By Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – As Illinois schools look to be more secure from threats, there are some tough realities that principals and superintendents have to embrace.

School safety is top of mind as Illinois schools get ready for the new school year.

The last school year saw a number of shootings, both in Illinois and across the country.

Regional Superintendent of Schools in McLean, DeWitt, Livingston, and Logan counties, said they trained dozens of school leaders and local police officers or sheriff’s deputies this year.

“We provided a couple of the workshops around the digital threat assessment back in April, and they were really well attended,” Jontry said. “We had school administrators who attended, in many cases, with either their school resource officer or their partner law enforcement agency.”

Jontry said the focus for most schools is hardening the target and getting school resource officers into buildings.

“Armed guards, especially if they are not contracted through a local law enforcement agency, you’re going to have a hard time getting the liability insurance to cover them,” Jontry said. “And that is legitimately an issue that many of our districts have run into already.”

Jontry added that there are some outside-of-the-box ideas floating out there to keep schools safe, but he said the realities of how to make those work limit the options.

Jontry said local school officials, not the state or the regional superintendents, are the ones who are going to have to drive the school safety conversation.