Establish and maintain a school health and safety team composed of selected school-employed staff and contractors responsible for planning and implementing various components of a school health and safety program.

The school health and safety team is a component of a systematic process that encourages collaboration, joint planning, and training among school staff who share responsibility for implementing general health and safety programs as well as students' individualized health and safety plans.

The school health and safety team is separate and different from an advisory council (See Guideline 0-05), although many staff may be members of both. Whereas the school or district advisory council recommends policy and programmatic issues to school or district administrators, it cannot determine the day-to-day processes required to implement programs at the school level. This is the role of the school health and safety team along with the school's health and safety coordinator (Guideline 0-04). Working with site administrators, team members can also ensure that everyone in the school community knows about the coordination and how to contribute. In addition to coordinating all components of health and safety programs at a school, the school's health and safety team coordinates how health- and safety-related accommodations for each student with special needs will be implemented once the Individualized Educational Program (IEP) team or other multidisciplinary student assistance team (Guideline 4-01) has determined necessary measures to take.

Members of a school health and safety team should include people with responsibility for a wide variety of health- and safety-related school services. Members may be representatives of school administration, nursing, social services, mental health and counseling assessment and services, physical education, health education, substance abuse prevention and intervention, food services, audiology, oral health, special education and special services (including personnel responsible for compliance with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act(PP-ii) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act), occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and language therapy, medical consultation, school based health centers (where applicable), staff wellness, health promotion programs, transportation, security, and building maintenance.

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Children with Disabilities. Provision of educationally-related services for children and adolescents with chronic diseases and disabling conditions. Pediatrics. 2000;105:448-451.

Fetro JV. Implementing coordinated school health programs in local schools. In: Marx E, Wooley SF, eds. Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs. New York, NY: Teachers College Press; 1998:15-42.