PUTNAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — In October, Gov. Bill Lee launched a new School Safety Toolkit for Tennessee families.

Many school districts have been working on upgrading their safety and security protocols with children back from break.

One of those ahead of the game is the Putnam County School District.

“When Executive Order 97 came out by Governor Lee, we looked at that toolkit and reviewed it, and we were very fortunate to find that a lot of the things within that Executive Order, Putnam County Schools was already doing,” Hannah Davis, Communications Supervisor for Putnam County Schools said.

Putnam County Schools said they were already doing site audits and assessments, so several of the requirements in the School Safety Toolkit have already been in place throughout their schools.

“Once you get your Safety grant money, you have a timeframe to complete those projects. So several of those are going into place right now, and some of them have been completed,” Davis said.

The initiative behind the School Safety Toolkit is to improve school safety all around, to help parents prepare and engage in their child’s school safety plan.

“It was looking at those tools, looking at what he had given, and then kind of just looking to see. You know, we’ve never fully arrived at school safety. So it’s always important for us to continue looking at ways that we can improve school safety within our school system,” Davis said.

The Putnam County School District has upgraded its security cameras in all 21 schools. Administrators have also taken a closer look at their visitor entrances.

“You have visitor safety, so looking at those and some of those include vestibules, and how you have windows set up, and the way families enter. So, evaluating those and finding the money to put forth those projects to make our schools even safer,” Davis said.

At Cornerstone Elementary School, the district recently was able to use school safety grants for a fencing project that surrounds the playground.

“There was a piece of fencing that needed to be closed in and so, as we did our site assessments, we saw hey this is a need. And through that site assessment, which is a part of the Toolkit, we were able to make that upgrade and improvement,” Davis said.

Making upgrades to ensure safety in every school is what this initiative is all about.

Putnam County Schools also said the Toolkit allowed them to take a closer look at their protocols and put them in a position to improve them and move forward.