Emergency Planning

Subtopics

Recovery

Training, Exercises, and Drills

Plan for emergencies and know how to respond.

Families and communities expect schools to keep their children safe from a range of emergency events, like crime, natural disasters, and accidents. Emergencies can happen at any time, and planning for different emergencies can be challenging for schools. A key component of emergency planning is creating an Emergency Operations Plan (school EOP), or a document that outlines how a school will prepare, respond, and recover from an emergency.

Every district or school should develop and implement comprehensive school EOPs that describe the actions that students, teachers, and school staff should take before, during, and after emergency events, and everyone should have a common understanding of what will be expected of them. Any reduction of time between the beginning and end of an incident can save lives.

As an important part of emergency planning, training teaches staff and faculty about the policies, procedures, roles, and responsibilities in their school’s EOP. It also gives them the information they need to train their students on emergency procedures. Tabletop exercises allow schools to discuss their plans, policies, and procedures in an emergency scenario. Drills provide everyone with the chance to practice the actions they will take before, during, and after an emergency. Training and exercises are an essential component of school safety plans.

Schools are also continuously reacting to incidents. Most incidents are small, but some events, like tragic acts of violence, have a larger impact and may disrupt the worldview of students, staff, and family members. Schools and districts can plan for how they will recover from incidents before they occur, which can make the recovery process quicker and more effective.

To address the wide range of needs that are linked to the aftermath of incidents at school, safety teams should ask themselves questions like: how do we address the counseling needs of students, staff, and families? Who has the authority to close and reopen the school? Does the school know how to reunify parents and students? Having answers to questions like these can help schools rebound more quickly.

Districts and schools should also have an overall strategy for academic, physical, fiscal, and emotional recovery, which includes knowing what to do and how to support the community. Successful recovery addresses the needs that emerge after an incident and having a plan can mean recovery is more effective and timely.

Use the filter below to sort resources available based upon stages of preparedness and subtopic.

Featured Resources

These resources are a starting point for learning about emergency planning. Use these resources to help implement emergency planning best practices. Members of the school community can also download this SchoolSafety.gov infographic to learn more about the five preparedness mission areas and this SchoolSafety.gov infographic to access a sampling of emergency planning resources.

Guidance

Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans

Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice

This guidance provides information to school administrators on school emergency management planning. It includes a process for developing, implementing, and refining a school Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) with community partners.

Guidance

The Role of Districts in Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans

Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, September 2019

The District Guide serves as a complement to the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans (School Guide) and provides information that can assist school districts in fulfilling both their individual and shared emergency planning responsibilities.

Tool

EOP Interactive Tools

Department of Education

The REMS TA Center offers a suite of emergency management planning tools for school administrators, law enforcement and state officials. The tool can help develop emergency operations plans, conduct site assessments, revise EOPs and align their emergency planning practices with those at the national, state, and local levels.

Filter Resources

All Emergency Planning Resources

The federal government identified additional resources that highlight strategies for school safety. Use these resources to learn more about emergency planning.

Webpage

Emergency Planning for Juvenile Residential Facilities

Department of Justice, 2020

This webpage provides emergency planning information and resources for juvenile justice facilities to mitigate, respond to, and recover from natural, manmade, technological and public health emergencies.

Guidance

Design Guide for Improving School Safety in Earthquakes, Floods, and High Winds

Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2010

This guide provides information for the protection of school buildings and their occupants against natural hazards. It focuses on the design of elementary and secondary schools (K–12), as well as repair, renovation, and additions to existing schools, and addresses multi-hazard design and performance-based design.

Report

Inter-agency Technical Assistance Toolkit for School Infrastructure in Puerto Rico

Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2022

This toolkit highlights resources related to school infrastructure development, and those most relevant to Puerto Rico's 2022 recovery efforts. It is broken into sections based on phases of the work, from planning and design to project review, and also includes key points of contact and additional funding opportunities.