Executive Director of Safe and Supportive Schools - Office of Superintendent

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY

Provide districtwide leadership, strategic direction, and oversight for the development of safe, supportive, welcoming, and well-managed school environments that promote student well-being, positive behavior, engagement, and success.

Lead the development, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of comprehensive systems for school safety and security, behavior prevention and intervention, student conduct, threat assessment, emergency preparedness, and student reentry.

Ensure district practices emphasize prevention, early intervention, relationship-building, restoration, appropriate accountability, and opportunities for students to learn from behavioral challenges. Work collaboratively with school leaders and district departments to reduce reliance on exclusionary disciplinary practices whenever appropriate while maintaining clear expectations for behavior and responding effectively to conduct that threatens the safety or well-being of students and staff.

Partner with district leaders, school administrators, families, law enforcement, emergency management agencies, and community organizations to ensure schools have coordinated systems and resources necessary to create environments in which students and staff feel safe, supported, respected, and connected.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS

License and Certifications

• Must hold or be eligible for a valid Georgia Educator's Certificate in Educational Leadership and/or Support Personnel License issued by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (Required) 

• Relevant certification or professional training in school safety, behavior intervention, restorative practices, emergency management, crisis response, threat assessment, or related areas (Preferred) 

   

Education

• Specialist's Degree in related field (Required) 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to lead through collaboration, relationships, and shared accountability.
• Ability to communicate effectively with students, families, employees, school leaders, community partners, law enforcement agencies, and other internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to plan and organize human and financial resources to implement districtwide initiatives.
• Knowledge of evidence-based behavior prevention, intervention, restorative, and student support practices.
• Knowledge of multi-tiered systems of behavioral support and approaches that address student needs before behaviors escalate.
• Knowledge of school safety and security practices, emergency preparedness, crisis management, threat assessment, and prevention strategies.
• Knowledge of student conduct laws, regulations, Board policies, due process requirements, and related legal considerations.
• Ability to balance student support and intervention with appropriate accountability and the district's responsibility to maintain safe and orderly learning environments.
• Ability to analyze safety, behavior, discipline, attendance, and other relevant student data to identify trends, disparities, emerging concerns, and opportunities for intervention.
• Ability to examine patterns in exclusionary discipline and support schools in identifying effective alternatives when appropriate.
• Ability to facilitate difficult conversations and manage complex and sensitive situations with sound judgment, empathy, discretion, and consistency.
• Ability to collaborate across departments and disciplines to develop coordinated responses to student behavioral and safety needs.
• Ability to develop and facilitate professional learning for administrators and staff. 

Work Experience

• 5 years of leadership and administrative experience (Required)
• Administrative experience in a school district or educational organization (Preferred)
• Experience with student behavior supports, school climate and culture, student discipline, school safety, crisis response, or related areas (Preferred)
• Experience developing or implementing multi-tiered behavioral supports, restorative practices, or other evidence-based approaches to student behavior (Preferred)
• Experience in strategic planning, organizational development, and continuous quality improvement initiatives (Preferred) 

Essential Job Duties

Lead the districtwide vision and strategy for safe and supportive schools. 

• Establish and advance a districtwide framework for creating school environments where students and staff feel physically safe, emotionally supported, respected, connected, and ready to learn.
• Develop clear expectations and systems that integrate school safety, positive school climate, behavior prevention, intervention, accountability, and student support.
• Partner with school leaders to identify conditions contributing to behavioral concerns and develop proactive strategies to address those conditions.
• Promote consistent districtwide practices while recognizing the differing needs and circumstances of individual schools and communities.
• Ensure district approaches to student behavior balance prevention, intervention, restoration, accountability, and safety.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of districtwide safe and supportive school initiatives and recommend improvements.

Lead a comprehensive approach to behavior prevention and intervention. 

• Develop and oversee a continuum of behavioral supports designed to respond to student needs at the earliest appropriate level.
• Support schools in establishing proactive systems that teach, reinforce, and model expectations for positive student behavior.
• Promote multi-tiered approaches that provide increasing levels of intervention based on student need.
• Strengthen systems for identifying students demonstrating emerging, recurring, or significant behavioral concerns and connecting them with appropriate interventions.
• Collaborate with school and district teams to address underlying factors that may contribute to student behavior.
• Promote evidence-based restorative and relationship-centered approaches that help students understand the impact of their actions, repair harm when appropriate, rebuild relationships, and successfully reengage in the school community.
• Develop structures for monitoring whether interventions are being implemented effectively and producing positive outcomes for students.

Transform student discipline through intervention, restoration, and appropriate accountability. 

• Provide strategic oversight of districtwide student conduct and disciplinary systems.
• Ensure disciplinary practices are developmentally appropriate, consistent, legally compliant, and aligned with the district's commitment to safe and supportive schools.
• Promote responses to student behavior that prioritize intervention and opportunities for learning while maintaining appropriate accountability.
• Support administrators in considering appropriate interventions and supports alongside disciplinary consequences.
• Identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary reliance on exclusionary disciplinary practices while preserving appropriate responses for serious, dangerous, or substantially disruptive behavior.
• Review and recommend changes to disciplinary policies, procedures, regulations, and practices based on data, research, legal requirements, and district experience.
• Provide guidance to administrators regarding complex behavioral and disciplinary situations, due process requirements, interventions, and policy considerations.
• Promote consistency in disciplinary decision-making across schools while allowing appropriate consideration of individual circumstances.
• Ensure students, families, and school personnel understand behavioral expectations, disciplinary processes, available interventions, and opportunities for support.

Strengthen student reentry and reintegration. 

• Develop districtwide expectations and protocols for students returning from suspension, alternative placements, significant disciplinary incidents, or other circumstances requiring structured reentry.
• Promote reentry processes that reconnect students to adults, peers, learning, and their school community.
• Ensure reentry plans address both accountability and the supports necessary to reduce the likelihood of recurring behavioral concerns.
• Encourage meaningful student and family participation in reentry planning when appropriate.
• Collaborate with school teams to monitor student progress following reentry and adjust interventions as needed.
• Identify patterns of repeated disciplinary involvement and coordinate more intensive interventions when necessary.

Lead threat assessment, prevention, and early intervention systems. 

• Oversee districtwide processes for identifying, assessing, responding to, and monitoring behaviors or circumstances that may present a potential threat to school safety.
• Ensure threat assessment practices emphasize prevention and intervention in addition to determining potential risk.
• Establish clear protocols for multidisciplinary threat assessment and intervention teams.
• Ensure appropriate collaboration among administrators, safety personnel, student support professionals, behavioral specialists, law enforcement, and other personnel as appropriate.
• Provide training and guidance regarding threat assessment procedures, documentation, communication, intervention, and follow-up.
• Ensure students identified through threat assessment processes are connected with appropriate interventions and supports when warranted.
• Regularly evaluate district threat assessment practices and recommend improvements.

Lead comprehensive school safety and security systems. 

• Provide strategic leadership for districtwide school safety and security programs.
• Establish consistent expectations, procedures, and protocols for maintaining safe and secure schools and facilities.
• Work collaboratively with school leaders to assess safety needs and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Coordinate with appropriate district departments regarding physical security, access control, emergency communications, visitor management, and related safety considerations.
• Build collaborative relationships with local law enforcement, emergency management agencies, first responders, and community partners.
• Ensure safety practices support welcoming school environments while providing appropriate protections for students and employees.
• Monitor emerging safety concerns, legal requirements, and effective practices and recommend appropriate district responses.

Lead emergency preparedness, crisis prevention, response, and recovery. 

• Provide leadership for the development, implementation, review, and continuous improvement of district and school emergency operations plans.
• Establish expectations for emergency drills, preparedness exercises, crisis response, reunification, recovery, and after-action reviews.
• Coordinate district responses to significant school safety incidents in collaboration with appropriate district and external partners.
• Ensure school and district leaders understand their responsibilities during emergency and crisis situations.
• Support effective communication and coordinated decision-making during emergencies.
• Use lessons learned from incidents, drills, and exercises to continuously strengthen district practices.
• Ensure post-crisis recovery considers the needs of students, staff, families, and affected school communities.

Build the capacity of school leaders and staff. 

• Develop and facilitate professional learning for administrators and appropriate staff related to behavior prevention, intervention, restorative practices, student conduct, school safety, threat assessment, emergency preparedness, and related legal requirements.
• Provide consultation and technical assistance to principals and administrators regarding complex behavioral, safety, and disciplinary situations.
• Equip school leaders with practical tools and protocols for responding to student behavior before circumstances escalate.
• Develop guidance and resources that promote consistent implementation of district expectations.
• Identify recurring challenges across schools that warrant additional training, resources, intervention, or district-level support.
• Facilitate opportunities for schools to learn from effective practices occurring across the district.

Use data to promote equitable, effective, and supportive practices. 

• Establish systems for regularly reviewing district and school-level behavior, discipline, intervention, safety, and school climate data.
• Examine patterns in referrals, suspensions, expulsions, alternative placements, repeat incidents, and other indicators of student behavior.
• Analyze data across student groups and schools to identify disparities, inconsistencies, and opportunities for improvement.
• Monitor whether students receiving behavioral interventions demonstrate improved outcomes over time.
• Work with school leaders to develop improvement strategies when data demonstrate persistent behavioral concerns or disproportionate disciplinary outcomes.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of alternatives to exclusionary discipline and other intervention strategies.
• Routinely report to the Superintendent, Cabinet, and Board of Education regarding significant trends, initiatives, outcomes, and areas requiring attention.
• Use data as a continuous improvement tool rather than solely as a measure of disciplinary incidents.

Ensure legal, policy, and procedural compliance. 

• Collaborate with district legal counsel regarding legal aspects of student conduct, discipline, school safety, threat assessment, due process, and related matters.
• Monitor applicable federal and state laws, regulations, Board policies, and district procedures.
• Recommend policy and procedural changes necessary to maintain compliance and advance the district's safe and supportive schools framework.
• Ensure appropriate documentation, confidentiality, and recordkeeping related to behavioral interventions, disciplinary processes, threat assessments, and safety matters.
• Provide appropriate information regarding disciplinary appeals and other matters as required.

Coordinate districtwide systems of support. 

• Collaborate across district departments to ensure students with significant behavioral needs receive coordinated rather than fragmented support.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, referral pathways, communication protocols, and escalation procedures for matters involving multiple departments.
• Partner with academic, student services, special education, mental health, attendance, family engagement, transportation, human resources, facilities, communications, and other departments as appropriate while maintaining clear ownership of the Safe and Supportive Schools portfolio.
• Facilitate multidisciplinary problem-solving when student needs or school circumstances require support from multiple departments.
• Serve as a district liaison, as appropriate, with law enforcement agencies, emergency management organizations, governmental entities, and community partners.
• Communicate programs, procedures, expectations, and resources to internal and external audiences as needed.

Lead departmental operations and continuous improvement. 

• Develop and implement short and long-range departmental goals aligned with district priorities.
• Lead effective planning and implementation of departmental budgets and resources.
• Supervise, develop, and evaluate assigned personnel.
• Establish clear performance expectations and measures for departmental programs and initiatives.
• Evaluate departmental structures, processes, interventions, and services for effectiveness, efficiency, consistency, and impact.
• Seek feedback from school leaders regarding the effectiveness and accessibility of district supports.
• Ensure the work of the department remains responsive to the evolving needs of students, schools, and communities.

Additional Responsibilities

• Perform other duties as assigned.

Physical and Environmental Requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit for extended periods of time. The employee is also required to talk, hear, stand, and walk. The employee may be required to use hands to touch, handle, feel, and/or reach. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel, or crouch. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus. The employee is required to operate a motor vehicle in performance of duties. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.