Students and school employees deserve a safe learning environment. A culture of safety in schools is crucial for healthy academic and social development. Research shows that students’ perception of safety is directly related to their academic achievement. When students feel unsafe, mental health, attendance, tardiness rates, and academic performance can all suffer. School staff also need to feel safe to do what they do best—foster a great learning environment for students.
A critical element of creating a culture of safety is incorporating regular safety drills as part of a comprehensive school safety plan. When the entire school community is well-versed in safety protocols and practices, its members feel confident that their school supports their safety. Safety drills establish safe habits and empower teachers and students to take rapid action when an emergency strikes. Better practice can lead to better outcomes and improved safety.
Here’s what to know about introducing drills into your school safety plan.
What Safety Drills Do States Require?
A majority of states are beginning to mandate their districts to include safety drills as a part of their school safety plan. At least 45 states require schools to conduct safety or security drills according to state statutes or regulations. Other states may require drills through handbooks, guides, or other procedures. At least 17 states require local law enforcement agencies to be involved in conducting school safety drills.
Each state has its specific requirements for the types of safety drills that must be conducted. For example, Oregon requires schools to dedicate at least 30 minutes every month to conducting emergency drills. During that time, Oregon requires two earthquake drills and two safety threat drills.
For schools in the tsunami hazard zone, such as some districts on the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii, at least three drills on earthquakes and tsunamis must take place. Fire drills are also required. Compare those requirements to Virginia’s, which only maintains that schools must complete three fire drills, two lockdown drills, and one tornado drill annually.
Resources like comprehensive lists of drill requirements and school safety plan standards are a great way to compare best practices across all 50 states. However, there are also state-specific drill requirements:
Why Are Safety Drills Critical?
They say practice makes perfect, which couldn’t be truer when testing your school safety plan with drills. Safety drills allow students and staff to simulate an actual emergency so they are not caught off guard when an actual emergency occurs. Here are the benefits of implementing safety drills into your school safety plan.
Develop muscle memory. Mandating drills in your school safety plan allows staff and students to familiarize themselves with their roles and responsibilities in various crises. Within a simulated environment, staff can hone their critical skills, including student evacuation, life-saving interventions, and communication protocols. School leaders and other faculty develop muscle memory by rehearsing these actions, enabling them to respond more efficiently and confidently during emergencies.
Increase coordination and communication. Efficient, effective teamwork is imperative for the success of any school safety plan. Emergency drills provide an invaluable opportunity for school communities to unite as a team. Students and staff learn to communicate effectively under pressure, share critical information, and coordinate their efforts seamlessly. Whether it’s guiding students to safety during a fire drill or swiftly responding to a sudden medical event, the ability to work cohesively as a team can mean the difference between life and death.
Identify and address weaknesses. Emergency drills highlight areas that may require improvement, whether in terms of protocols, equipment readiness, or training. Post-drill evaluations allow school leaders to identify weaknesses, learn from mistakes, and adjust their school safety plan. This continuous improvement process ensures that your school will evolve and effectively handle a diverse range of crises.
Tips for Implementing Drills into a School Safety Plan
The best way to approach drill implementation is to have a set safety plan that is compliant with your state’s laws. Consider the makeup of your school’s physical security system—things like equipment and technology, site and building design features, school safety and security personnel, policies and procedures related to school safety and security training, exercises, and drills are all relevant factors. Do you have a school alert system? Can staff and faculty quickly respond to emergencies and request help with reliable technology, such as a wearable panic button?
Next, evaluate how everything works together to meet your school’s needs. Are there gaps in safety procedures or equipment that could be improved? The answer is most likely yes, so testing your emergency response and safety plans with drills is critical. Closing safety gaps, addressing shortcomings, and adequately preparing staff, students, and other important stakeholders with safety drills are the best ways to avoid chaos when an incident occurs.
The most important factors to assess when testing the efficiency of your school’s response to any safety event are:
- Speed and accuracy of alert dissemination
- Staff response time
- Equipment availability and functionality
- Staff member coordination
- Overall efficiency in handling the situation
Complying with your state’s school safety laws and doing what’s best for your school community is no easy feat. CENTEGIX can help you accomplish that and more.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™: The Foundation of a Multi-layered School Safety Plan
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform™ provides administrators with comprehensive tools and data that inform an effective school safety plan. CENTEGIX solutions also make it easy for staff to make the most out of drill training. Safety Platform data provides easy assessment and adjustment of safety plans and how those plans can be tailored for each campus’ needs. Here’s what we offer:
CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™
CENTEGIX created CrisisAlert to reduce response times during emergencies. When designing the CrisisAlert wearable panic button, CENTEGIX relied on feedback from representatives of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission that expressed concerns that traditional school safety technology didn’t reflect the realities of the classroom or how people realistically can respond in moments of crisis. Conversations with school leaders indicated that school staff needed an effective solution for incident response—physical altercations are more common in hallways, teachers don’t want to have an app for safety on their personal phone—which led to the development of an effective solution built on innovative technology. With our CrisisAlert wearable panic button, staff can quickly and discreetly request help to their exact location, already a legal requirement in many states.
During drill training, school staff can better assess procedures and timeliness with CrisisAlert. Administrators can calculate the response time for each drill—down to the very second—which they can use to identify which plans need improvement or which plans consistently facilitate a rapid response. Because in a crisis, every second matters.™
CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint™
High-quality, dynamic maps are critical to school safety plans and emergency response. Schools own their maps and mapping data with CENTEGIX Safety Blueprint, enabling them to quickly and securely share with law enforcement and first responders and remain compliant with map-related safety laws.
Safety Blueprint can be easily incorporated into drill training by helping leaders understand the impact of campus layout, evacuation routes, access points, and the location of safety assets during simulated emergencies. With this information, administrators can plan or replan evacuation routes, adjust the location of safety assets, and identify any barriers to response.
CENTEGIX Visitor Management
Keeping the school community safe means you need to know who’s visiting, when they’re visiting, and where they’re permitted on campus. CENTEGIX’s Visitor Management lets you easily check-in and authenticate all visitors, giving you confidence and peace of mind that only permitted, verified visitors are on campus. The Enhanced Visitor Management feature locates visitors in real-time, informing first responders and school administrators during an emergency.
Visitor Management can help school leaders enhance drill training on multiple levels. With comprehensive real-time and historical reporting of visitor locations, administrators can identify areas with high visitor traffic, enabling them to assess potential risks and adjust safety plans. By monitoring visitor presence during safety drills, administrators can evaluate any impact on response times and identify opportunities for improvement. Visitor Management can also help administrators schedule drill training when there are no visitors on campus, thereby minimizing disruptions.
CENTEGIX Reunification
Schools need a reunification plan that confirms all students and staff are safe and reunited with approved guardians after an emergency—this is also a core element of drill training. Manual reunification checklist processes can be inefficient and may slow down emergency recovery. CENTEGIX’s cloud-based solution digitizes reunification to prioritize efficiency and help school leaders regain control when order turns into disarray. Incorporating CENTEGIX Reunification into safety drills allows schools to establish higher reunification standards while equipping teachers with a clear understanding of their roles, instilling confidence to navigate emergencies effectively.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform is the foundation for a layered—and tested—school safety plan. CENTEGIX is a national leader in developing innovative safety solutions that help keep communities safe from potential threats and accelerate emergency response. The CENTEGIX Safety Platform utilizes dynamic digital mapping, real-time visitor locating capabilities, an easy-to-use wearable emergency button, and reunification capabilities to plan for and respond faster to emergencies.
Click here to learn more about how our technology can enhance your school’s safety drills and create a safety culture in your district.
