult to navigate,” said Thom Jones, Senior Vice President, Threat Detection & Prevention at Navigate360. “Recognizing this, our PDO service is designed to help education leaders align processes and the tools to help connect the dots, such as the ability to view related cases when creating new cases and developing case timelines.”

“An effective behavioral threat assessment process requires collaboration across individual schools and at the district level,” added Dr. Joe McKenna, Vice President of Threat Detection & Prevention Program Development at Navigate360. “Follow-up reports on acts of violence at schools often cite a flawed behavioral threat assessment process—such as the incidents at Arapahoe High School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. While several things contribute to acts of violence at schools, an effective, well-implemented behavioral threat assessment process can make a difference.”

To learn more about Navigate360’s PDO service, please visit Behavioral Threat Assessment Program Development & Operation » Navigate360.

About Navigate360

Navigate360 is the premier provider of safety solutions for schools, leading to enhanced student well-being. With more than 20 years of experience, our multifaceted, layered approach—providing everything from curricula that support positive behavior and self-image to campus physical safety and personnel training—focuses on incident prevention. Currently, more than 14 million students are attending schools using Navigate360 solutions. To learn more, visit https://www.navigate360.com.