Does Staffing Protect School Workers from Student Violence? A Mixed-Methods Analysis of SB 553 Implementation in California Schools

Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center 

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?

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S. Costello, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA, USA. Role: Provided guidance on occupational epidemiology and the use of large administrative datasets to answer research questions.
S. Teran and M. Hosein, Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), Berkeley, CA, USA. Role: Offered expertise on participatory research and strategies for protecting vulnerable worker populations, specifically within the context of California schools.
S. Darling-Hammond, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA, USA. Role: Supported research design and analysis regarding K-12 school practices, disciplinary data, and their impacts on health equity and safety.
This research was supported by the Training Grant, T42OH008429, funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
 

Education and training

Occupational epidemiology

Regulatory compliance

Risk assessment and management

Safety