Visit the REMS TA Center Calendar to find trainings, Web chats, conferences, and other stakeholder activities and events for K-12 and higher ed practitioners on comprehensive school safety topics. All events featured are FREE to participate in and range from virtual to in-person opportunities for engagement and professional development. and professional development.

Every member of the school and campus community plays an important role in mitigating, preventing, protecting from, responding to, and recovering from cybersecurity incidents. This October, strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity posture by participating in Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Now celebrating its 20th year, this stakeholder event brings together collaborative partners from the public and private sectors and tribal communities with the goals of sharing resources, raising awareness, and increasing buy-in for good cyber safety practices. This year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month focuses on four tips for increasing cyber safety: (1) using strong passwords and a password manager, (2) turning on multifactor authentication, (3) recognizing and reporting phishing, and (4) updating software.

The REMS TA Center has NEW resources and trainings that can support your education agency in understanding threats to educational digital infrastructure, preparing for cyber threats, and incorporating cybersecurity into emergency operations plan (EOP) development. Learn more about new cybersecurity brief from the U.S. Department of Education and find best practices, tips, and strategies in the resources below:

• Cybersecurity for K-12 Schools and School Districts: Developing a Cyber Annex Fact Sheet
• Cybersecurity Preparedness for Schools and Institutions of Higher Education Web Page
• Cybersecurity Planning for Schools Live and Virtual Trainings by Request

View the REMS TA Center calendar to access cybersecurity-focused events that will be hosted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid and Student Privacy Policy Office.

One critical component of emergency preparedness is ensuring that your education agency is ready to receive and communicate timely information about emergencies. On Wednesday, October 4 at 2:20 p.m. EDT, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). The back-up testing date will be Wednesday, October 11. You are invited to spread the word about this important test to your school or campus community and actively participate.

This is an opportunity to test your NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Weather Radio(s), other radios, and televisions on campus that receive EAS messages. You may notice an update in this year’s EAS message; it will be disseminated as a Common Alerting Protocol message via the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Open Platform for Emergency Networks. This will be the seventh nationwide test of EAS, which was first launched in 2011.

Administrators, faculty, staff, students, and their families can expect to receive a WEA on mobile devices. The WEA will be disseminated through IPAWS to participating wireless providers, which will then deliver the alerts to compatible devices in geo-targeted areas. This will be the third nationwide test of WEA, which was launched in 2012.

This year’s International ShakeOut Day is Thursday, October 19. Join millions of people worldwide by participating in Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills at 10:19 a.m., or at the time and date that works best for you and your school/campus community. Participants practice recommended earthquake safety guidance (Drop, Cover, and Hold On) and adaptations for those with disabilities or mobility aids. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides support to the Southern California Earthquake Center, Earthquake Country Alliance, and partners across the country to coordinate ShakeOut and provide guidance for drills at both K-12 schools and institutions of higher education (including presentations for leading drills).

Want to participate?

• Register your ShakeOut drill. Drills can be scheduled for any time and day, not just International ShakeOut Day.
• Promote earthquake protection measures and ShakeOut participation.
• Participate in/Host an earthquake drill.

K-12 emergency management planning should involve collaborative input from the whole school community. As one of the largest groups of stakeholders in schools, students can serve as a key partner in school safety efforts. Planning teams can involve students in EOP development and in preparedness activities before, during, and after an emergency. When partnering with students, it is important for schools to ensure that everyone is physically and emotionally safe so that the whole school community can effectively work together for a common mission of preparedness.

To support core planning teams and safety leaders in integrating students into this work, the REMS TA Center released a NEW fact sheet: K-12 Students as Partners in School Emergency Management. This resource outlines strategies for engaging students in school emergency management planning while still safeguarding their well-being. You can find more resources on integrating students into school safety by exploring our topic-specific Web page on whole community planning and by watching our recent REMS TA Center Webinar on the role of students in school safety efforts.

This month, take some time to review our interactive brochure to learn more about the REMS TA Center. Flip through the brochure to find pictures and videos, along with detailed information about the REMS TA Center, including the practitioners we serve, the free products and services we provide, and how to contact us. The interactive brochure contains helpful quick links to our

• Synchronous and asynchronous trainings;
• EOP interactive tools;
• Topic-specific resources;
• Publications and guidance documents; and
• Technical assistance and support contacts.

Share our interactive brochure with other practitioners to spread the word and access our most requested resources and services. The interactive brochure also shares tidbits about the REMS TA Center that you might not know — such as that we travel nationwide to deliver in-person trainings and that we answer a variety of questions and technical assistance requests via our toll-free phone line (855-781-REMS [7367]), email (info@remstacenter.org) and TA Request Form (https://rems.ed.gov/RequestTA). Access our interactive brochure below to find out more about how the REMS TA Center can support your school safety work all year long.