Structured Learning Experience Questions Answered. Safe Schools Manual Updates #25 and #26 Mailed. What s Inside

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1 Safe Schools Newsletter Prepared by the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Education, Office of Vocational-Technical, Career and Innovative Programs. Vol. 12, No. 2 October 2006 Structured Learning Experience Questions Answered Safe Schools Manual Updates #25 and #26 Mailed Do you have questions about SLE? Sign up for the NJDOE Listserv at the following website address by simply submitting your The following are recent questions and answers that were sent out. Answers were supplied by Anne Freeman, NJDOE. QUESTION: Is a safety and health site inspection required for each Structure Learning Experience? How often do the sites need to be inspected (not to be confused with the required worksite monitoring, 30 minutes every tenth day)? Thank you for your time and consideration regarding this matter. ANSWER: A safety and health site inspection by an appropriately certified/trained teacher is required for each student placement into a structured learning experience or a cooperative education experience. Additionally, during the subsequent site visits (once every 10 th day the student reports to the SLE/cooperative education site), the SLE educator or the cooperative education coordinator would review the student s activities in order to insure that the student is not engaging in any activities or using any tools, materials or equipment that are prohibited during the subsequent site visits after the initial student placement. (continued on page 4) New Safety and Health Plan Standards Proposed The New Jersey Department of Education has proposed revisions to the Safety and Health Plan standards for career and technical education programs and courses in the August 21, 2006 New Jersey Register. New proposed requirements include updating and readoption of the plan every two years and procedures for investigating and correcting reportable incidents. In anticipation of the adoption of these new requirements, the Safe Schools Program is planning courses on Accident Investigation and Writing a Safety and Health Plan. See the free training courses listed in this newsletter. Safe Schools Manual Update #25 was mailed in June 2006 and Update #26 in October 2006 to those individuals who are on record as having the Safe Schools Manual. The updates included the following: Acknowledgments Vocational Program Index to Checklists Program Index Hazard Index Alphabetical List of Checklists Chapter 4 Checklist: Vocational Safety Program Appendix A: Resources If you have a copy of the Safe Schools Manual but didn t get the updates, please send Barry Schlegel (schlegba@umdnj.edu) your mailing information. The entire Manual is also available on the Safe Schools Website: What s Inside School Administrators Training Needs Assessment...p. 2 Emergency Planning Guidance for NJ School Officials...p. 2 Safe Schools Website Has Moved...p. 2 Online Emergency Planning Courses.p. 3 EPA Health School Environments Assessment Tool...p. 3 Students Performance Improves with Better Air Quality...p. 3 Reported School Incident Data for FY p. 4 Registration Form for Free Safe Schools Workshops...p. 5 Description of Free Safe Schools Workshops...p. 6 Required Structured Learning Experience Trainings...p. 6 Still More Articles...p. 7

2 School Administrators Training Needs Assessment A survey was mailed in May 2006 to 1,485 New Jersey chief school administrators and principals at middle schools and high schools. Three hundred sixty questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 25%. Forty-one percent of the respondents were Principals, Assistant Principals, or Vice Principals. The next largest group of respondents was Chief School Administrators at 34%. The objective of the questionnaire was to determine the training topics and training times most preferred by school administrators. The following were the top 10 topics of interest selected by the respondents: Issues related to developing and implementing a crisis management plan. Resources available to help schools deal with safety and health issues, such as free consulting services. Planning and responding to infectious disease outbreaks, such as the avian flu. Safety and health training required for school personnel. Developing and implementing a safety and health plan. How to conduct audits to identify safety and health hazards. Issues related to indoor air quality and mold. Ways to reduce your insurance costs. Issues related to fire safety. Preparing students to handle the safety and health issues of offsite, school sponsored, structured learning experiences. Training seminars that were in the morning for 3 hours during the school year on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays were the preferred times. Emergency Planning Guidance for NJ School Officials The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management provides School Emergency Operations Plan Guidelines at the following website: preparedness_school.html The Guidelines include the following major sections: Introductory Material and School Plan Overview Basic Plan Checklist Alert, Warning & Communications Evacuee Reception Annex Evacuation Annex Coordination with Local Emergency Services Annex Facility Shutdown Annex School Terrorism Annex School Violence Annex Safe Schools Website Has Moved The Safe Schools Website is now located at Safe Schools Newsletter The Safe Schools Newsletter is published by the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. And the UMDNJ-School of Public Health (SPH). Contributions and comments are welcomed. Please address correspondences to: Barry Schlegel, EdD, CIH Safe Schools Program c/o UMDNJ-SPH Liberty Plaza, 335 George Street, Suite 2200 PO Box 2688, New Brunswick, NJ (732) , fax (732) EOHSI is a joint program of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. UMDNJ-SPH is sponsored by UMDNJ in cooperation with Rutgers, the State University of NJ and the NJ Institute of Technology and in collaboration with the Public Health Research Institute. 2

3 Online Emergency Planning Courses The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through its Emergency Management Institute, offers free online independent study courses of value to schools. Course materials can be downloaded or completed through an interactive web-based course. An exam must be completed at the end of the course to receive a certificate of completion. A complete list of courses can be found at Identify the course you are interested in and then select either Download the Materials or Option 1, EMI learning site. The EMI learning site does not require a username and password to access. Two courses are recommended for school personnel: Introduction to Incident Command System (IS-100) and Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools (IS-362). The first, approximately two-hour course, introduces the Incident Command System which is used by all emergency responders in the event of crisis. The second, approximately eight-hour course, is designed specifically for schools and covers emergency management operations, roles and duties; how to access potential hazards; and how to develop and test an Emergency Operations Plan. EPA Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool The EPA has developed a software tool, called HealthySEAT, to help school districts evaluate and manage their school facilities for key environmental, safety and health issues. The software can be downloaded, customized and used by district-level staff to conduct voluntary selfassessments of their school (and other) facilities and to track and manage information on environmental conditions school-by-school. HealthySEAT includes a User s Manual and HealthySEAT Software. The software includes the capability for generating letters to individual schools about pre- and post-assessment visits, tracking the status of facility conditions and corrective actions school-by-school, and creating and generating reports for district use. A customized inspection checklist can be generated by the user on hazards the school district decides to track as well as more detailed guidance on each of the hazards. Topics covered in the software include: chemical management; construction and renovation; energy efficiency; hazardous materials; hazardous waste; health, safety and injury prevention; indoor air quality; moisture/mold control; non-hazardous waste; outdoor air pollution; pest control/integrated pest management; portable/relocatable classrooms; ultra-violet radiation; and water (drinking, waste, storm and efficiency). For software and additional information, go to the following website: Students Performance Improves with Better Air Quality A research study was conducted in an elementary school in Denmark during the late summer to evaluate the effects of indoor air quality on 10- to 12-year-old children. For one week each in five different experiments, outdoor air supply coming into six classrooms was increased from 6 to 20 cubic feet per minute and the temperature reduced from 77 o F to 68 o F. During the intervention, students significantly improved their classroom performance on many tasks characteristic of schoolwork. Students worked faster and had fewer errors on eight different measures of mathematical and language-based activities. Wargocki P and Wyon D. (2006). Research Report on Effects of HVAC on Student Performance. ASHRAE Journal 48(10), p

4 Structured Learning Experience Questions Answered continued QUESTION: If SLE is a school-sponsored program, are we legally responsible to provide transportation from the work site after school hours? If we are, would we be able to have the parents sign off to make them responsible for the transportation home? What are the legal issues regarding transportation? ANSWER: There is no Department of Education regulation that requires districts to provide student transportation for structured learning experiences, including cooperative education experiences, with the exception being transportation services required in a student s I.E.P., when applicable. The district should require that someone be responsible for providing the student transportation home from the SLE site if the student is not providing his or her own transportation. Note that under N.J.A.C. 6A: (h), transportation of the student to and from the cooperative education training site shall be the responsibility of the student, unless otherwise required under the terms of N.J.A.C. 6A:14. QUESTION: I am the SLE teacher coordinator for students with special needs. I have a 17-year-old student whose father owns a home remodeling business and wants his son to work with him. He is fully aware that the student cannot operate any power equipment but wants him there as a carpenter s helper. With this scenario I have three questions: 1. Can this be done? ANSWER: No. The New Jersey Child Labor regulations, N.J.A.C. 12:58-4.2, Construction Work, prohibits minors from working in the construction industry unless the student is enrolled in an approved vocationaltechnical education program and is supervised by an appropriately certified vocational-technical education teacher. 2. My certificate is Teacher of the Handicapped. If the student is not operating power equipment and only working on the ground, can I perform the required site visits? ANSWER: No. Only teachers holding a vocational-technical education endorsement and/or a cooperative education coordinator-hazardous occupations are authorized to supervise vocational-technical education students in hazardous placements as referenced in N.J.A.C. 12:58-4.2, above. 3. If not, then can my vocationally certified wood shop teacher and I perform them together? I have completed the required SLE training, he has not. ANSWER: No, the student is not enrolled in a DOE-approved vocational-technical education program so he cannot be placed into the job regardless of who is supervising. Reported School Incident Data for FY 2005 Ninety incident report forms were submitted by schools to the Department of Education for the time period July 1, 2004 to June 30, This represents a nearly 50% reduction from the previous year. Treatment and Severity Of the 90 incidents, 51 (57%) required visits to the hospital (two staff, 46 students and three not reported.) Sixteen individuals (18%) were seen by a doctor (one staff, 13 students and two not reported). Twenty-three reports (26%) did not indicate the type of treatment given. Seven records (8%) gave non-school locations for the incident. Of the 90 incidents reported, 55 incidents (61%) were non-disabling, 31 (34%) resulted in temporary disability and 4 (4 %) records did not indicate severity. There were no incidents reported with permanent disability. Top Four CIP Codes Reporting Incidents CIP Code Description # of Incidents % of Total (90) (12) Personal and Culinary Services 12 13% (46) Construction Trades 11 12% (47) Mechanic and Repair Technologies/Technicians 8 9% (50) Transportation and Materials Moving 4 5% 4 (continued on page 8)

5 Registration Form For Free Safe Schools Workshops The following training opportunities are offered FREE of charge for NJ school personnel, but advanced registration is required. All registrations must be confirmed. Register online ( or mail or fax your completed registration form to: Fran Colditz, Safe Schools Registrar, UMDNJ-School of Public Health, 335 George Street, Liberty Plaza, Suite 2200, P.O. Box 2688, New Brunswick, NJ , PHONE: (732) , FAX: Only one person per registration form; make additional copies if necessary. If you have any questions about your registration, please contact Fran Colditz. If you have questions about the TRAINING, please contact Barry Schlegel at (732) or Please put an X by the training(s) you would like to attend. Writing a Safety and Health Plan (9:00 am- 12:30 pm 1/2 day) December 20, 2006, Monmouth County Superintendents Office, Freehold, NJ February 23, 2007, Gloucester County Office of Education, Sewell, NJ March 8, 2007, NJDOE Learning Resource Center North, Morris Plains, NJ 10-Hour OSHA Compliance for the Construction Industry (7:30 am-5:30 pm 1 day) March 26, 2007, UMDNJ School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ Introduction to Accident Investigation (OSHA 7505) (9:00 am-4:00 pm 1 day) March 20, 2007, UMDNJ School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ May 18, 2007, Gloucester County Office of Education, Sewell, NJ Youth@Work - Talking Safety - Teaching Teens About Workplace Safety and Health (9:00 am-12:30 pm 1/2 day) January 25, 2007, Bergen County Community College, Technology Education Building, Paramus, NJ Overview of Ergonomics (9:00 am-12:30 pm 1/2 day) February 16, 2007, UMDNJ School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ Safe Schools: A Health and Safety Check (9:00 am-12:30 pm 1/2 day) February 13, 2007, Monmouth County Superintendents Office, Freehold, NJ March 29, 2007, UMDNJ Stratford, Stratford, NJ Personal Protective Equipment (9:00 am-12:30 pm 1/2 day) Violence in the Workplace (9:00 am-12:30 pm 1/2 day) January 17, 2007, UMDNJ School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ April 4, 2007, Monmouth County Superintendents Office, Freehold, NJ Please bring your Safe Schools Manual to this course. Sponsored by the Region II Atlantic OSHA Training Center. REGISTRATION INFORMATION Name: Job Title: School District: County: School Name: School Address: City: State: Zip: Phone: Fax: 5

6 Description of Free Safe Schools Workshops Introduction to Accident Investigation (OSHA #7505): This course provides an introduction to basic accident investigation procedures, documentation and accident analysis techniques. Topics will include the New Jersey Department of Education, Office of Vocational-Technical, Career and Innovative Programs reporting form, requirements for reporting accidents and corrective action. Overview of Ergonomics: Ergonomics is the study of fitting the workplace to the capabilities of the human worker. The course apples the knowledge of biomechanics, physiology, psychology and engineering to the design of tasks and the physical environment at schools. The course focuses on understanding the ergonomic concerns of teachers and students. It aims to develop an appreciation for the complexities in planning efficient and safe environments. OSHA 10-Hour Compliance for Construction: This course will provide a general awareness of construction hazards and applicable OSHA standards for those involve in anyway with construction projects or placing students at construction sites. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): This workshop covers the selection and use of the various types of PPE (e.g., gloves, eye protection, gloves, safety shoes, respirators and hearing protectors). Workshop topics include hazard analysis to identify the need for PPE, selection, maintenance, training, medical clearance, and OSHA requirements. For school personnel and teachers who use any type of PPE. Safe Schools: A Health and Safety Check: This workshop will help schools establish an audit program using the Safe Schools Manual. The Safe Schools Manual is a comprehensive Manual of checklists developed to assist schools in conducting a hazard analysis of classrooms and work sites associated with career and technical education approved programs. Violence in the Workplace: One of the leading causes of fatalities for teens on the job is violence such as assaults and robberies. This workshop will look at the violence threats of workplaces, how to identify the threats and how to prevent their occurrence. For teachers who place students at worksites. Writing a Safety and Health Plan: The New Jersey Department of Education requires all schools with career and technical education programs and courses to have a written occupational safety and health plan. This workshop guides participants through the steps involved in developing a school plan. Youth@Work - Talking Safety: Teaching Teens About Workplace Safety and Health: Participants will receive a free copy of the curriculum and work through each lesson in preparation to use the curriculum in the classroom. The curriculum includes alternative lessons that have been developed for students with learning disabilities and has also been modified specifically to address New Jersey child labor laws. It contains interactive games and activities as well as a 10 minute video. For teachers who want to teach their students safety and health in preparation for work. In-Service by Special Arrangement: Contact Barry Schlegel at or schlegba@umdnj.edu if you would like to arrange an in-service training for teachers on a topic above or other safety and health topic of interest to your district. Required Structured Learning Experience (SLE) Trainings The Safe Schools program has scheduled the following five courses required for supervising SLEs at various times throughout the year and a various locations in the state: New Jersey Wage and Hour and Wage Payment Course (1 day) New Jersey Child Labor Laws, Regulations, and Hazardous Orders Course (1 day) Federal Wage and Hour and Child Labor Laws, Regulations, and Hazardous Orders Course (1 day) OSHA 10 Plus (2 days) Designing and Implementing Student Training Plans Course (3 days) All courses will have a charge of $75 dollar per day registration fee to cover expenses. Please go to the following Safe Schools website for additional information and to register: ( 6

7 EPA Healthy School Environment Resources EPA has a Healthy School Environment Resources website which lists numerous links to on-line resources for facility managers, school administrators, architects, design engineers, school nurses, parents, teachers and staff. Major website headings include: chemical use and management; design, construction and renovation; energy efficiency; environmental education; facility operations and maintenance; indoor environmental quality; legislation and regulation; outdoor air pollution; portable classrooms; safety/preparedness; school facility assessment tools; waste; waste reduction; and water. The website can be found at the following address: New Healthy Schools Website The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, in collaboration with other state agencies, federal government agencies and advocacy groups, has developed a new website focusing on healthy schools. The following major areas are addressed: Reporting School Facility Environment Health and Safety Concerns State and Federal Agencies and their school responsibilities Community, Environmental and Labor Organizations and their school activities Hazardous Substance Use and Management Design, Construction, Renovation, Commissioning of School Facilities Facility Operations and Maintenance Health Effects Indoor Air Quality Safety and Security Acoustics and Noise Ergonomics Resources focus on the different target groups of parents and students, school staff, school administrators and architects and engineers. The website can be found at the following web address: healthyschools/index.shtml Telephone Service Expanded to Homeland Security and Emergency Information New Jersey operates a telephone information hotline to provide comprehensive information and referral services to callers about human resource needs, such as food banks, rent assistance, utility assistance, support for persons with disabilities, family support and employment support. The line will now begin offering access to homeland security and emergency information. If it s a true emergency, call But if you are seeking information about a current homeland security or emergency situation that is not a matter of lifeand-death, call A corollary website, is also available. Handouts Available Safe Schools Administrator Training Handouts distributed at the trainings conducted in September and October 2006 are available on the Safe Schools Website at EPA Issues New Rule for Dry Cleaning In July 2006, EPA issued a revision to its dry cleaning rule to limit emissions of perchloroethylene. The new regulation and a fact sheet explaining the changes can be found at the following EPA website: 7

8 Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute Public Education and Risk Communication Division c/o UMDNJ-School of Public Health Liberty Plaza, 335 George Street, Suite 2200 PO Box 2688 New Brunswick, NJ (732) , Fax (732) Safe Schools Newsletter October 2006 General support and production of this newsletter made possible by the New Jersey State Department of Education, Office of Vocational-Technical, Career and Innovative Programs. Reported School Incident Data FY 2005 continued Body Part Injured Top Five Body Parts Injured Total % of Reported Incidents (90) Finger % Hand % Head % Eye 8 8.9% Face 7 7.8% Top Five Nature of Injuries Nature of Injury Total % of Incidents Reported (90) Cut-Laceration % Bruise/Bump % Sprain % Burn 5 5.6% Concussion 5 5.6% Nature of Injury Most of the incidents involved cuts and lacerations. An analysis of the 42 reports for this category includes the following sources for the injuries: cutting food with a knife (10) or slicing machine (3); cutting wood with a knife (1), chisel (4) or router (1); and contact with various sharp edges, such as edge of welding mask, grave blanket, antenna, fuse box, metal sheet, copper tubing and motor. The following specific machines or tools were mentioned: wood chisel, knife, brake shear, wood router, razor blade, hammer, slicing machine and pipe wrench. The next most frequently reported type of injury was bruises and bumps. Two of the incidents involved hammers. The other incidents were variable involving a variety of circumstances: falling from ladder, tripping over chair, student altercation, vehicle crash, bus going over bump, hitting head on light fixture, hitting floor after fainting and catching foot between two moving engines. Corrective Action Of the 90 reported incidents, 52% (47) indicated some type of corrective action. In the previous fiscal year, only 34% indicated corrective action. Many of the corrective actions involved a review of proper procedures and hazard awareness. The quality of responses has improved, indicating increased thought about how to prevent the incident in the future. 8