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.

Comprehensive emergency operations plans (EOPs) are only as good as a K-12 school or institution of higher education (IHE) can enact them. The best way to ensure everyone knows their roles and responsibilities before, during, and after emergencies is to drill emergency procedures.

During drills, school/IHE personnel, students, and community partners (e.g., fire officials, law enforcement officers, emergency management personnel) use the actual education agency buildings and grounds to practice responding to scenarios. Below are tips to make your school or IHE emergency drills successful.

• Succeed to Plan; Plan to Succeed: Before the academic year, administrators should plan a drill schedule that aligns with state and local mandates. Beyond legislative requirements, drills may occur as often as necessary for every individual to master each emergency procedure.
   
• Cover the Spectrum: Drills should cover every emergency procedure in the school or higher ed EOP. These include ubiquitous procedures (emergency management functions) such as shelter-in-place, lockdown, and evacuation as well as procedures for hazards and threats that their community faces (e.g., earthquakes). All drills should consider the unique needs of the whole school community, including individuals with access and functional needs.
   
• Consider Age Appropriateness: Younger students may need to practice elements of a drill separately (e.g., remaining quiet, walking through the hallway) before putting them together.
   
• Allow Feedback and Transition Time: Provide staff with a channel for providing feedback about the drill. Instruct educators to provide a post-drill debrief for students (e.g., allowing students to share reactions to the drill or offering a short game or mindfulness session) before returning to instruction.
   

By making drills a regular part of the academic year, schools and IHEs can normalize a culture of safety where every member is prepared. If you’re not sure where to begin with your drill plans, our Emergency Exercises Training Package offers a variety of tabletop exercises to get you started.

How can your school or higher ed campus use design elements to enhance safety and security? We’ve been highlighting Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles that schools and IHEs can use to help prevent crime on campuses. Territorial reinforcement is a first-generation CPTED principle that uses design elements to define ownership of and the intended use of spaces on campus. Territorial reinforcement strategies aim to clearly define who belongs in the space and who does not. For example, schools and IHEs can

• Clearly delineate spaces with distinctive barriers, like hedges or plants, low walls, furniture, or decorative lighting features.
   
• Use changes in elevation or variation in paving or flooring materials to clearly identify public and private spaces.
   
• Personalize school and IHE areas with gardens, artwork, or furniture.
   
• Establish visual organization and unify spaces by using consistent colors, materials, signs, light fixtures, benches, or other decor.
   

As you outline ways to clearly define spaces in your schools and on your campuses, consider downloading SITE ASSESS. This free mobile application incorporates CPTED into the site assessment and allows education agency personnel to examine the safety, security, and emergency preparedness of buildings and grounds.

Education facilities were one of the top three targets of bomb threats during 2023 (U.S. Department of Homeland Security). Bomb threats can be made in a variety of modalities (social media, email, blogs, videos, phone calls, handwritten notes, suspicious packages, etc.). They have an intent to detonate an explosive or incendiary device in an attempt to cause destruction, injury, or death. One of many adversarial and human-caused threats, bomb threats may be identified by IHEs, school districts, and K-12 schools as a threat to address in their EOP. The percentage of public schools that have a written plan for procedures to be performed in bomb threats or incidents is 92.5 percent (U.S. Departments of Education and Justice). Core planning teams can develop a Bomb Threat Annex that addresses before, during, and after this emergency.

The REMS TA Center created a fact sheet for IHEs on this topic: Developing a Bomb Threat Annex: Enhancing the Higher Ed Emergency Operations Plan. This resource provides an overview of the process used to develop high-quality EOPs and key considerations for developing a Bomb Threat Annex. It also discusses recommended functional annexes that may be activated before, during, or after a bomb threat. For more resources on bomb threats from federal agencies, visit the Addressing Adversarial and Human-Caused Threats That May Impact Students, Staff, and Visitors web page.

Did you know athletic directors are responsible for more than managing interscholastic athletics and sporting events at schools? Athletic directors also support other large events held on school grounds and out-of-school time activities by coordinating logistics, such as security staffing, transportation, volunteers, and crowd control, to ensure safety at both on-campus and off-campus athletic events. Their role is to ensure smooth program operations, comply with regulations, and create a positive and competitive athletic environment with the help of other school administrators and community partners. Additionally, athletic directors contribute to the development of EOPs and are integral members of the core planning team.

Watch the archived webinar The Role of Athletic Directors in School Safety Efforts to learn how to collaborate with athletic directors on emergency management planning. Click on the link below to learn more about other school and school district staff, their responsibilities, and how they contribute to school safety.

The REMS TA Center has worked with countless state education agencies, local education agencies, individual schools, and IHEs, and one thing remains consistent: EOPs require customization based on a full spectrum of potential threats (adversarial and human-caused) and hazards (natural, technological, and biological). When determining which threats and hazards to prioritize, education agency leaders and school safety planning teams can turn to a variety of data sources, including assessments (e.g., site, behavioral threat); federal, state, and local partners; and historical databases of emergencies.

By considering the five mission areas (prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery ) and each phase of an emergency (before, during, and after) for each potential threat and hazard, education agencies can develop well-rounded EOP annexes. Integrating these mission areas into EOP development are essential to implementing an all-hazards approach.