State education agencies (SEAs) play a unique and essential role in supporting schools and school districts as they develop prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery protocols for their emergency operations plans (EOPs). With input from a broad array of stakeholders and experts, SEAs are positioned to aid schools and school…

When designing or updating a K-12 emergency operations plan (EOP), gun violence ranks among the top human-caused threats to be accounted for, regardless of perceived risk. Gun violence incidents have now impacted every school demographic in the United States, and no school is immune to the possibility. Providing a safe, supportive, and welcoming…

Responding to complex problems and emergencies such as COVID-19 requires both rapid response and long-term planning. Part of the response and planning needs to be based on lessons learned from previous crisis experiences. Organizations should be routinely conducting strategic reviews of previous responses, projects, or events to analyze the…

The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center (REMS) has created a list of their own resources on how K-12 schools can create an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). It addresses all threats, hazards, settings, and times. The list includes the following categories: (1) Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) Development…

During the summer of 2018, the world was captivated by news about the Wild Boars soccer team, trapped in a cave in Thailand. This paper analyzes instances of leadership in the internationally-coordinated rescue effort. We share a lesson plan to support critical thinking in the roles of different leadership approaches and theories to apply this…

When a major emergency event affects a school, school district, or institution of higher education (IHE), there are various functions that responding organizations have to activate in order to respond and recover effectively. Education agencies are particularly unique because they are entrusted to protect the vulnerable populations they serve and…

School preparedness is strengthened by prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities (also known as the five preparedness mission areas). This fact sheet describes what response is, how response is connected to the other preparedness missions, what response efforts planning teams may want to consider, and how response…

School preparedness is strengthened by prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities (also known as the five preparedness mission areas). This fact sheet describes what prevention is, how prevention is connected to the other preparedness missions, what prevention efforts planning teams may want to consider, and how…

The "Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans" ("School Guide") defines school climate as "a range of campus conditions, including safety, relationships and engagement, and the environment, that may influence student learning and well-being" (p. 53). School climate is important because its…

Incorporating National Incident Management System training and exercise principles into homeland security and emergency management learning can help university students develop emergency response capabilities through practical application of knowledge in simulated incidents. In addition, they gain team-building and leadership skills, establish…

This article examines school and school district-level efforts to reopen schools after significant damage from hurricanes. Through an empirical, qualitative research design, four themes emerged as critical to the hurricane recovery process: the importance of communication, resolving tension, coordinating with other services and learning from the…

It is the position of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) that school nurses provide leadership in all phases of emergency preparedness and management and are a vital part of the school team that develops emergency response procedures for the school setting, using an all-hazards approach. The school nurse is a vital school…

Much has been written about the use of threat assessment. Schools are encouraged to have threat assessment teams and a threat assessment process as part of a comprehensive safe schools effort. Encouraging and enabling members of the school community to report possible threats in a timely manner is an essential component of an effective threat…

Advances in medicine have increased the survival rates of children with complex medical conditions, including those who are dependent on technology such as ventilators and tracheostomies. The process of integrating children dependent on medical technology into public schools requires the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team to ensure that…

Disaster preparedness is an important issue in library management today. This article presents a general overview of the theoretical aspects of disaster planning in libraries. The stages of disaster planning are a circular process of planning, prevention, response, recovery, preparedness, and training.