Emergency Operations Plan Guide

Introduction and Purpose

• Approximately 55 million students attend elementary and secondary schools each day
• Schools work with local governments and communities to plan for emergencies with a school Emergency Operations Plan (school EOP)

Importance of Emergency Operations Plans

• Preparing officials and first responders is important for executing operations plans
• Schools implement plans to keep students and staff safe through prevention and protection measures
• School staff provide first aid, notify partners and give instructions, and governmental orgs help provide a response

Document Guide for Planning Teams

• Planning teams use this document to guide EOP development and revision
• Districts and schools should compare existing plans to the guide
• Read the entire document before starting planning

Four Sections of the Document Guide

• Principles of school emergency management planning
• Process to develop, implement and improve a school EOP with community partners
• Discussion of the form, function, and content of school EOPs
• A closer look into the support for school emergency planning, including active shooters etc.

Goals for Emergency Management Plans

• This began as a response to prepare model emergency management plans
• Ensures that schools align planning with practices at national, state, and local levels

Presidential Policy Directive 8 (PPD-8)

• Signed in March 2011 describing preparedness based on experiences like terrorist attacks/hurricanes etc
• Defines preparedness around prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery

Mission Areas Timeline

• Prevention: Capabilities needed to avoid/deter/stop imminent casualties or crime
• Protection: Secure schools against violence, manmade or natural disasters, focuses on ongoing actions to protect
• Mitigation: Eliminate or reduce loss of life/property damage by lessening the impact of an event
• Response: Stabilize an emergency, establish safe environments, and facilitate transition to recovery
• Recovery: Restore the learning environment after an event or emergency

Emergency Management Terminology

• Emergency management officials and responders use "before", "during", and "after" terminology
• Majority of Prevention, Protection, and Mitigation occur before an incident
• Response activities occur during, and Recovery starts during and continues after

National Incident Management System (NIMS)

• Schools should use the concepts and principles of NIMS with their emergency operations plan for response/recovery actions
• NIMS element is the Incident Command System (ICS) which provides guidance for incident management
• Schools using ICS during incidents are able to work effectively with community responders

Guide Goals

• To create critical vocabulary, processes, and approaches for creating emergency management practices and plans
• To integrate plans with first responders and other stakeholders
• To ensures alignment across the nation
• This guide replaces “Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and Communities” (January 2007)

Planning Principles

• Planning must be supported by leadership on district and school levels
• Planning is built on comprehensive, ongoing assessment of the school community
• It must account for a range of threats and hazards and consider all settings and times
• Involves children and individuals with disabilities, people from religiously, racially, and ethically diverse backgroud, and limited English proficiency individuals
• Created using a collaborative process

Developing School EOPs

• Process should be flexible and adapted to accommodate a school's unique characteristics
• Must work with district staff, community partners, first responders, and public and mental health officials
• Collaboration makes more resources available, ensures integration of all responders

Steps in the Planning Process

• Use this guide to review plans or conduct periodic reviews of a plan’s components
• Should consider the impact of any decisions on training, exercises, equipment and resources

Step 1: Collaborative Planning Team

• Important to ensure coordination/integration of emergency management plans and resources
• Planning team includes admin, educators, school nurses/psychologists, transportation/facilities/food managers, and family services representatives
• Includes student and parent representatives, racial minorities / religious orgs, so specific concerns are included in the planning early

Stakeholders

• Should include first responders, emergency management staff, those with roles in school emergency management
• Should be small, and close with first responders
• Should be aware of any local or state requirements for EOP

Common Frameworks

• Shared approach to facilitate mutual understanding, coordination, and execution
• Team members need time to learn each other's vocab, command structure, and culture
• Those involved should be aware of roles and responsibilities
• Ongoing effort reinforced through regularly scheduled meetings, needs a flexible meeting

Step 2: Understand the Situation

• The team identifies possible threats/hazards and assesses the risk and vulnerabilities they pose
• Done thru a threat/hazard risk assessment to decide which threats to prioritize

Identifying Hazards

• Need understand the threats and hazards faced by the school/ surrounding community
• Draw upon existing info from sources
• Team members should share knowledge
• Reach out to local, state and federal agencies for data about historical threats and hazards

Vulnerabilities

• Characteristics making it more susceptible to threats (structure, equipment, IT etc.)
• Assessing the risk and vulnerability enables to focus efforts on prioritized threats

Assessments

• Includes site assessments, culture and climate assessments, school behavioral threat assessments, and capacity assessments
• Should be conducted by support staff, first responders, students and parents, kids with disabilities when appropriate
• If school is in an isolated region, that impacts strategy
• Provides info for plan updates
• Involves factors like local risks, severity of impact, and amount of time school has to warn staff/students about threat
• County emergency staff often provide risk information for threats and hazards common to the school and surrounding community

Assessing Risks

• Team focuses assessment efforts on threats/hazards unique to school community and on vulnerabilities
• Refer to charcteristics that make a school susceptible to the identified threats/hazards
• Planning team may use assessments including: site, culture and climate, school behavioral threat

Assessments

• Assess resources and issues plan may need
• Assess additional threats and hazards
• Strategically conducted, take location into account

Types of Assessments

• Site Assessment: Safety and emergency preparedness of buildings and grounds (access, egress, visibility etc.)
• Culture/Climate: Student and staff connectedness to school and problem behaviors
• School Threat: Analyze communication to determine whether staff poses a threat
• Capactity: Identifies resources like skills of staff or students, to assign roles and responsibilities

Threats & Consequences

• After assessments planning team should consolidate the info obtained
• Team assesses / compares the threats/hazards, and formulates likely consequences
• "Risk and vulnerability assessment"

Methods for Organizing Info

• Creating a table with range of info about each threat and hazard
• Table should include probability/frequency of occurance, magnitude, time available for warnings, duration, and cascading/follow-on effects

Threat & Harzard Prioritization

• The planning team compares risks posed by threats and hazards to decide/prioritize which ones to address
• Can use mathematical approach to assign index numbers
• Using this team will categorize the threats/hazards as posing relatviely high medium or low list

Assess Risk Factors

• Probability,magnitude,warning,duration,risk

Step 3: Determine Goals and Objectives

• Planning team decides the threats and hazards identified in Step 2 to be addressed in EOP
• Planning team may decide to address threats/hazards that rank "high-risk"
• It is recommended team addresses more than just the "high-risk" priority threats/hazards
• Once planning team decides which threats/hazards will be addressed in the school EOP; it develops goals and objectives for each

Develop Goals

• Broad, general statements of the desired outcome in response to the threat or hazard
• Are what personnel/resources should achieve
• Help identify when major activities are complete; success outcome
• Team develop 3 goals for addressing each threat/hazard; those goals should indicate the desired outcome for (1) before, (2) during, and (3) after
• Objectives: Specific, measurable actions that achieve the goals, will need to identify multiple objectives in support of a single goal

Team Finish

• Team compiling objectives for the prioritized threats/hazards will be certain; critical "functions" or activities apply to more than one threat/hazard Examples of: evacuating, medical care and accounting of studens staff, and guests

Develop Goals

• After functions are identified, develop 3 goals for each function
• As with threats/hazards, the 3 goals should indicate the desired outcome of the function
• These functions will be contained Functional Annex
• Details on these functions in Plan Content section; issues to consider developing goals/objectives

Evacuation Functions

Example of goals are:

• Ensure all students and staff know their evac routes
• Function Goal example 2(During); Evacuate the school immediate
• Function Goal example 3(After); Confirm all individuals have left building
• The goals can include: Assess, identify, and communicate the location of raly points
• -evac students staff, and guests from assigned routes Safely sweeps the building

Goal Outcomes

• After completing, the planning team has, at least goals (before, during, and after) threat by hazards funct, and objectives to each
• The threats action for each hazards with access

Step 4: Plan Development

• Planning team developed sources of action completing each the in step 3 hazards, Course action address for function; the planning team should examine is it feasible for stakeholders

Identify Courses of Action

• Course of action includes criteria each resources: protocols and procedures for support
• Possible action are: scenario, is the amount of time what’s available to response
• Identify decisions

Possible Action

• Depict the scenario create potential on the hazards priority
• Determine amount of is the to respond
• Identify decisions
• Develop courses of action to achieve goal
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Compliance to the Americans Access

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Step 5: The Plan Preparation

• Planning team developer of action develop in step 4
• Team review obtains for the communication participate
• And official approval with 1st responders and officials staff and stakeholders

Basic Material

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Step 6

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