Emergency Q&A?
Why have a Crisis Plan?
Children and youth rely on and find great comfort in the adults who protect them. Teachers and staff must know how to help their students through a crisis and return them home safely. Knowing what to do when faced with a crisis can be the difference between calm and chaos, between courage and fear, between life and death. There are thousands of fires in schools every year, yet there is minimal damage to life and property because staff and students are prepared. This prepared-ness needs to be extended to all risks schools face. Schools and districts need to be ready to handle crisis, large and small, to keep our children and staff out of harm’s way and ready to learn and teach.
Why should there be collaboration in Crisis/Emergency Planning?
Crisis plans should not be developed in a vacuum. They are a natural extension of ongoing school and community efforts to create safe learning environments. Good planning can enhance all school functions. Needs assessments and other data should feed into a crisis plan. Crisis plans should address incidents that could occur inside school buildings, on school grounds, and in the community. Coordination will avoid duplication and mixed messages, as well as reduce burden on planners.
How effective is your current plan?
The effectiveness of any response to a crisis is strongly linked to the extent and appropriateness of the planning and preparation process. Your district has developed a safety plan to deal with emergencies such as, bomb threats, biohazards, chemical agents, and radiation, among others not yet determined. The possibility of dangerous events following the onset of war makes review of those plans the critical foundation for your preparedness.
What is an Emergency Drill?
A drill is a coordinated supervised activity usually employed to test a single specific operation or function in a single agency.
Drills are commonly used to provide training with new equipment to develop or test new policies or procedures, or practice and maintain current skills.
