School Systems in Illinois Partner with PublicSchoolWORKS to Ensure they Meet School Safety and Compliance Requirements

Cincinnati, Ohio— Districts in Illinois are making complete compliance, safety and risk management easier via an automated process by partnering with PublicSchoolWORKS, the signature safety solution for schools. These districts, as well as multiple Illinois Regional Offices of Education (ROEs), are using PublicSchoolWORKS’ EmployeeSafe Suite, expert research and development team and award-winning client services team to stay in compliance with all district, state and federal compliance mandates.

Located in the state capital, Springfield Public School District 186 is no stranger to maintaining awareness of school safety legislation. However, awareness does not equate to ensuring compliance with these mandates. The district has 34 schools that must complete various compliance tasks and must train a staff of more than 2,000 employees on safety compliance, making it difficult to ensure the accuracy of its paper-based log system previously in place. In addition to using PublicSchoolWORKS to address compliance task and training requirements, the district is also using PublicSchoolWORKS’ Safety Data Sheet (SDS) system with both telephone and online access to SDSs, the online staff accident reporting system and the OSHA 300 reporting systems.

“PublicSchoolWORKS’ online training provides us with a way to streamline the training process so we stay in compliance. With this automated program, we are doing less manual tracking, which in turn frees up some of our employees’ time,” said Gina McLaughlin-Schurman, Springfield Public School District 186 human resources director. “When we have to present documentation of staff training completion, we can easily pull a compliance report from EmployeeSafe and show that every single staff member completed training. We can now confidently say ‘Not only did we do it, but this is how we did it.’”

Springfield Public School District 186 joins the many Illinois districts – including Winnebago CUSD #323 – who have partnered with PublicSchoolWORKS to streamline safety compliance and risk management initiatives. After an audit conducted by Boone-Winnebago ROE (ROE #4) found that the district was only compliant with four of its 30 mandated trainings, Winnebago CUSD #323 implemented EmployeeSafe. EmployeeSafe addressed not only the areas in which the district was cited, but it also addressed other needs such as managing compliance tasks, SDS and staff injuries and accidents.

For more information how PublicSchoolWORKS has been successful for other school districts, visit corp.publicschoolworks.com/news/case-studies/.

Featured

  • Spaces4Learning Launches 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey

    Spaces4Learning recently launched the 2026 Facilities and Construction Brief Survey, which collects data on the previous year’s K–12 and higher education construction projects nationwide.

  • University of Rochester to Break Ground on New Student Life Center

    The University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., recently began construction on a new Student Life building, according to a news release. The first floor will contain campus-wide gathering, program, and rehearsal space; the second floor will play home to the Greenbaum Center for Jewish Life.

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Lawrence Group Announces Three New Hires

    Integrated planning and design firm Lawrence Group, based in St. Louis, Mo., recently welcomed three new staff members, according to a news release.