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.
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A Spotlight on AANHPI Communities During National Preparedness Month
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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.
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School Safety Roles in Focus Series: Nutrition Directors
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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:
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Engaging Families in Emergency Communications Planning
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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.
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Updates to the REMS TA Center Website: Training Opportunities and REMS on the Air Podcast
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Exploring Community Organizations and Agencies to Leverage Resources and Enhance School Safety
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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
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