Happy Safe and Healthy New Year From the REMS TA Center
From all of us at the REMS TA Center, we wish you and yours a very safe and happy new year! To kick off a positive and productive 2017, we would like to share with you several exciting new resources to aid in your planning efforts. We look forward to supporting you all year in your important work in school safety, security, emergency management, and preparedness!
Download and Share Our NEW Sample Annexes on Shelter-in-Place, Lockdowns, Family Reunification, and Earthquakes
To help schools in their planning efforts—and by request from the field—the REMS TA Center has just released four sample annexes that represent parts of fictional school emergency operations plans (EOPs). We are pleased to provide three functional annexes for sheltering-in-place, lockdowns, and family reunification, and one hazard-specific annex to address earthquakes. These resources serve as examples of EOP components that a planning team may develop as they work through the six-step planning process described in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans (School Guide).
All four sample annexes include introductory paragraphs; before, during, and after goals; objectives; and courses of action to meet those goals and objectives. For example, in the shelter-in-place sample annex, the goal before a shelter-in-place is required is to “Have the capacity to shelter-in-place immediately” and an objective is to “Prepare to seal shelter locations or take personal protective actions.” One course of action to address this is for the whole school community to practice a shelter-in-place drill every November. Each planning team should ultimately decide how their annexes are structured based on their work with collaborative partners through the six-step planning process; this is reflected in the sample annexes, which are all formatted slightly differently and reflect very different fictional schools.
General resources to help create an EOP, including annexes, can also be found on the EOP Interactive Tools Web page. Specific information is available on the Functional Annexes and Threat- and Hazard-Specific Annexes pages.
New Fact Sheet on Developing a Continuity of Operations (COOP) Annex for Schools and Districts
We’ve created and added a NEW fact sheet on Developing a Continuity of Operations (COOP) Annex for K-12 Schools and School Districts to our series of topical resources released last month via News & Updates From the REMS TA Center, Winter 2016. This fact sheet describes how a COOP Annex can be created as a part of an EOP to describe how the school’s or district’s essential functions will continue during an emergency and its aftermath. These essential functions will likely address teaching and learning, the physical aspects of buildings and the campus, business functions, and emotional and psychological recovery.
In addition to explaining why planning for COOP is important, the document describes how efforts can be integrated into overall EOP development and emergency management planning, as well as used to help build resiliency. The fact sheet also describes the nine elements of a COOP Annex and provides several key resources to consider. Aside from this new fact sheet, supporting REMS TA Center resources on developing a COOP Annex include a Web page, online course, downloadable training package, and Webinar.
ICYMI: Our EOP Interactive Tools Can Help Strengthen Your Emergency Management Efforts
Whether you need to compare your school or higher ed EOP against federal recommendations, or create a school EOP and revise it based on updated state or local legislation and/or lessons learned, we’ve got the tool for you! Our new EOP Interactive Tools Flyer details which tool your school or institution of higher education should use based on whether you already have an EOP or are new to the field of K-12 or higher ed emergency management and trying to create a new one. Download the flyer here: http://rems.ed.gov/docs/EOP_Interactive_Tools_Flyer_508C.pdf.
Feel free to share this flyer with local education agencies in your states and localities. To date, we’ve recorded that more than 700 education agencies have downloaded EOP ASSIST, one of our most-used tools! Is your school one of those agencies? Share feedback on how it’s been working for you via the Community of Practice (CoP) here: http://rems.ed.gov/COP/REMSCOPforum/topics.aspx?ForumID=85.
Our School Threat Assessment Training by Request Has Been Updated | Request a FREE Training Today
Lots of great things are happening at the TA Center in 2017, including the release of our revised threat assessment Training by Request (TBR), which is now titled School Behavioral Threat Assessments: An Introduction and available in the Train-the-Educator format. If you are interested in this training topic, check out our TBR page for more information on requesting this training and more information on our other training topics that are also available by request. You can also fill out a Host Site Application here: http://www.rems.ed.gov/Docs/TBR_Application_122016_interactive.pdf.
Share Your Preparedness Promise for the New Year With the Field
Updating your school EOP. Conducting a school climate and/or threat assessment. Strengthening your bullying and/or adult sexual misconduct prevention and management programs. Working with partners to conduct mitigation activities and reinforce community resilience.
Your education or emergency management agency may have selected any of the above actions, or other preparedness actions and emergency management activities, as New Year’s resolutions. No matter what your agency plans to do this year to help prepare for threats and hazards that may impact your whole school community, share it with us and the field via the #MyPreparednessPromise forum on our CoP here: http://rems.ed.gov/COP/REMSCOPforum/messages.aspx?TopicID=266&MessageID=598#post598.
The TA Center will track and share the responses we receive from around the country via Twitter. Don’t forget to use the #MyPreparednessPromise hashtag when sharing your promise!
Stay Connected All Year via Twitter and Our Community of Practice
The REMS TA Center CoP and Twitter profile both provide unique opportunities for state and local education agencies and their partners in emergency management to
- Learn about
- current events hosted by us and our partners in emergency management;
- free services from us and other .gov operated agencies and centers; and
- topics addressed to help build safe and healthy schools via your school EOP.
- Find and use valuable tweets and CoP forums that help you
- raise awareness among your partners and community;
- quickly access and share our valuable tools; and
- link your work and success to critical national initiatives.
- Engage with others via the CoP by
- discussing common topics and issues you encounter;
- sharing lessons learned and successes; and
- posting and accessing sample tools and policies.
Join the CoP today: http://rems.ed.gov/COP/Account/Register.aspx.
Follow us on Twitter (@remstacenter) and encourage the stakeholders whom you serve and partner with to do the same!
Use these tools to stay current, raise awareness in your community, and learn from others.
