What can my school expect?

• Participating schools will receive access to a wide range of resources crucial to the prevention and detection of sexual abuse through Praesidium.
• Praesidium will provide school administration guidance over policies and procedures, training, strategies to address screening, monitoring and supervision, and ways to enhance administrative practices based on Praesidium’s Safety Equation.
• The Praesidium Safety Equation® is a framework of eight organizational operations (pictured on the right) that allows an organization to identify where abuse could occur. They have identified the best practices in each operation and developed solutions to help organizations implement these practices.

• Students in PK - 5th grades will receive a developmentally appropriate prevention education program (ROAR or Stop, Go, Tell). While all children will receive the curriculum, only children in 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades will complete surveys for research purposes. The words “Sexual Abuse” are not used in either children’s presentation.
• Children in PK, 1st and 2nd grades will receive The CARE Center’s ROAR program. ROAR is a child-based education program that teaches children ages 4-8 how to protect themselves from abuse.
• Children in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades will receive Bethesda’s Stop Go Tell program. Stop, Go and Tell is a fun, age-appropriate, and interactive way to teach children about personal space boundary rules and what to do if someone tries to break those rules.

What should schools know about this project?

• These programs are great for empowering children. We also know that we need to empower all the adults around the students with strategies to prevent harm to children. Teachers and caregivers will receive educational materials to be an active part of prevention programming.
• School administration, teachers, and students (1st, 2nd, 4th, & 5th grades only) will complete brief surveys to evaluate the prevention resources.
• As part of the randomized trial, 40 schools will be recruited; half will receive the prevention programming immediately and half will have a 1 year waiting period. All schools will receive full programming.

Is my school eligible?

Eligibility requirements for schools to participate:

• Has not implemented the ROAR or Stop Go Tell prevention programs in the past 3 years, 
• Is a public school, 
• Serves a rural community per the CDC’s definition (counties with less than 49,999 people or outside metro areas), and
• the total number of students in Grades 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th will be at least 50.
  • Note: PK & 3rd graders will also receive the curriculum, but no surveys will be collected from them for research purposes.
• Schools not eligible may still access resources through The CARE Center, Bethesda, and Praesidium. Reach out to them individually to inquire about implementing their programming in your schools.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services provided financial support for this research study. The contents are those of the author. They may not reflect the policies of the Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. government. Grant number 1U01CE003836-01.