town was overwhelming.  This demonstrated the importance of a media plan for every school (again, this being an exception because it was an Amish school.) There was no single staging area for the media, and (at first) there was no single designated spokesperson. Every school should regularly review their media plan, and appoint one person as the outlet to the media.

 

Facts from US Government Accountability Office (GAO), June, 2007:

This past June, the GAO released a report on emergency management in schools, and uncovered these statistics:

 

· 5% of US K12 public schools have no emergency plans

· 19% only review those plans once every 3 or more years

· 10% of those never review plans once written

· 24% of the schools with plans have not identified ICS positions and staff

· 59% of districts have not added or enhanced equipment to communicate with law enforcement, fire department, and ems officials

· 65% of rural districts lack equipment to communicate with first responders

· 26% of districts have not ensured school compliance with emergency preparedness requirements

· 38% have not identified and trained a district-level incident response team

· 35% have not coordinated agreements with first responders

· 56% of districts have no plan for continuation of education following a school closure

· Of the districts with SROs, 27% have no plan to involve SROs in the event of an emergency

· 27% of districts with plans have never trained any first responders on how to implement the plans

· 39% of districts cite challenges in how to coordinate and communicate with first responders

 

Solutions for Districts

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Services Code states that "every school district, in cooperation with the local Emergency Management Agency, shall develop and implement emergency preparedness plans."  If we assume that all or nearly all administrators reading this know their schools have safety plans, then there are several key actions they should ensure they are being taken: 

          

1. Build a bridge between your schools and the first responder community: Get to know them personally. Meet regularly. There are web-based programs that enable you to provide 24/7 access to your emergency plans, contacts, maps and floor-plans, media plans and more.

2. Be certain your district is NIMS-compliant: as of October 1, 2007, this is now a requirement to receive federal emergency funding. Compliancy can help improve lines of communication and speed of response in crisis situations.

3. Perform routine gap analyses and updates: an emergency plan is useful only if it is up-to-date and practiced regularly.

 

 

 

Rod Schoening is the Product Manager for InnerLink’s “TeamPrepared” program—an online solution for schools’ prevention, preparedness, response and recovery from emergencies. Mark Vogel is InnerLink’s Director of Product Marketing. For more information on NIMS-compliancy, copies of the GAO report, or ideas on building bridges between your schools and those who serve you in a crisis, call Mark Vogel at 717-509-5759, or email MVogel@TheInnerLink.com.