What are the most effective emergency planning practices for schools and universities?

When writing an emergency plan, know that you do not exist in a bubble. Use a “whole community” approach and work with local community police, fire, and city and county emergency managers as guides and experts to identifying and managing risks. Use past experiences in your threat and hazard identification and risk assessment (THIRA), and you will come up with realistic results.

A very valuable resource to use in this, is your local EMA. Reach out to them and ask for help with your risk assessment. You would be surprised how many entities fail to utilize the EMA.

The risks faced by schools differ from other businesses due to the clientele served - kids. Children are obviously more vulnerable than most adults and a minor risk for an adult might pose a significant problem for a child. For example, a serious traffic accident next to a school versus next to a factory. Near the school, an accident with injuries can traumatize children. It becomes a day-long distraction to learning. It can impact bus routes, parents picking up children, and children who walk home. Next to a factory, that same accident may have little to no impact. Therefore, the risks may seem the same but will have entirely different impacts, and emergency managers must keep this distinction in mind when working on an HVA.

Assess the risks. Use tools like risk matrices, hazard analyses, or threat assessments. Prioritize based on likelihood and impact. Consider specifics – location, size, population, infrastructure, resources, culture. No fluff – focus on the relevant and urgent scenarios. Emergency planning demands precision.

Risk assessment and identifying hazards will give an idea for any emergency responders to effectively manage any emergency situation.

My experience is that schools are very good at conducting drills. Where they can benefit from a bit of shoring up is the decision making structure that helps put everything together - ICS works just fine for that.

Hold table top exercises with outside partners to test the plans viability and resilience. Where are your gaps? When do you need to ask for help? Have these discussions with community partners, including not just police, fire, EMS, but also the parks department, transportation department, and public works. Write into the plan how and what type of emergencies each of these agencies can help with.

In my experience, the plan gives the idea of who, when, or what group needed to be activated to effectively respond the scenario. Planning includes but not limited to creating branches such as communication, transportation, medical responders and rehabilitation or evaluation.

Within a community there are several pockets of expertise especially among stakeholders in a given situation. There should be collaborative communication between school administrators, law enforcement (including dispatch), EMS, city / county planning and GIS departments, and the community. Small details such as a door on campus being propped open is valuable intelligence that can prove vital. Orchestrated meetings along with questionnaires, or 'check sheets' can help ensure all Intel is gathered and nothing is left on the table.

This is where mutual aid agreements are important. Develop legally binding agreements with community partners to help each other in the case of an emergency, one that defines capabilities for each partner.

One example of this is Private fire volunteers. Or some big establishment has fire fighters. Involve the stakeholders on any emergency plan. They have potential support such as logistic.

Taking the time to invite first responders to drills and Tabletop exercises will pay dividends down the road. They provide invaluable context to the discussion, and it also gives the first responders insight into the concerns and plans of the school.

When you pose this question to a school's emergency repsonse or planning team, "Who is the incident commander when an incident occurs?" they almost always answer in chorus, "the principal," or "the police" No, that is incorrect. The correct answer is the unfortunate soul who is actually on campus when the incident occurs. Help is generally at least five or more minutes away, and the principal may or may not be on campus. That is why it is so important to train and cross train your team. The critical decisions you make in the minutes while you are waiting for help to arrive will impact the outcome.

Exercises are a good way to know how well everyone understands their role. However, another and equally importiant approach is to test the plan as well. Develop exercises with the intent to break your plan to help identify weaknesses.

Training will give the team high capacity and effectively ready for any scene. It will let the team refresh what to do during emergencies.

"We don't rise to the level of our aspirations, we fall to the level of our training." - Archilochus This is the case no matter what you are involved in.

Our school districts in Arizona need more work as it pertains to students with special needs and Emergency Operation Plans. I have identified many areas of weaknesses to include the hiring of staff members and lack of training on how to crisis plan when it comes to these vulnerable populations. If you want to discuss this matter more, I would love to collaborate!

The key to any plan of action is the implementation portion. The plan must be practised to the point of it being routine. Mental and physical memory will kick in once a negative occurrence initiates. While the other portions are certainly important the individual(s) directly involved must know how to recognize an issue, begin the SOP, and locate to a place of safety. Action, in this case, is louder than words.

Updating the plan regularly or after evaluating the previous emergency occurred. To check for lapses or such as retraining for responders, revising the risk and hazards.

One of the best ways to update the plan is to exercise it. This is critical. If the first time you pick up the plan is during an actual emergency, it will not be helpful. Start small and work your way up: workshops -> tabletops -> full scales. Remember you are testing the plan and exercising the people.

Knowing the strategic imperatives, along with the essential business continuity tasks, will get executive buy in to develop the tactical plans. This endorsement should lead to establishing a budget to prepare for and respond to disasters. Also, Incorporating the standards imposed by the Clery Act into your operational plans should be done.

Respectfully disagree. This should not be included in a list of effective emergency management practices for schools and universities. Developing your skills and abilities is an enabler that will help you get to the objective (a safe and resilient school), and it is important to keep your eye on that objective.

Aside from planning and prep the next best practice is design. I have seen instances where during these AS events students and faculty become trapped in the classroom or flood the hallways to egress, but the design that I have experienced closes exterior hallway access doors and has interior doors that connects classrooms so that they can continue to egress safely. Schools need to have SOCs and IDS as well.