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

The REMS TA Center is your federal partner to boost your 2025 school safety efforts. We offer a variety of resources, trainings, and interactive tools for K-12 schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education (IHEs) to improve school and campus safety all year long.

Below is a “virtual goodie bag” of activities and topics. Choose what works for you and start a snowball effect of helping your education community improve its preparedness.

• Something to READ: Whether you are looking for a way to strengthen your existing emergency operations plan (EOP) or to draft a new EOP for the first time, checking out the three guides for developing high-quality EOPs will take your emergency planning to new heights. Developed by the White House and six federal agencies, the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans, The Role of Districts in Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans, and the Guide for Developing High-Quality Emergency Operations Plans for Institutions of Higher Education are the nation’s go-to guidance documents for creating, reviewing, and maintaining customized and comprehensive EOPs.
   
• Something to WATCH: Protecting our nation’s schools and campuses from cyberattacks is a shared responsibility. Download and watch our video about the REMS TA Center’s cybersecurity resources and then visit our Cybersecurity Preparedness web page to access resources to share with your team.
   
• Something to HEAR: The REMS TA Center hosts the #REMSontheAir Podcast, which addresses a variety of school and IHE emergency preparedness topics by offering lessons learned, best practices, and interviews with experts in the field. Jump start your year by listening to an episode that stands out to you the most and perusing the extra resources in the show notes.
   
• Something to DO: The REMS TA Center has created a suite of interactive tools to meet the needs of you and your EOP. If you are just starting out, EOP ASSESS asks questions to help practitioners understand the elements critical for creating and maintaining a high-quality EOP. EOP ASSIST and its accompanying interactive workbook helps users generate an EOP according to federal guidelines. If you already have plans and procedures in place, EOP EVALUATE helps you identify weak spots, while the SITE ASSESS mobile app allows you to conduct a collaborative site assessment of your buildings and grounds. Each interactive tool has the option to print results so you can bring them to upcoming planning and team training meetings.
   

Whether you choose to read, watch, hear, or do, we’d love to hear from you. Let us know how you benefited from this virtual goodie bag or ask us for additional resources and activities to support your specific needs. From all of us at the REMS TA Center, Happy New Year!

With winter in full swing, it's important for schools and IHEs to be prepared for potential winter weather emergencies. Winter weather can cause blizzards, snowstorms, ice storms, and extreme cold temperatures. These weather events can also cause hazardous road conditions, power outages, and school closures. Here are five quick tips to help keep students, staff, faculty, and visitors safe during the colder months:

• Keep sidewalks and walkways clear of snow and ice. This prevents slip and fall accidents and also ensures emergency vehicles can access the campus if needed.
   
• Remind students and staff to dress appropriately for the weather. Advise them to wear warm, waterproof clothing and to layer up for added insulation in the event of a power outage.
   
• Stock up on emergency supplies, including water, nonperishable food items, and first aid kits. It is extremely helpful to have these supplies readily available in the event of a weather-related emergency or power outage.
   
• Practice a winter weather tabletop exercise. It will enable everyone in your school community to prepare for winter emergencies as well as ensure that everyone knows their respective roles and responsibilities.
   
• Monitor the weather and check the National Weather Service website regularly. The Winter web page provides detailed information about winter weather in general, as well as snow and ice forecasts and services.

For more winter weather tips and emergency preparedness information, follow our X feed throughout the month of January.

School nurses provide leadership and expertise in school health services, trauma-informed practices, and the provision of emergency health care. Their skills can help enhance hazard mitigation, facilitate evacuation, implement triage, support health education, and conduct surveillance before, during, and after an emergency. School nurses can contribute to all sections of the EOP, including, but not limited to, the Public Health, Medical, and Mental Health Annex and the Infectious Disease Annex. For these reasons, they are integral members of the core planning team at K-12 schools.

To learn more about how school nurses can contribute to EOP development, watch the archived webinar Understanding the Role of School Nurses in Supporting School Safety Before, During, and After an Emergency. The National Association of School Nurses joins the REMS TA Center to provide more perspective on how school nurses enhance all-hazards preparedness at K-12 schools. Find more information and a list of resources on school nurses and other core planning team members via the link below.

EOPs should be customized to reflect your school community’s unique needs. For rural schools and school districts, this means thinking through distinctive challenges, strengths, and opportunities when developing EOPs. For example, while rural schools may face challenges like geographic distances and limited resources, they can leverage strong relationships and community pride to encourage collaboration and capacity building. The REMS TA Center has created several resources to empower rural schools and their community partners to develop robust and high-quality EOPs that are highly customized to work in their unique rural environment:

• A NEW Planning Considerations for Developing Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs) for K-12 Rural Schools Training Module, a synchronous or asynchronous opportunity that includes training materials and a tabletop exercise
   
• Planning Considerations for K-12 Rural Schools Live AND Virtual Trainings by Request, a synchronous opportunity led by subject matter experts and REMS TA Center staff

These trainings will highlight rural school characteristics, walk through the six-step EOP planning process, and identify no/low-cost and no/low-tech efforts, tools, and strategies. You can also read our Rural Schools: Emergency Management Planning for All Settings fact sheet to learn more about how rural schools can engage with community partners and leverage the rural community at large to support school safety in rural settings.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology has released Planning Together: A Playbook for Student Personal Device Policies. This playbook is intended for school district and school leaders to use to develop or revise their policies about the presence and use of personal devices (also known as cell phones and mobile devices) in schools. It features a four-step process and contains examples and resource materials. Questions to consider include, but are not limited to

• When can students have access to phones?
   
• When is phone use not permitted, where, and how are phones stored?
   
• How are emergencies or dangerous circumstances handled? How do parents and children communicate?
   
• How do policies vary with the ages of students?
   
• Who is responsible for monitoring and enforcing policies?
   
• What is the best approach to rolling out new policies?
   
• How can school districts and schools assess whether policies are working and how to refine them?

Have you developed a cell phone policy at your school or school district? We want to hear from you! Please contact the REMS TA Center so that we can learn from you and your experience. We aim to develop resources on this important topic in 2025.