The REMS TA Center offers a suite of tools to K-12 schools and school districts, institutions of higher education (IHEs), state education agencies (SEAs), regional education agencies (REAs), and community partners to support them in a variety of safety, security, and emergency preparedness activities. These EOP Interactive Tools were intended to be used by K-12 and higher ed practitioners with any level of experience in emergency management to develop emergency operations plans (EOPs), examine buildings and grounds, revise EOPs, enhance their capacity, engage in learning opportunities, and align their emergency planning practices with those at the national, state, and local levels. Get a snapshot of each tool and how they can support you and/or your education agency via our EOP Interactive Tools Flyer.

EOP ASSESS

Audience: K-12 and higher ed—individuals and planning team members at K-12 schools (public and nonpublic), school districts, IHEs, community partners, REAs, and SEAs.

Description: This Web application (app) helps practitioners assess their understanding of elements critical to the process of creating and maintaining a high-quality EOP. Users are guided through a series of questions relevant to the process of developing a high-quality EOP and receive a downloadable report providing customized information upon completion to enhance the user’s knowledge of the EOP planning process and high-quality plans.

Requirements: Computer with an Internet connection and a PDF viewer.

SITE ASSESS

Audience: K-12 and higher ed—site assessment team members at K-12 schools (public and nonpublic), school districts, IHEs, community partners, REAs, and SEAs.

Description: This mobile app is designed specifically for education agencies. It allows personnel to walk around buildings and grounds and conduct a site assessment. SITE ASSESS equips practitioners with information and knowledge about fundamental site assessment topics, allows users to add locality- and state-specific questions and skip entire sections that are not applicable to their education agency, and exports site assessment data for data aggregation/analysis and recordkeeping.

Requirements: Mobile device with iOS or Android operating system.

EOP ASSIST

Audience: K-12—planning team members at K-12 schools (public and nonpublic), school districts, community partners, REAs, and SEAs.

Description: This Web-accessible software app for SEAs, REAs, school districts, and schools to host on their own servers, directs planning team members through a process that will result in the output of an EOP according to the Federal guidelines for developing a high-quality school EOP. EOP ASSIST users are prompted through the six-step planning process recommended in the School Guide and generates a customized school EOP.

Requirements: Server that meets installation requirements; IT personnel with an intermediate level of expertise in networking, Web server configuration, and database configuration; and computers with an Internet connection.

EOP ASSIST Interactive Workbook

Audience: K-12—planning team members at K-12 schools (public and nonpublic), school districts, community partners, REAs, and SEAs.

Description: This offline tool directs planning team members through a process that will result in the output of an EOP according to the Federal guidelines for developing a high-quality school EOP. Composed of Microsoft Word worksheets and PDF instructions, the EOP ASSIST Interactive Workbook prompts users through the six-step planning process recommended in the School Guide and generates a customizable school EOP.

Requirements: Computer with a PDF viewer and Microsoft Word.

EOP EVALUATE

Audience: K-12 and higher ed—individuals and planning team members at K-12 schools (public and nonpublic), school districts, IHEs, community partners, REAs, and SEAs.

Description: This Web app helps planning team members evaluate an existing EOP against Federal guidelines. Using the School Guide and IHE Guide as a foundation, users are prompted through the Federally recommended six-step planning process to determine whether there are areas where an existing EOP can be improved. For example, after using EOP EVALUATE, planning teams might recognize a need to adjust their plan to:

• Scale down the number of planning team members but diversify the types of community partners;
• Prepare more specific goals and courses of action for potential threats and hazards;
• Conduct specific assessments, including climate and threat assessments; and/or
• Plan more trainings, exercises, and drills.

Requirements: Computer with an Internet connection and a PDF viewer.