Educators, administrators, faculty members, staff members, students, and families use online platforms and systems for teaching, learning, business functions, and other essential services at schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education (IHEs). Therefore, it is important for each of these community members to be aware of cybersecurity practices to prevent, mitigate, respond to, recover from, and protect others from cyber threats. This includes knowing how to 1) enable multifactor authentication, 2) create strong passwords, 3) recognize and report phishing, and 4) update software.

School and campus safety leaders and core planning team members can engage in Cybersecurity Awareness Month and spread the word on campus about key steps everyone should take. These actions may be documented in the Cyber Annex of your emergency operations plan (EOP). Comprehensive EOPs take into account all settings and all times, such as the virtual setting and before, during, and after an emergency, such as a cyber threat. The REMS TA Center offers resources for edcuation agencies to enhance their cybersecurity preparedness and plan for cyber threats:

• NEW Fact Sheet: Read about emergency management planning considerations for online classrooms from an all-settings, all-times perspective, which includes schools and programs that are fully online.
• NEW Downloadable Module: Use the materials in “Integrating Cybersecurity Into School Emergency Operations Plans” to self-train or deliver a 60-minute professional development training about why cybersecurity is important in the context of school safety planning, about cyber threats facing K-12 networks and systems, and about how to develop a Cyber Annex as part of the EOP.
• NEW Emergency Exercises Training Package: Conduct a 60-minute tabletop exercise with a hypothetical cybersecurity scenario using the contents of this package, including a facilitator podcast and participant guide.
• Online Course: Learn in 30-45 minutes the cybersecurity considerations that K-12 schools and school districts need to keep in mind to inform school EOPs.
• REMS on the Air Podcast: Tune in to Series #2, a 22-minute, two-part series that explores creating, revising, and enhancing EOPs to address cyber safety in the school setting.

As part of a comprehensive school EOP, schools and school districts prepare for how they will communicate internally and with external stakeholders before, during, and after an emergency, including policies and protocols for disseminating timely information via alerts, notifications, social media, etc. The REMS TA Center is pleased to share our NEW Virtual Trainings by Request topic, Communications and Warning Considerations for Your K-12 Emergency Operations Plan Train-the-Educator. This training topic will cover the Communications and Warning Annex, which resides in the “Functional Annexes” section of your school EOP. After attending this virtual event, participants will be able to

• Understand the Communications and Warning Annex and its importance in a K-12 EOP;
• Review emergency communication procedures and strategies to use before an emergency;
• Learn emergency notification and communication strategies to use during an emergency; and
• Understand the importance of using emergency communication after an emergency.

It’s ShakeOut time! On Thursday, October 20, 2022, at 10:20 a.m. local time, people around the world will participate in earthquake drills organized for International ShakeOut Day. Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills provide schools, school districts, IHEs, and entire communities an opportunity to practice Drop, Cover, and Hold On (or, if using a mobility device with wheels, Lock, Cover, and Hold On); enhance their preparedness capacity for earthquakes; and identify strengths and weaknesses in the Earthquake Annexes of their EOPs.

While it is fun to join the ShakeOut at the planned time, the REMS TA Center invites you and members of your whole school or campus community to participate in this effort on any date, at any time, and in any setting! This means that you may hold your drill before, during, or after school and that the drill may be hosted in person, online, or via both formats. It is important for education agencies to participate because they serve and employ a large population within their local communities and they can reinforce protective measures that youth, individuals, and families may take in the event of an earthquake. Follow the steps below for more information and to participate in this year's event.

1. Register as a ShakeOut participant so that you are counted along with others in your area in the largest-ever earthquake drill.
2. Spread the word and share the news of your participation with your community using prepared messages that you can adapt to your audience.
3. Host your drill and access instructions for how to prepare and execute the drill in your community.

The Southern California Earthquake Center, which coordinates ShakeOut globally, has created PowerPoint presentations for leading ShakeOut Drills online or in person that are customized for grades K-4, grades 5-12, and higher education. The REMS TA Center offers considerations for education agencies to use before, during, and after the ShakeOut. For more information about natural hazards planning, visit the REMS TA Center Website, which provides a variety of resources and information from Federal agency partners related to planning for natural hazards that may affect school districts, individual schools, IHEs, and community partners.

According to the Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2021, by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only about 52 percent of public schools in the 2019-2020 school year (pp. 23-24) reported having a written plan with courses of action to be implemented in the event of a pandemic disease. Since then, all schools have had to consider pandemic planning. Does your school, school district, or IHE have lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic? If so, your planning team can incorporate them into or use them to develop an Infectious Disease Annex in your EOP. A high-quality Infectious Disease Annex addresses what to do before, during, and after an infectious disease outbreak, case, epidemic, or pandemic and addresses prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery efforts. Whether or not your education agency already has one in place, the REMS TA Center has several resources to support the creation or revision of an Infectious Disease Annex.

• Read our NEW fact sheet, “Pandemic Planning: Developing an Infectious Disease Annex,” for recommendations on developing or enhancing an Infectious Disease Annex that accounts for pandemics. For example, planning teams may establish and implement policies before the onset of an infectious disease.
• Take our online course, “School EOPs In-Depth: Planning for Infectious Diseases,” for a deeper dive into infectious disease planning, including insights into the recommended contents of an Infectious Disease Annex.
• Conduct a tabletop exercise to test an Infectious Disease Annex and make revisions based on lessons learned.

EOPs are ideally developed and maintained by a multidisciplinary planning team composed of education agency personnel, parents, students, and community partner representatives. To showcase the unique contributions that each of these groups makes to emergency management planning, the REMS TA Center has been hosting a series of Webinars and exploring various roles within school communities. So far, the series has featured 11 school-based roles and one community-based role. Hear from practitioners at the state and local levels as they talk about their experiences contributing to their educational communities’ safety, as well as from Federal partners about important considerations and resources. Each Webinar is archived on the REMS TA Center Website for self-paced learning at any time.

• School Nutrition Directors
• Public Health Officials
• School Administrators
• School Mental Health Professionals
• K-12 Transportation Directors
• Teachers
• School Facility Managers
• Information Technology Specialists
• Families and Parents
• Community Engagement Specialists
• School Psychologists
• School Nurses

As the REMS TA Center continues this Webinar series through the 2022-23 academic year, we invite you to share your ideas about school-based, district-based, IHE-based, or community-based practitioners to focus on in future Webinars. Which role would you like to see featured?