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.

As the school year or semester draws to a close, we want to emphasize that it's never too late to enhance your safety planning efforts. Training helps ensure everyone involved in the school and higher ed emergency operations plan (EOP) knows their roles and responsibilities before, during, and after an emergency. It also helps to build the preparedness capacity of the whole school and campus community. To support education agencies in their ongoing training and EOP development, the REMS TA Center offers various asynchronous and synchronous training modalities.

One of our most important training programs is the Virtual and Live Trainings by Request. The REMS TA Center offers a variety of topics and provides flexible training options, including in-person training at your school, school district, and campus, as well as virtual videoconferences. For each live or virtual training session, you will receive two subject matter experts, a registration site and marketing flyer, electronic training materials, and a certificate of completion for each participant—all free of charge. Submit an application to host a training.

Visit the REMS TA Center website using the link below to learn more about the eligibility requirements for scheduling a training event, the available training topics, and how to initiate the scheduling process. You can also find detailed instructions on how to prepare for the training and what to expect during and after the session.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a multidisciplinary strategy for deterring criminal behavior and protecting a community. CPTED proposes that changes to the environment can reduce opportunities for criminal behavior. CPTED contains eight principles for establishing deterrents and protecting vulnerable areas, all of which can be applied to K-12 school buildings and higher ed campuses to enhance security. Follow along over the next few months as we highlight strategies for implementing CPTED principles to enhance safety and security at your school or campus.

This month focuses on natural surveillance strategies. Natural surveillance means maximizing visibility at school and on campus and creating opportunities to see and be seen. There are many ways to increase visibility for school buildings and on campus grounds, including

• Lighting—Use natural light to the extent possible and leverage artificial light to keep all areas inside and outside well-lit.
   
• Windows—Construct windows when possible or ensure that existing windows are cleared of blockages to preserve views from inside to outside.
   
• Landscaping—Plant low-lying ground cover or high-canopy trees to minimize obstructions.
   
• Space—Organize space intentionally, through furniture or other interior design elements, to support observation and encourage guardianship.
   

To learn more about CPTED strategies, check out our fact sheets on how to include it in your K-12 or higher ed EOP.

Emergency management planning takes a team. That’s why forming a collaborative planning team is the first step in the six-step planning process for developing high-quality EOPs for K-12 schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education (IHEs). If your education agency is at the start of the EOP development process, take the following actions to initiate a core planning team:

1. Gather a multidisciplinary team. Recruit members representing the diverse expertise, perspectives, and needs of the whole school community and relevant community partners. Refer to our planning checklists for K-12 schools, school districts, and IHEs for roles to consider.
    
2. Form a common framework. Adopt a standardized approach, such as the National Incident Management System and Incident Command System, to establish a shared organizational structure and vocabulary that facilitates effective collaboration internally and with first responders.
    
3. Define and assign roles. Clearly establish and equitably distribute leadership, administrative, and collective responsibilities among team members and represented organizations according to respective missions, capacities, and skills.
    
4. Determine a regular schedule of meetings. Plan to meet frequently during the EOP development stage. After the EOP is approved, continue meeting at regular intervals for EOP revision and maintenance.
    

For more on the nuts and bolts of creating and managing a core planning team, review our fact sheet on collaboration and community partnerships or download the training package below:

First-generation CPTED principles emphasize how schools and IHEs can leverage simple design strategies to help make buildings and grounds more secure. However, crime can also happen because of community-level factors. Second-generation CPTED principles offer additional strategies that focus on community health and social ecology.

Social cohesion is a second-generation CPTED principle that emphasizes the power of positive interactions between school and higher ed community members to create safe educational environments. Social cohesion strategies aim to create a sense of unity among community members. For example, schools and IHEs can

• Support social groups, like Parent Teacher Associations, sports teams, honor societies, clubs, or mentoring programs.
   
• Enhance conflict resolution skills among students, staff, and community partners like law enforcement.
   
• Offer opportunities for community members, including parents and families, to contribute to planning and decision-making at school or on campus.
   
• Develop peer mediation programs that allow students to learn from one another when solving problems.
   

We invite you to try out one of these strategies or share other strategies that you use by emailing us at info@remstacenter.org.

Information sharing and compassionate communication is an important element in emergency management planning, especially after an incident has occurred with victims and loss of life. IHEs can set up Family and Friends Centers immediately following a mass casualty incident to ensure the information, emotional support, and practical needs of the victims, survivors, and their loved ones. Eventually IHEs can transition to a Family Assistance Center, designed to provide short-term assistance and focus on addressing the immediate needs of survivors and their loved ones. Both of these centers, including who is responsible for them and their processes, should be outlined in the Reunification Annex of the higher ed EOP.

The REMS TA Center offers two training opportunities on this topic. The Live and Virtual Trainings by Request, Reunification Planning for Institutions of Higher Education: Family and Friends Center and Family Assistance Center, is a 4-hour synchronous offering that the REMS TA Center delivers to your site free of charge. The specialized training package module, Planning for Reunification for Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), is a collection of training materials for delivering a 90-minute training (synchronously or asynchronously).

Did you know you can reduce school and campus crime by strategically using your buildings and grounds? Natural access control, a CPTED principle, uses physical features to regulate access. Access limits can be physical (e.g., doors, fences, gates) or perceptual (e.g., walkways, gardens).

Natural access control strategies to consider for your K-12 school or IHE include

• Defining spaces with physical features such as tree lines, fences, hedges, or berms.
   
• Using gates and doors to limit points of entry and egress.
   
• Installing chain-link fencing or prickly plants around enclosed areas (e.g., parking garages) to prevent entry while preserving visibility.
   
• Delineating appropriate approaches to an area by arranging drives, sidewalks, and gardens to guide movement.
   
• Using signs to direct movement, provide information, define appropriate activities, and identify intended users (e.g., “Faculty Only”).
   
• Keeping foliage trimmed to prevent access to buildings and potential hiding spaces.
   

For more information about CPTED principles, explore the REMS TA Center’s CPTED specialized training package module and K-12 or IHE fact sheets. We also suggest downloading the REMS TA Center’s free SITE ASSESS mobile application (app) on your phone or tablet. This app integrates CPTED principles for site assessment teams to use to evaluate the safety, security, and emergency preparedness of buildings and grounds. Compatible with the latest supported versions of Android and iOS operating systems, SITE ASSESS offers merge, import, and export features so that you can involve your whole team.

Just because your colleagues excel at emergency drills does not mean they are “emergency ready.” K-12 emergency preparedness involves more than the ability to follow steps; it is a mindset of action. Administrators and staff can use the following tips to increase self-efficacy before, during, and after emergency incidents.

Tip One: Keep an Open Mind

Complacency can be one of the largest precedents of K-12 emergency incidents. Just because a school has been safe for years or has never experienced a particular emergency does not make it immune to incidents. School personnel who practice open mindedness regarding possible emergencies will be more likely to see or hear common incident precursors. Administrators can lead by example by encouraging staff to keep their minds open and establishing convenient and anonymous ways for staff to report possible risks.

Tip Two: Play Offense

Few things reduce a K-12 school’s emergency preparedness capacity more than staff who think they have little agency when it comes to school emergencies. School personnel can “play offense” by encouraging each other to strategically look for and report possible dangers (e.g., sticky locks on doors, backpacks blocking an exit, students manifesting questionable behaviors) that could evolve into emergency incidents.

Tip Three: Review Policies and Procedures

Reviewing emergency policies and procedures throughout the school year not only keeps the steps fresh, but it also keeps emergency preparedness and awareness front of mind. Administrators can encourage staff to review one policy or procedure a week or can use a portion of staff meetings to do so. The REMS TA Center’s Emergency Exercise Training Package offers five exercises to develop confidence in school personnel.

To help K-12 administrators and staff practice these essential tips, encourage your colleagues to take the REMS TA Center’s Human Error and School Safety: Risks That Compromise Safety Plans Online Course. The course goes into detail on the philosophy behind these tips and provides virtual activities to develop an emergency preparedness mindset.

Teachers serve on the front lines of school safety every day. Throughout the year, they instruct students on emergency procedures, guide them through drills, establish behavioral expectations, and maintain safe learning environments. Thanks to their daily efforts to build trust with students and families, teachers tend to have a strong pulse on school community needs, concerns, and potential threats. These insights can inform EOP development, and in some cases, help prevent emergencies before they happen. During emergencies requiring alternate instructional methods and locations, educators take the lead in ensuring continuity of teaching and learning. After emergencies, teachers also engage in recovery by reestablishing a sense of safety and normalcy in the classroom.

The REMS TA Center has resources to help integrate teachers in the EOP development process and support them in fulfilling their school safety roles. Here are a few starting points:

• Watch the Role of Teachers in School Safety Webinar.
   
• Apply for a FREE Resilience Strategies for Educators Live or Virtual Training by Request.
   
• Review the Continuity of Operations Sample Annex for examples of educators’ continuity of teaching and learning courses of action.
   
• Share the Emergency Go-Kits Fact Sheet with educators and get their input on classroom-specific needs.
   
• Browse the Whole Community Planning Resources Web Page for age-appropriate emergency preparedness activities teachers can use in the classroom.
   

Community engagement specialists play a vital role in connecting schools or districts with the wider community through outreach, community events, and relationship building with local partners. Their role is to facilitate the collaboration between the school and these community partners, ensuring their capacity to support the EOP is accurately represented, and their roles are clearly defined. Community partners can serve as members of the school core planning team or ad hoc planning team. It is important to involve community partners in EOP development and implementation because they are often the first on the scene of school emergencies and are called on to serve key roles in response and recovery. Their collaboration also helps to ensure that the school EOP is coordinated with other EOPs in their locality.

To learn more about how community engagement specialists contribute to EOP development, watch the archived webinar Understanding the Role of Community Engagement Specialists in Supporting School Safety Before, During, and After an Emergency. During this webinar, presenters discussed how community engagement specialists support the National Preparedness System mission areas—prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery—through all phases of a potential emergency. Find more information and a list of resources on community engagement specialists and other core planning team members via the link below.

Families and caregivers are essential partners for schools, contributing to safety programs and advocating for the well-being of students. They represent the voice of students, so their involvement and cooperation in EOP development is essential. Let's acknowledge and thank them for their and participation in keeping our schools and students safe. Here are some strategies for K-12 schools and school districts to empower families in their school community and further strengthen their partnership:

1. Provide regular communication and updates. Communicate the district’s and school’s safety programs informing families of their roles and responsibilities. This can be done via newsletters, emails, social media, and/or a dedicated section on the website.
    
2. Invite a parent representative to serve on the core planning team. Identify a parent or caregiver who could join the core planning team to provide their expertise and perspective as a parent throughout EOP development. Watch the REMS TA Center’s webinar on the role of families in school safety to learn more about the importance of developing a collaborative planning team inclusive of families to ensure a coordinated effort.
    
3. Maintain student emergency information forms. Collect information from parents and caregivers about their child(ren) at least annually. The forms should include parents’ and legal guardians’ contact information and two additional authorized emergency contacts, including cell phone numbers. Additionally, medical information can be included. Furthermore, these forms should be maintained by designated personnel throughout the year and available for use before, during, and after emergencies.
    

The broad array of K-12 education options available today—including public, charter, private, and online schools—entail a variety of legal, organizational, and funding structures. Likewise, immense variations exist among school capacities, circumstances, and local risk factors depending on size and geographical location. With so many variables at play, customization is key to EOP effectiveness.

One of the planning principles in the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans is that EOPs should be customized to each school. To further facilitate this process, the REMS TA Center has also developed resources on emergency management planning for a variety of educational settings. As a starting point, check out our fact sheets for K-12 charter schools, private schools, and online classrooms. For EOP planning considerations specific to rural schools, download our rural school training package and consider applying for the corresponding Live and Virtual Trainings by Request.

Assessments provide important data that can be used in Step 2 of the planning process to identify threats and hazards faced by the school or campus community. Site assessments are a form of assessment that involves reviewing all aspects of the physical buildings and grounds to look for vulnerabilities that may open the campus to possible risks. Core planning teams can use the results of a site assessment to prioritize decision-making, determine funding allocations, and effectively develop or update EOPs.

CPTED can be applied as an approach during the site assessment process. By strategically looking for building access and control measures, surveillance concerns, and management and maintenance shortcomings, K-12 schools and IHEs can not only fulfill their site assessment requirements but also leverage their buildings and campuses for maximum safety.

The REMS TA Center has developed a free, secure mobile app called SITE ASSESS to help K-12 schools and IHEs conduct comprehensive site assessments. It incorporates CPTED into the preloaded assessment questions for site assessment teams to consider in real time while walking through buildings and grounds. Team members can merge their assessment files. Finalized assessments may be exported as Excel worksheets or Word documents. SITE ASSESS is compatible with both iOS and Android operating systems. To learn more about installing and using the app, watch this video, download training materials, or request a live or virtual training.

The REMS TA Center would like to hear from YOU! As your partner on school and higher ed preparedness, we continually strive to expand our content to engage and inform our readers on the latest innovations and advancements in safety, security, and emergency management planning for our nation’s K-12 schools, school districts, and IHEs. To aid us in this effort, we are calling on you to submit topics and ideas that are of interest to you and that will encourage conversation and participation from those in the field. We also solicit your feedback on any new resources that you would like to see from us to join our current collection of resource offerings—online courses, training materials, tools, live and virtual trainings by request, webinars, publications, podcast episodes, and so much more.

Tell us what new content you want us to add or issues you want to see by contacting us via email at info@remstacenter.org or via phone at (855) 781-REMS [7367].