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.

Each September for National Preparedness Month the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Ready Campaign turns its focus to a special group that may be disproportionately impacted by disasters. This year, FEMA is focusing on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities.

Last May, Typhoon Mawar hit the Pacific Islander communities in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam, which severely impacted the islands’ infrastructure, including school buildings. As a result, President Biden issued a major disaster declaration for both territories. Typhoon Mawar is the latest in a line of severe typhoons that have impacted schools in CNMI and Guam. In 2018, CNMI was awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department) Grants to States for School Emergency Management (GSEM) Program to help build the capacity of the CNMI Public School System to prepare for, respond to, and recover from future emergencies, including typhoons.

In November 2022, the REMS TA Center traveled to CNMI to train school staff and leaders on emergency operations plan (EOP) development and on conducting site assessments and behavioral threat assessments through our #REMSontheRoad program. This July, the REMS TA Center team also traveled to Guam to host a series of trainings over a 2-day period on EOP development, conducting site assessments, and resilience strategies. The REMS TA Center looks forward to continuing to work with the Department to provide technical assistance and training supports to members of the AANHPI community.

Find snapshots of feedback from participants in those trainings below.

School nutrition directors play an important role in school safety—from overseeing the implementation of nutrition programs to protecting the school community from threats and hazards related to food. Nutrition directors also contribute to planning for continuity of feeding and food distribution during and after emergency events and can offer valuable insights to improve EOPs. This month, in honor of National Food Safety Education Month, consider how you can include the perspectives and expertise of school nutrition directors and cafeteria staff in your safety efforts. The REMS TA Center has the following resources and training opportunities to assist:

• Watch the webinar on The Role of School Nutrition Directors in School Safety Efforts to learn about how school nutrition directors can contribute to EOP development.
• Read the fact sheet on Food Safety and Food Defense: Developing a Contaminated Food Annex to learn about planning for emergencies that involve food contamination (both intentional and nonintentional).
• Download the specialized training package module on Developing a Food Contamination Annex and complete the tabletop exercise that is included to test and improve your EOP.
• Read more about the role of school nutrition directors and other key staff members in school safety efforts by visiting the web page on Collaborative Planning Teams at K-12 Schools and School Districts.
• Conduct a site assessment using the SITE ASSESS mobile app and involve nutrition directors in the site assessment team, particularly when assessing cafeterias and kitchens.

Families are not only key stakeholders in school emergency management but vital partners—so much so that they are featured on the REMS TA Center’s K-12 Collaboration Web Page. Proactive communication with families about the measures your school or district is taking to ensure school safety fosters valuable opportunities to increase buy-in, invite insights, calm anxieties, and provide information about the procedures to follow in the event of an emergency.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2023-24 School Pulse Panel, 85 percent of public schools already communicate with families about EOPs at least once a year. When an emergency is active, imminent, or recent, the need for regular communication only increases. Making contingency plans and templates for communicating with families in a variety of possible emergencies can greatly support this process. The diversity of the school's family population should also be considered so that emergency communications can be delivered in multiple languages and accessible formats as needed. Culture and climate assessments can provide valuable insight into the communication needs of the community and offer yet another opportunity to include families in the planning process.

The REMS TA Center recently released a Communications and Warning Sample Annex, which includes examples of the goals, objectives, and courses of action a school might take for managing communication with families and other stakeholders before, during, and after an emergency. We invite you to use this resource as you consider ways to further account for families in your emergency communication. Note that sample annexes are created for fictional schools to serve only as an example of the structure and format of an annex; they are a reference tool and should not be copied or used as a template.

Here at the REMS TA Center, we are continually looking to improve our website to enhance user experience, and we’re excited to announce two NEW and improved landing pages, which highlight our various training opportunities and our podcast episodes.

• The NEW Training Opportunities page features our full range of free synchronous and asynchronous, as well as virtual and in-person, training modalities in one centralized location. Send this page to your colleagues who are looking to enhance their professional development and emergency preparedness capacity-building efforts.
• The revamped REMS on the Air Podcast page offers our full suite of podcast episodes in one place to facilitate easy browsing. Each episode includes show notes and additional recommended resources, and all episodes are now available to stream on Spotify! Bookmark this page to peruse all our REMS TA Center podcast episodes, listen to our featured episode, and check back for new episodes.

Easily navigate to these web pages from any page via the site navigation. You can find the Trainings Opportunities page under the “Trainings” tab and the REMS on the Air Podcast page under the “Resources” tab. We welcome your feedback; if you have any suggestions for improving your user experience on the website, you can click the “Share Your Feedback” button on the righthand side of each web page, or you can submit it via an online form.

Are you familiar with the community-based organizations and local, state, and federal agencies that operate in and around your school and that have similar missions? Through cooperation and collaboration with neighboring organizations and agencies, your school may be able to leverage resources that benefit the entire school community. Developing partnerships with these organizations/agencies can create a comprehensive support system that assists students and their families, which can include but is not limited to tutoring, mentoring, general health, and mental health services. Additionally, it can help schools prevent, mitigate the effects of, protect school communities from, respond to, and recover effectively from emergency events.

As the school year begins, we encourage you to

• Get acquainted with the many organizations and agencies surrounding your school, including law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services.
• Read the REMS TA Center’s fact sheet on Collaborating With Youth-Serving Organizations to Enhance School Emergency Operations Plans to increase your knowledge on developing collaborative partnerships and strategies.
• Schedule a REMS TA Center Virtual Training by Request or facilitate your own training for your school using our Developing and Enhancing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) With Your Community Partners specialized training package module to begin establishing mutually beneficial relationships with neighboring organizations and agencies.