If you’re looking for the Center for Safe and Secure Schools (CSSS), the best bet is at the team’s office spaces at Harris County Department of Education’s (HCDE) North Post Oak location.

More than likely, however, one or more members won’t be at their desks.

Instead, they’ll be out in the community, leading a training session or presenting on topics to help keep students, educators and school facilities safe.

“We have to be very intentional about how we meet,” CSSS Director Leslie Etheridge said with a laugh, noting her team has a standing meeting every Monday morning. “We oftentimes work around the schedules of the school districts so it’s hard for us to just have a meeting.”

Established in 1999, CSSS was created at the request of school superintendents to answer the call of advancing safe and secure environments for learning and teaching. The division partners with entities and organizations locally, statewide and across the nation to help in the development of increased safety and security strategies, standards and best practices for K-12 educational environments.

Among the needs CSSS addresses are emergency management planning and operations, training and certification programs and safe and secure teaching and learning environments. Through their memberships with CSSS, school districts and organizations receive action support and annual reviews, and regular collaboration with fellow school safety leaders.

CSSS initiatives include the Counselor Symposium, “Let’s Talk Mental Health Series,” and annual School Safety Summit.

The team also leads numerous training sessions. CSSS has conducted nearly 60 trainings in four of the last five academic year cycles (September to August), including 86 sessions in 2022-2023.

The division is on pace to top that for the 2025-2026 cycle. It’s scheduled to reach 80 through month’s end with August still to go, an impressive number as most of the team has less than four years with HCDE.

They are long-time fixtures in school or public safety, however.

“One of our missions is to be impactful,” said Etheridge, named division director in 2023 following a career with the New York City Police Department. “Everyone needs training so it’s great that we provide those opportunities, often at a low cost or sometimes free with the memberships to the districts as needed.”

CSSS has held sessions in 21 in-county and five out-of-county school districts, and 19 other organizations, including local universities and churches. 

This week alone, CSSS is conducting five training sessions. Climate and Culture Specialists Michelle Calhoun and Dr. Tiffany Chaney held three sessions on Youth Mental Health First Aid in Galena Park ISD, while Officer of School Safety and Security Jeremy Foster is leading two (“Classrooms that Thrive” and “Inspiring Tomorrow’s Heroes”) in Alief ISD on July 18.

The mental health training is part of a state directive for school district staff members to be trained. The percentage increases every school year until 100% of staff are trained.

Through CSSS’s Department of Justice Students, Teachers and Officers Preventing School Violence grant, the team can offer training on preventing school violence, threat assessment and responding to mental health crises.

Calhoun and Chaney led Galena Park ISD staff through the youth mental health course, which included non-crisis action plans and true crisis situations. Participants worked through scenarios, deciding the gravity of crisis and approach to intervene and assist through the lens of a teacher, campus administrator or parent.

The group also worked through suicide, identifying the signs and having the hard conversation of asking students if they plan on hurting themselves.

“Training is important and not just because it’s required,” said Ana Lara, Galena Park ISD director of early head start who attended the session with nearly a dozen of her staff. “We always touch on these hard-to-have conversations. Even in this scenario, it was not comfortable, so it’s important that we have those conversations because these are real-life scenarios.”

The session encompasses how CSSS has been able to make a sizable impact in the space of school and public safety.

“Now that we’re out and doing all these different trainings, we see the uptick,” Chaney said.

Team members are flexible and can adapt sessions to the partners and entities they’re working with. They are also able to meet school districts and organizations where they are, which goes back to the CSSS team routinely being out in the field instead of in its office space.

CSSS benefits from its high standards, as shown by the sheer number of touchpoints with partners. It’s normal for an entity to have training after attending a pervious event and through a positive word-of-mouth testimonial.

“Every district is different with what their needs are,” Etheridge said. “We’re not a one-stop shop where we have this one training and we offer it the same across the board. Some districts are more advanced when it comes to emergency operations, and some are more advanced when it comes to behavioral threats. And some are not, so we can come in, meet you where you are, see where you are and bring you up to speed with the best practices.”