Human Error and School Safety Resources

Human error is an unintentional error in the way we perceive, think, or behave. Though human error incidents are often preventable, schools are at risk for them. By learning to recognize common types and causes of human errors and incorporate awareness of human error into their emergency operations plans (EOPs), schools can work to reduce the likelihood of human error incidents in K-12 school settings. A positive school climate and culture of staff awareness regarding this topic is crucial for anticipating human error incidents. The REMS TA Center is pleased to offer several human error resources to support your school’s understanding of this growing topic: an online course, a podcast episode, and a tabletop exercise.

The REMS TA Center’s newest online course, Human Error and School Safey: Risks That Compromise Safety Plans, is now available. This 90-minute asynchronous training with a fun golf theme explores ways to recognize the types and causes of human error. K-12 school and school district administrators, faculty, and staff; state and regional education agency personnel; and all who have a role or responsibility in emergency management planning will find this course helpful for

• Providing an overview of human error and its forms.
• Describing the importance of recognizing human error for all types of school emergency management planning.
• Describing how school climate is a significant protective factor in preventing human errors that compromise school safety.
• Describing how human errors can be identified, anticipated, and prevented in school settings.
• Developing human error awareness training sessions for school employees.

By the end of this training, you will be equipped to develop and apply a process to identify, anticipate, and predict conditions that increase the likelihood of human error within your school context. Upon completion of this course, you will also earn a certificate of completion that may be used to meet continuing education or professional development requirements and highlight expertise.

Join the REMS TA Center and Dr. Garry McGiboney (subject matter expert) for a #REMSontheAir episode exploring the types and causes of human error and the importance of solution-based thinking. Learn how and where human error is most likely to manifest in K-12 school settings as well as strategies and best practices for avoiding human error in school contexts. This episode is also available for streaming on Spotify.

Our Human Error Tabletop Exercise is a great way to increase human error awareness among school staff and emergency management planning teams. It presents a fictional scenario and “what-if” questions to think through ways in which human error can infiltrate EOPs. This exercise is part of our Emergency Exercises Training Package, a downloadable suite of best practices fact sheets and five tabletop exercises that may each include a participant guide, facilitator podcast, and resource list. Tabletop scenarios include infectious disease, flood, power outage, cybersecurity, and human error incidents. In addition to providing a stimulating training opportunity, any of these exercises will help you and your planning team strengthen your EOP by identifying gaps and weaknesses.