National Preparedness Month

Preparedness encompasses the condition of buildings and grounds on campus. There are two key activities that your education agency can participate in to ensure that your physical campus is prepared: conduct a site assessment and implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED).

Site assessments allow education agency personnel to examine the safety, security, accessibility, and emergency preparedness of buildings and grounds. During these assessments, teams collect critical information that can inform the development and revision of EOPs. Site assessments should be completed on at least an annual basis, so ensure that one has been completed during National Preparedness Month. The REMS TA Center offers SITE ASSESS, a free and secure mobile application for conducting site assessments.

CPTED is a multidisciplinary strategy for deterring criminal behavior and protecting a community. It is grounded in the idea that the physical environment can impact response to crime, and social control, and therefore changes to the environment can reduce opportunities for criminal behavior. Review your EOP during National Preparedness Month, and consider how you can integrate CPTED principles into its revisions. CPTED can also be implemented through site assessments; SITE ASSESS incorporates the principles of CPTED throughout the assessment.

Emergency exercises offer opportunities to practice courses of action outlined in the EOP and to examine and strengthen its contents. There are several types of emergency exercises for emergency response training and practice. It is recommended that, after conducting an emergency exercise, the core planning team debrief together and create an after-action report that evaluates results, identifies gaps or shortfalls, and documents lessons learned.

During National Preparedness Month, your education agency can plan simple exercises such as orientations and tabletop exercises to validate existing EOPs, programs, policies, roles, responsibilities, and training curriculum. In most cases, these emergency exercises can be completed in less than an hour at a low cost. Thus, it may be possible to conduct the exercise during a staff meeting. You can continue your preparedness activities by gathering the core planning team, the response team, community partners (if they participated), and/or other members of the whole school/campus community who were involved in the exercise in order to collect their reflections on the successes and/or challenges of the exercise via an after-action review, which will support you in developing an after-action report. This information is critical to strengthening, maintaining, and refining EOPs.

Training is a critical component of preparedness and EOP implementation. Providing training to all staff members, at all levels of school/campus operations, helps to educate them on their roles and responsibilities before, during, and after an emergency and ensures that consistent messages are disseminated.

Take advantage of the training packages offered by the REMS TA Center during National Preparedness Month to support your professional development and emergency preparedness capacity-building efforts. The Specialized Training Package contains materials for education agencies to use to train teams online or in person as well as engage in self-paced learning.

An important element of the planning process is reviewing and updating the EOP. Given that planning is a continuous process, the plan should evolve as the core planning team learns lessons, obtains new information and insights, and updates priorities. Reviews should be a recurring activity.

National Preparedness Month is an ideal time for core planning teams to establish a process for reviewing and revising their plan. Many education agencies review their plans annually. In no case should any part of a plan go for more than 2 years without being reviewed and revised. In addition to reviewing and updating the plan, the core planning team should ensure that all community partners (e.g., first responders, local emergency management staff) have the most current version of the EOP.

Involvement of key community stakeholders is central to success in developing and implementing a comprehensive EOP. A high-quality plan is supported by a collaborative process that includes multiple perspectives. The appropriate combination of organizations and individuals at the collaboration table will vary depending on the threats and hazards that the community faces, the presence and capacity of community partners, and the potential collaborators’ availability to participate. Local community partners with a responsibility in school/campus emergency management and with information on the community include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Emergency management staff;
• Law enforcement officers;
• Fire officials;
• Emergency medical services personnel;
• Public health officials;
• Mental/behavioral health practitioners;
• Representatives from youth-serving organizations; and
• Administrators from neighboring private and public schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs).

Identify and meet with community partners this National Preparedness Month to ensure quality emergency management collaboration. Consider how your agencies can work together to enhance your coordination and partnership.

Students are often an overlooked stakeholder group and yet represent a large population within the education setting. They can serve as both a resource and a key collaborative partner by participating in activities before, during, and after an emergency and contributing to EOP development. Consider increasing student engagement during National Preparedness Month by integrating youth preparedness into educational initiatives and establishing or expanding a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program.

The CERT program is a locally implemented initiative that trains volunteers on basic emergency preparedness and response skills. This includes light search and rescue, fire safety, medical operations, and incident command. CERT aims to organize teams of volunteers to serve as a resource in the event of an emergency — by providing assistance to members of their community before first responders arrive or by participating in basic response activities before, during, and after incidents. Teen CERT is designed for high school students and can be offered as a semester-long class, through afterschool programs or extracurricular clubs, or as individual modules and lessons. Campus CERT is designed for IHEs to train their students and/or staff.

Family members and caregivers can also serve as key partners in preparedness activities to foster a positive collaborative relationship in advance of an emergency and thereby strengthen EOPs. They can help contribute to school safety programs; advocate for the needs, health, and well-being of their students and other students within the whole school community; and participate in or consult on ad hoc planning teams. During National Preparedness Month, consider collecting emergency cards and student release forms from families and guardians and training them on where to find emergency information before, during, and after an emergency.

Having supplies ready for use before, during, and after an emergency is essential. The types of materials and supplies needed may depend on the threats and hazards facing your education agency, as well as the resources available to you. Examples of supplies include emergency “go-kits,” personal protective equipment, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radios. Consider preparing/inventorying these supplies, restocking them if needed, and testing them to ensure that they are ready for and available during an emergency.

Emergency supply kits — or emergency go-kits — contain essential emergency supplies that aim to help keep students and staff safe during and after an emergency. They are particularly relevant in the event of an evacuation, a lockdown, or sheltering-in-place. Go-kits should be customized for their intended use and audience. For example, an administration go-kit would differ in its contents from a classroom go-kit. Assemble go-kits or review their contents during National Preparedness Month.

Adequate masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) are extremely useful to protect students, staff, faculty, and visitors from infectious disease transmission. However, in order for masks and PPE to be effective, it’s important that education agencies explore a variety of considerations. For example, the recommended types of PPE are dependent upon the staff members and role that they play within the education agency. Core planning teams also need to consider how they will ensure the proper usage and disposal of masks and PPE, as well as how the needs of those with access and functional needs will be met, when developing proper use protocols and training. Conduct an inventory of your masks and PPE during National Preparedness Month.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio (NWRs) broadcasts continuous weather information from the nearest National Weather Service office as well as post-event information for all types of emergencies. Since the National Weather Service issues severe weather warnings and emergency information in real time, NWR receivers can be used to obtain information in the event of a power outage, a Wi-Fi outage, or an overloaded mobile phone network. NWR provides a reliable source of information that will be aligned with information received by local community partners and state-level partners that may support response. Test or acquire a NWR receiver during National Preparedness Month.