The Superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District accepts the responsibility for providing resources and guidance for the development and implementation of the safety and health program.

The Director of Risk Management is responsible for the overall implementation of the working plan. The Director of Risk Management has the authority to delegate any or all portions of the plan to subordinates.

Principals/Supervisors are responsible and will be held accountable to ensure that all employees under their control follow safety and health policies, procedures, and rules established by the District. They are also responsible for administering training and guidance to employees under their direction. They have the authority to reprimand and recommend disciplinary actions against employees that violate the safety and health policies of the District.

Employees are responsible and will be held accountable for providing this District with a commitment to the safety and health program, abiding by the policies, procedures, rules set forth by the program, and becoming actively involved in the program to assist in providing a safe and healthful workplace for all involved.

Employees are encouraged to communicate their safety and health concerns with their supervisor to implement changes in our program where needed to reduce injury exposures in the workplace.

Contractors that provide or perform services for the District, at any location, are responsible to ensure that contractor employees’ actions and services delivered are in a manner consistent with our commitment to safety and health.

The El Paso Independent School District believes that the only valid means of reviewing and identifying trends and deficiencies in a safety program is through an effective recordkeeping program. The recordkeeping element is essential in tracking the performance of duties and responsibilities under the program. The district is committed to implementing and maintaining an active, up-to-date recordkeeping program to include the following:

• Injury and Illness Data
• Safety and Health Surveys
• Safety Inspections
• Safety and Other Related Meetings
• Training Records
• Accident Investigation Records

The District will centralize records associated with the Accident Prevention Plan in the Risk Management Department. The records will be organized by school/department and sorted alphabetically. To help facilitate the recordkeeping process, computerized sign-in sheets will be used for safety training. The computerized sign-in sheets will include the following pre-printed information:

• School/Department
• Date of the meeting
• Topic of the meeting
• Presenter
• Name of the employee
• Blank signature line for the employee to sign

The District will utilize an injury log for all injuries reported to the Risk Management Department. The injury log will collect the following data:

• Date Reported
• Date of Injury
• Name
• Social Security Number
• Occupation
• School/Department
• Part of Body
• Type of Injury (Report Only, Medical Only, or Lost Time)
• Date Lost Time
• Return to Work
• Light Duty
• Additional Lost Time
• Return to Work (y/n)
• Disputed (y/n)
• Accident Report Received
• DWC 1
• Description of Injury
• Notes

The Director of Risk Management of the El Paso Independent School District will review and analyze records and documentation pertaining to the safety and health program. This review will be conducted on a quarterly basis and will focus on hazard and injury analysis and recognition of developing trends.

Trend analysis will identify recurring accidents and near-miss (report only) accidents resulting in or potentially involving, injury, illness, or property damage. The analysis will also recognize repeatedly identified hazards/violations needing corrective action to establish what program component is failing that allows the hazard to exist.

The Principal/Supervisor will provide information and recommendations for corrective measure for trends developing in their areas. Employees will be made aware of developing trends and hazard exposures as they are recognized. Employees will be contacted to provide their input on the methods they think would be successful in reversing any identified negative trends.

The District will utilize a computerized Performance Summary Report. The report contains the following data:

• School/Department
• Number of Report Only, Medical Only, and Lost Time Injuries
• Total number of Injuries
• Number of Days without a Lost Time Injury

This report gives a school/department the ability to compare their performance to others within the District. The report is sorted by the number of lost time injuries and accumulates one day for each day the school/department goes without a lost time injury.

In accordance with the EPISD Accident Prevention Plan, the Principal/Supervisor will be responsible for safety training. Safety training sessions are required to be held throughout the school year.

The Principal/Supervisor picks topics for the safety training sessions. Recommended topics for training are listed below (note: topics are not limited to the following):

• Review accident reports.
• Discuss areas of concern.
• Discuss and/or demonstrate basic first aid techniques.
• Review fire drill procedures.
• Show a video on current safety and health practices.
• Discuss safety inspections conducted at the campus or work site.
• Demonstrate the use of safety equipment.
• Have discussions with small groups on specific safety concerns affecting a particular group.

The El Paso Independent School District is committed to providing safety and health related orientation and training to employees of the District. The program’s purpose is to educate and familiarize employees with safety and health procedures, rules, and work practices of the District. The management of the District will encourage and require involvement and participation of managers, supervisors, and employees. Furthermore, the management will support the orientation and training program with allocations in funding, staff, resources, and time to develop and implement this program.

In accordance with the EPISD Accident Prevention Plan, the Principal/Supervisor will be responsible for the safety inspections. Safety inspections are required to be held throughout the school year.

Safety inspections must be completed on the Safety Inspection Report. The Principal/Supervisor should consider the following:

• A well-planned safety inspection can help in detecting hazards before an accident occurs.
• Before the inspection, analyze past accidents to determine specific causes and high hazard areas or operations.
• Removing hazards increases operational efficiency.
• Good housekeeping goes hand in hand with a good safety record.
• Both unsafe conditions and unsafe acts are contributing factors in most accidents. An unsafe condition can be a direct cause of an accident.

The El Paso Independent School District has implemented a program to identify, correct, and control hazards on an ongoing basis. This program will utilize multiple resources to ensure effectiveness. The District will continue to conduct safety inspections in accordance with EPISD Accident Prevention Plan. These inspections will identify existing and potential hazards and noncompliance issues that should be addressed. The finding of these inspections will be discussed and recommendations for corrective actions suggested.

Employees will conduct constant informal inspections of their work areas and tools. If any potential exposures or deficiencies are identified, employees are expected to communicate these to their supervisors if the employees are not able to rectify the situation immediately.

The El Paso Independent School District is committed to and will implement corrective measures for hazards identified through the accident investigation. The identified hazards will receive a timely response. Whenever possible and feasible, hazards identified at facilities will be corrected eliminating the root cause of the hazard at the source. The Principal/Supervisor will investigate work-related accidents and near miss (report only) incidents involving employees or property to develop preventative measures and implement corrective actions. The Principal/Supervisor will document the accident investigation and corrective action on page 2 of the Accident Report.

Employees are required to report to their Principal/Supervisor, any of the following:

• Accidents with injury/illness of any magnitude
• Accidents resulting in property or equipment damage of any magnitude; and
• Any near miss (report only) incidents that could potentially have resulted in injury/illness or property damage.

A root cause analysis (RCA) will be conducted on lost time accidents. A lost time accident is defined as an accident that causes an employee to miss eight days from work and the employee is paid temporary income benefits. A RCA will not be conducted on a report only accident or a medical only accident that turns into a lost time claim at a future date. For example, the injured employee has a medical procedure months or years after the date of injury and becomes a lost time injury. The purpose of the RCA is to timely determine measures that can be taken to prevent similar accidents from reoccurring. The RCA is a formal meeting with the Supervisor, Witnesses, Safety Officer, and the injured employee. The Safety Officer will document the RCA and distribute corrective action plans to the Principal / Supervisor.

The Director of Risk Management or other designated representative will review and revise the components of the Accident Prevention Plan on an annual basis for effectiveness and to accommodate changes in the District identified through trend analysis. Special attention will be devoted to areas and criteria that demonstrate failure in a program component, introduction of new procedures, processes, or equipment. Corrective measures will be implemented as needed to reemphasize or restructure the Accident Prevention Plan to perform at the optimum effectiveness.

Information will be solicited from Principals, Supervisors and employees to determine the effectiveness of each program component, and assistance in developing adjustments and corrections.