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, 2016

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.

Guidance

FEMA's Sample School Emergency Operations Plan (for Training Purposes)

Federal Emergency Management Agency

This sample school EOP was developed in accordance with the "Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans." This document has been developed for training purposes only.

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.

Tool

Vicarious Trauma Toolkit

Department of Justice

This toolkit is an online collection of resources for victim-serving organizations to assess the impact of vicarious trauma on counselors of victims. This toolkit provides an assessment that analyzes the current response to vicarious trauma and includes policies, best practices, research literature, links to websites, podcasts, and testimonials.

Guidance

The Standard Reunification Method (Volume 2)

Third Party, 2022

This guidance provides school and district safety teams with proven methods for planning, practicing and achieving a successful reunification in the event of a school crisis or emergency.

Webpage

Creating, Practicing, and Implementing Plans for Family Reunification Before, During, and After an Emergency

Department of Education

This webpage provides resources to help schools create a Family Reunification Annex as a part of a school emergency operations plan in order to detail actions to take before, during, and after an emergency to ensure students are reunited with their families.