The Crisis Prevention and Response Team was established to provide prevention, intervention and support services for students and staff in the Buffalo Public Schools. 

Our mission is to empower our school staff through planning and training by consulting with schools to develop their capacity to meet students' emotional and mental health needs during and after a crisis.

A crisis is defined as an emotionally significant event, the impact of which overwhelms the usually effective coping skills of either an individual or a group. A crisis is often a sudden, powerful event that is outside of the range of day-to-day human experience.

In terms of crisis prevention, the Crisis Prevention and Response Team (CPRT) is responsible for identifying and providing supports and services to our neediest students and families. We are working toward establishing district-wide policies that are relevant to crisis preparedness and response, overseeing their implementation at the school level, arranging training of school-based SST and staff, and maintaining district-level connections with community-based agencies and consultants. Your assigned team member will coordinate the sharing of resources among school-level teams and oversee the implementation of the school crisis response plan across schools within their assigned zone.

The following preventive services are offered by the Crisis Prevention and Response Team (CPRT):

• Community-based referral resources

• Case consultation

• Professional development (see link for a menu of trainings offered) 

• Parent training

• Classroom guidance

During a real-time crisis, our goals are as follows:

1. Clarify and stabilize the crisis

2. Mobilize resources 

3. Return to normalization of routine for as many as possible, as soon as possible

4. Restore adaptive functioning

5. Facilitate healing and access to ongoing help for those inneed

Priority Focus