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PLANNING FOR YOUR EDUCATION AGENCY'S RECOVERY FROM AN EMERGENCY INCIDENT
The goal of recovery is to return to a sense of “normalcy” and restore the educational entity to a safe and supportive environment. Although most recovery activities are implemented during and after an incident, the more ready an entity is to implement them before the emergency occurs, the more effective and faster the recovery will be. A Recovery Annex is created in advance and outlines how the school, school district, and/or institution of higher education (IHE) will work with its community partners to recover from an emergency. An effective Recovery Annex includes realistic actions and related expectations for returning to typical educational functions.
Schools and IHEs accomplish this critical work of recovery planning by teaming with community partners to restore not only educational programming, but also the physical environment; business operations; and the social, emotional, and behavioral health of students, educators, administrators, and staff. Much of the recovery work that will require completion in collaboration with community partners can be built from every-day people, policies, and procedures. Each component of recovery has a pivotal role in helping to rebuild the educational entity’s capacity to further its academic mission and provide essential services. The type and breadth of recovery required following an event depends on the extent and magnitude of the emergency and can range from immediate (minutes and hours after an incident) to short-term (days and weeks after an incident) to long-term (weeks, months, or even years after an incident). Four types of recovery are briefly outlined below.
- Academics Recovery – Resuming educational programming and teaching and learning through curriculum re-evaluations, academic assessment, staff and schedule adjustments, restoration and relocation of classrooms and other rooms for education purposes, etc.
- Business Services Recovery – Resuming payroll, contracts, back-up IT services, and other operations, sometimes through the use of memoranda of understanding, to support teaching and learning as well as related essential services that the education agency provides.
- Health, Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Recovery – Providing adequate support to all members of the whole school community through ongoing assessments and monitoring, Employee Assistance Programs, counseling services, trauma and grief-focused mental health programs, Psychological First Aid for Schools, and fatigue prevention efforts, etc.
- Physical and Structural Recovery – Restoration of buildings, equipment, and supplies through facility cleaning, damage assessments and repairs, donation and volunteer management, hazard removal, etc.
