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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Request the NEW Virtual Training on Communications
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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
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Understand the Communications and Warning Annex and its importance in a K-12 EOP;
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Review emergency communication procedures and strategies to use before an emergency;
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Learn emergency notification and communication strategies to use during an emergency; and
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Understand the importance of using emergency communication after an emergency.
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Drop (or Lock), Cover, and Hold On in the Great ShakeOut
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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.
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Register as a ShakeOut participant so
that you are counted along with others in
your area in the largest-ever earthquake drill.
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Spread the word and share the
news of your participation with your
community using prepared messages that
you can adapt to your audience.
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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.
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Do You Have an Infectious Disease Annex?
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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.
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Celebrate Every Role in EOP Development
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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.
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?
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