The following are some useful tips, though they need to be adjusted to the age and needs of your child:
There are a number of programs springing up that claim to teach self-defense for kids. Be cautious about them. Most local martial arts groups and karate clubs are great for exercise and confidence building, but lousy for self-defense.
Some Impact studios, however, are starting to offer suitable kids’ programs. Look for programs that teach a combination of boundary setting, verbal and physical techniques.
This is a very important topic these days. We can’t begin to cover all the possibilities, but here are a couple of resources you may not have come across. One is A Parent’s Guide to School Shootings, by an Ohio police officer, another is a school safety program called ALICE (Alert-Lockdown-Inform-Counter-Escape). FASTER is a program that provides police-level training for free to teachers and other school personnel for the kind of emergency situations everyone hopes never happens to them.
Talk to your local schools and your local police. Are they talking together about what to do in these situations? Are they training together?