About CES
Ensuring our public schools remain among the safest places for our students, faculty, staff, and visitors is a top priority for every school district. A safe and secure learning environment is essential for student success. However, our schools continue to face numerous safety and security issues for which they must be prepared so effective teaching and learning can take place.
The Missouri School Boards’ Association’s Center for Education Safety (CES) is the only statewide school safety organization in Missouri and is supported and operated solely by MSBA. The CES is dedicated to enhancing various aspects of emergency planning, preparedness, and safety and security in schools throughout Missouri. CES not only provides professional expertise through its staff on specific topics, it also serves as a clearinghouse for reliable school safety information and resources.
The CES is guided by the following core principles:
Teaching and learning do not occur without a safe and secure environment for learners and those who instruct and support them. Indeed, high performance public schools are dependent upon a safe and secure environment.
Safety at public schools must be a community-focused effort. This requires the collaboration of federal, state, and local policymakers, those who govern and manage schools, parents as well as law enforcement, other emergency responders and organizations that support children and families.
The CES was launched on September 1, 2010 and was originally a partnership of MSBA, the Missouri Department of Public Safety and the Missouri Office of Homeland Security. MSBA assumed full support of CES in 2017 when state funding for school safety was no longer available.
