Emergency Planning

Subtopics

Recovery

Training, Exercises, and Drills

Prepare for emergencies and know how to respond and recover.

Emergency planning is a key component of school safety that can include large-scale actions or everyday activities to build a safe school environment. These efforts can stop an emergency event from happening or reduce the impact of an incident that does occur. Emergency planning can also help schools identify and address gaps in procedures and empower school staff and local first responders to understand and manage their responsibilities.

A key component of emergency planning is creating a comprehensive school emergency operations plan (EOP), a document that describe the actions students, teachers, and school staff should take before, during, and after emergency events. Developing an EOP should be a collaborative process that includes a diverse planning team comprised of a range of school personnel as well as local and community partners. Schools should plan to review, evaluate, and update their EOP on a regular basis.

Conducting training, exercises, and developmentally appropriate drills can also support school emergency preparedness. These activities can help inform all members of the school community of their roles before, during, and after an emergency, as well as provide opportunities to practice courses of action outlined in the EOP and examine and strengthen preparedness capabilities. Exercises and drills should be tailored to account for the specific features and characteristics of the school community, including students’ developmental levels and physical abilities, and balanced with issues related to school culture and climate.

Schools and districts can plan for how they will recover from incidents before they occur, which can make the recovery process faster and more effective. As part of this, school emergency management teams should have an overall strategy and plan to support the academic, physical, emotional, and fiscal recovery of the school community following an emergency.

Featured Resources

These resources are a starting point for learning more about emergency planning. Use these resources to help prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergency events.

Additionally, SchoolSafety.gov regularly publishes issue briefs that provide a high-level overview of a specific school safety topic as well as a sampling of aligned strategies, resources, programs, and tools. Download and explore emergency planning-related issue briefs below.

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

K-12 Active Threat Tabletop Exercise: Situation Manual

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 2021

This resource is designed to assist K-12 stakeholders in conducting a discussion-based exercise focused on an active shooter threat. The situation manual is customizable and includes template exercise objectives and scenario and module questions to discuss pre-incident information and intelligence sharing, incident response, and recovery and continuity.

Filter Resources

All Emergency Planning Resources

Access additional resources below to learn more about K-12 emergency planning and related best practices. Use the filters to sort resources based on subtopic and/or preparedness action.

Tool

Mass Attacks Defense Toolkit

Third Party, 2022

This online toolkit provides strategies and guidance on deterring, mitigating, and responding to mass attacks. It is designed to help reduce the likelihood of mass shootings and other public attacks, and reduce the casualties of completed attacks.

Tool

K-12 Active Threat Tabletop Exercise: Situation Manual

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 2021

Training Program

Emergency Exercises Training Package

Department of Education, 2024

This downloadable package is designed to support school systems and their partners with conducting tabletop exercises for various hazards.