From submitting updated immunization records and emergency contact cards to being mindful of sharing protected student data at the beginning of the school year, emergency preparedness is an essential part of heading back to school for everyone! Students play a particularly important role in ensuring that communities are prepared for a potential emergency event. The REMS TA Center’s Building Youth Preparedness and School Safety Capacity by Integrating Educational Initiatives fact sheet provides information on youth preparedness; how to integrate it into educational activities; benefits and tips; and programs, curricula, resources, and sample activities. Review it today, and be prepared for tomorrow!

To help prepare your students in the classroom and school setting, incorporate developmentally appropriate lessons and activities into your plans, orientations, and resources shared with caregivers. Check out emergency preparedness curricular resources from Ready Kids for ideas: Prepare with Pedro is an activity book for young children, Student Tools for Emergency Planning is a modular curriculum with fun activities for fourth and fifth graders, and Teen Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a volunteer program for high schoolers. These educational resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were designed with flexibility in mind and are perfect activities to incorporate at the beginning of the school year.

The National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics jointly recently released the annual Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2021. This 24th edition indicates that public schools have seen an increase in cyberbullying and verbal abuse, disrespect toward teachers, and classroom disorder in general. At the postsecondary level, crime rates decreased, but certain incidents, such as forcible sex and hate crimes related to race and ethnicity, increased.

These data can help inform priorities for your core planning team in the upcoming academic year. Below are a sample of activities to consider, along with REMS TA Center resources on the topic:

• Review and update your Bullying/Cyberbullying Annex. Access the REMS TA Center’s Using the School Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) Framework to Support Bullying Prevention Efforts Webinar and Cyber Safety Considerations for K-12 Schools and School Districts Fact Sheet.
• Collect data on student and staff connectedness. Read the REMS TA Center’s School Culture and Climate Assessments Fact Sheet, which includes information on creating a school climate improvement plan.
• Understand how student perceptions of safety can impact the creation of a safe school environment. Read the REMS TA Center’s Student Perceptions of Safety and Their Impact on Creating a Safe School Environment Fact Sheet.
• Foster a positive school climate, which in turn can help prevent and/or help schools prepare for many of these incidents that lead to student and teacher victimization. Watch the REMS TA Center’s How Positive School Climate Can Enhance School Safety Webinar.
• Review the membership of and processes for your behavioral threat assessment team. Watch the REMS TA Center’s Forming a School Behavioral Threat Assessment Team Webinar and Use of Social Media in School Behavioral Threat Assessments Webinar, or request a live or virtual training on School Behavioral Threat Assessments: An Introduction from the REMS TA Center’s expert trainers.

Did you know that August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day? This event presents an opportunity to learn about and raise awareness of opioid and other drug overdoses, including those that impact school and campus communities. In 2019, roughly 22 percent of high school students reported being offered, sold, or given illegal drugs on school property within the past 12 months, making drug use, abuse, and overdose important topics for school and campus communities to understand, be aware of, and plan for in their emergency operations plans (Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2021, pp. 17-18).

Join the REMS TA Center in taking part in this awareness day by taking steps to prevent, protect your school community from, mitigate, respond to, and recover from drug-related emergencies by utilizing the following REMS TA Center’s related resources:

• Listen to our two-part #REMSOntheAir podcast series titled Opioids, Drug-Related Emergencies, and Substance Abuse Prevention Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic. In Part 1, the REMS TA Center describes school-based prevention and intervention methods and provides an overview of the presence of opioids in schools. Part 2 provides an overview of opioid use and abuse and offers key terms and definitions.
• Learn from our Opioids, Drug-Related Emergencies, and Substance Abuse Prevention Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic Webinar about opioids and school safety and why this topic is important to consider in all settings and all times.
• Read our fact sheet Preparing for Opioid-Related Emergencies for K-12 Schools and Institutions of Higher Education on planning for opioid emergencies and opioid-related preparedness activities.
• Create or update your Opioid Overdose Annex in the emergency operations plan using the information you learned from the above resources.
• Share any of the above resources with your colleagues, planning team, and community as a professional development activity to enhance your education agency’s capacity.

#REMSonTheRoad is back in action this year as we have been traveling across the nation to share information and free resources on school safety, security, emergency management, and preparedness with practitioners in the field. By presenting and exhibiting at conferences and delivering Live Trainings by Request, we connected with practitioners and showcased the REMS TA Center’s products and services for schools, school districts, institutions of higher education, other education agencies, and their community partners. The map above showcases our travel throughout the 2021-22 school year, which included 14 states and the District of Columbia.

We look forward to expanding #REMSonTheRoad by continuing to travel to your state, territory, city, county, or locality for the upcoming 2022-23 school year to share resources and information on topics such as implementing resilience strategies for educators, conducting site assessments, preventing adult sexual misconduct in schools, planning for family reunification, and more. If you would like to have the REMS TA Center present on a subject or exhibit at your conference, or if you would like to host a Live Training by Request, do not hesitate to contact us via phone through our toll-free phone line, 1-855-781-7367 (REMS), or via email at info@remstacenter.org.

As you are preparing for the upcoming school year, don’t forget to include transportation safety on your list, which includes the many ways students travel to and from school or are transported to various school-sponsored events. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), school buses are the most regulated vehicles on the road and are designed to be safer than passenger vehicles in preventing crashes and injuries. Students also often travel to school by biking or by walking, which requires a different set of planning considerations; the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School Programs help communities consider how to better support these methods of travel to school.

The entire school community, including parents and students, plays a key role in ensuring transportation safety. Here are some ways your school or district can prepare for the return to school and promote safety on the roads:

• Communicate traffic and school bus routes and rules to parents, families, and students;
• Disseminate NHTSA tips to the whole school community on school bus, bicycle, and pedestrian safety;
• Encourage transportation directors, emergency managers, and planning teams to watch the REMS TA Center’s Webinar titled The Role of K-12 Transportation Directors in School Safety Efforts; and
• Ensure that your collaborative planning team includes your transportation director(s), school bus driver(s), and/or other transportation staff to plan for potential threats and hazards that may occur in any setting and at any time.