Providing a safe environment for students has become as much a concern to school officials these days as educating them.
"It dominates just about everything we do right now," said Central Dauphin School Board President Ford Thompson. "It's an evolving daily process almost - training, reviewing."
When horrific school shootings occur like the one in Broward County, Florida Wednesday that left 17 dead, Thompson said it causes district officials to go back and check to see if something might have been overlooked.
"Our mission is the education of almost 12,000 students but their safety is paramount," he said.
- Florida school shooting: what we know about victims, shooter, more
Central Dauphin, like other schools, issued letters to parents on Wednesday and Thursday, expressing their sympathy and support for their counterparts in Parkland. They also discussed how the tragedy serves as a reminder of the need for vigilance on everyone's part to keep schools safe and steps they have taken to prepare for emergencies.
"I want to assure you that the safety of our school community is our top priority and that our schools have comprehensive crisis plans in place to guide us through a variety of emergency situations should the need arise," said West Shore School District Superintendent Todd Stoltz in his letter to parents.
Still, despite all the stepped-up security measures that schools have made over the past two decades -- such as limiting access to a single point of entry, requiring visitors to wear ID badges, and training students and staff about what to do in emergencies -- they can't help but look to see if they can do more.
Even state lawmakers are doing that.
Last year, the Legislature passed a law that allows schools to conduct active shooter drills but doesn't require them.
Rep. Gary Day, R-Lehigh County, who sponsored the bill, said his bill started out making annual security drills a mandate so students and staff would be armed with information about what to do in an emergency situation. The Senate changed the wording to make it optional for schools to conduct such a drill, a change he said he went along with just to get at least a portion of what he had hoped to achieve on the books.
After what happened in Florida, he is considering introducing legislation that makes these drills a requirement.
"It has been reported that somebody who was involved in the event in Florida stated that their training from a security drill was imperative in limiting the scope of the damage in that event," Day said. "Therefore, us here in Pennsylvania, we should consider changing that."
He, along with Reps. Craig Staats, R-Bucks County, and Sid Kavulich, D-Lackawanna County, also have moved up their plans by weeks to talk about other legislative next-steps to enhance school safety, Day said. Wednesday's mass school shooting triggered the urgency.
Among their ideas are creating a statewide hotline for people to report information that could bring harm to others as well as possibly looking into safeguards around mental health to try understand ahead of time what might prevent a tragedy.
The state Department of Education has an Office for Safe Schools to offer guidance to districts and encourages them to identify a team and use a process it has develped to improve school climate, said department spokeswoman Casey Smith.
Additionally, grants to provide funding for security equipment and personnel are available.
The letters that West Shore and Central Dauphin sent to parents remind them that school counselors are available to talk with students about their fears and grief arising out of the Florida school tragedy. They also note that resources are available on their websites for parents to help them discuss it with their children.