Abstract No:
1690
Abstract Type:
Student Poster
Authors:
A Kochans1, B Noth2
Institutions:
1UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Malibu, CA, 2UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA
Presenter:
Ashley Kochans
UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Faculty Advisor:
Betsey Noth, CIH, PhD
UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Description:
In 2024, California's Senate Bill 553 (SB 553) transformed workplace violence (WPV) prevention from a healthcare-specific concern into a universal mandate for all general industries. However, the education sector faces a unique and sensitive challenge: How do employers protect staff when the instigators of violence are the students themselves?
Situation/Problem:
The problem of WPV in schools is twofold. School districts struggle to apply standard WPV prevention plans when the students instigating violence have with specific legal protections (e.g., IDEA/IEP mandates), creating a conflict between staff safety and student rights. Additionally, there is a lack of standardized occupational health surveillance for WPV in general, but especially in public facing workplaces like schools and hospitals are viewed as "part of the job". Without consolidated incident logs, OEHS professionals lack the data-driven frameworks necessary to identify risk factors for violence.
Methods:
Quantitative analysis was conducted using longitudinal, publicly available datasets from the California Department of Education (CDE) for the 2023-2024 academic year. The sample included 9,800+ K-12 schools nested within school districts. The qualitative component investigated the implementation barriers of SB 553 within the education sector gathered through semi-structured interviews using a purposive sampling strategy.
Data cleaning and analysis were performed in R (v4.3.1). To account for the hierarchical nature of the data (schools within districts), a Linear Mixed-Effects Model (LMM) was employed.The primary independent variables were Staffing Densities, categorized into three groups, Instructional, Administrative, Pupil Services. The dependent variable was Violent Incidents Count. Violent Incident Count was used as a proxy for WPV incidents by tallying suspension and expulsion records where the listed reason was physical violence or verbal assault.
Results / Conclusions:
The Linear Mixed-Effects Model revealed a statistically significant correlation between staffing density and recorded Workplace Violence (WPV). Specifically, higher densities of teachers and administrators were associated with a decrease in violent incidents, suggesting that robust supervision serves as a primary administrative control. However, the analysis uncovered a notable reporting paradox, where schools with higher densities of Pupil Services staff (counselors and social workers) showed an increase in recorded incident rates. Qualitative interviews clarified that increased specialized staffing is not likely to generate more violence; rather, it increases the organizational capacity to recognize, document, and remediate behavioral crises that were previously ignored or under-reported. This suggests that low incident schools may actually suffer from a lack of surveillance rather than a lack of hazard. This paper redefines surveillance by using publicly available administrative data to evaluate workplace climate. Additionally, it adds context around SB 553 in California, as other states consider making similar mandates against WPV.
Core Competencies:
Total Worker Health ®
Secondary Core Competencies:
Administrative Controls
Psychosocial hazards
Choose at least one (1), and up to five, (5) keywords from the following list. These selections will optimize your presentation's search results for attendees.
Education and training
Occupational epidemiology
Regulatory Compliance
Risk assessment and management
Safety
Based on the information that will be presented during your proposed session, please indicate the targeted audience practice level: (select one)
Practitioner: Practitioner is a job title given to persons in various occupational fields who are trained to assist professionals but are not themselves licensed or certified at a professional level by a certification body recognized by the National Accreditation Recognition (NAR) Committee of IOHA. The IH/OH practitioner performs tasks requiring significant knowledge and skill in the IH/OH field, such as conducting worker exposure monitoring and, in some cases, may even function independently of a professional IH/OH but may not be involved in the breadth of IH/OH practice nor have the level of responsibility of a professional IH/OH certified by examination.
The IH/OH practitioner requires a certain level of education that can be obtained from an accredited university or equivalent. Additional training in specific skill sets that provide additional career paths to the IH/OH practitioner can also be obtained. IH/OH practitioners may also serve as team leaders or project managers.
Was this session organized by an AIHA Technical Committee, Special Interest Group, Working Group, Advisory Group or other AIHA project Team?
No
Are worker exposure data and/or results of worker exposure data analysis presented?
Yes
If yes, i.e., If worker exposure data and/or results of worker exposure data analysis are to be presented please describe the statistical methods and tools (e.g. IHSTAT, Expostats, IHSTAT_Bayes, IHDA-AIHA, or other statistical tool, please specify) used for analysis of the data.
The analysis of worker exposure to workplace violence (WPV) stressors was conducted using R (v4.3.1). To model the relationship between staffing exposure and incident outcomes, a Linear Mixed-Effects Model (LMM) was employed via the lme4 package.
How will this help advance the science of IH/OH?
This research advances the science of Occupational Hygiene by expanding the definition of "exposure assessment" to include systemic psychosocial hazards. Traditionally, IH has focused on chemical, physical, and biological agents; however, as legislative mandates like SB 553 emerge, the profession must develop rigorous methodologies for evaluating workplace violence (WPV) risk. It also provides a novel approach to surveillance. By utilizing existing, publicly available administrative datasets (e.g., California Department of Education records), this research offers a cost-effective, scalable model for occupational health surveillance in sectors where traditional incident logging is inconsistent or non-existent.
Have you presented this information before?
No
I have read and agree to these guidelines.
Yes