Let Kids Be Kids: A Progress Report on Schools and Safety
Examine what it means for a school to be truly safe and welcoming, through a multifaceted lens that puts children first.
What does it mean for a school to be truly safe & welcoming?
Let Kids Be Kids: A Progress Report on Schools and Safety explores this question through a multifaceted lens that puts kids first. Informed by a decade of research led by the AIA-CAE Research Subcommittee and Safe Schools Working Group, the report engages with up-to-the-minute questions about designing for safety, welcome, community, mental health, design justice, and evaluation.
Designed as a modular toolbox, the report lets readers jump straight to the thematic modules most relevant to their work, or follow the argument as it unfolds cover to cover. Architects, educators, school leaders, and community members can all use it as a resource for future planning, rethinking current practices, sparking design conversations, and evaluating existing schools. Above all, Let Kids Be Kids is an invitation to reimagine schools and rethink the communities around them as safe places where belonging blooms and children thrive.
Lobo, C., Sorensen, D. (2026). Let Kids Be Kids: A Progress Report on Schools and Safety. Published by The American Institute of Architects. © 2026 The American Institute of Architects, suoLL Architects, and d.studio. All rights reserved.
