Public School Emergency Preparedness

Written in accordance with the President's 2003 homeland security directive and the Department of Education's guidelines, and in response to the ever-present threats facing our school systems, this book helps schools and institutions develop a comprehensive emergency response plan. This book outlines programs and procedures that can be applied to any school system to address hazard mitigation and prevention, emergency preparedness and response, and recovery and restoration of school functions to an effective learning environment. It describes specific actions and assigns responsibilities and response roles to district and individual school staff emergency teams, cooperating agencies, and community response partners that have agreed to share responsibilities and resources as defined in this plan. This book also outlines, in the event of an emergency involving response by fire and/or law enforcement, the district/school site personnel who should establish an Incident Command System-based response organization in accordance with procedures outlined in the National Incident Management System. In addition, the authors predetermine, to the extent possible, operational procedures across any U.S. school system and cooperating governmental, private, and volunteer agencies for responding to and recovering from any and all types of natural, human, or technology-based emergencies that may occur within school system operations or outside the jurisdiction of the school system but nonetheless cause/could cause collateral impact to school system operations. Contents examine emergency notification and immediate actions; concept of operations, including first key actions, partnering with community agencies, and the initial briefing; crisis management team action checklists; response resources, including personnel, response team partners, emergency evacuation/receiving facilities, and emergency equipment and supplies; emergency response flip charts for principals, teachers, secretaries, and custodians; district incident-specific response protocols, covering 29 scenarios from accidents to weapons situations; and general response procedures for clean up, communications, cost accounting, tracking students and personnel. Appendices include training and exercises, forms, sample communications and letters, examples of status boards, and a stakeholder management plan.