Each school is indeed unique, but the emergencies they face are not. For this reason, certain standardized plans should be in place, such as evacuation locations, audio-visual alerts, and procedures for calling both on-campus responders and law enforcement. When protocols for what to do in emergencies are consistent across districts and are supported by a school alert system, employees know exactly what to do no matter where they happen to be.
Standardization improves efficiency when it matters most, supports faster and more coordinated responses, and empowers staff with the preparation needed to act quickly for the safety and well-being of students.
The Benefits of Emergency Operations Plans
School safety remains a top priority for parents and school leaders, whether preparing for a natural disaster, active shooter, or medical emergency. Ensuring a safe school environment requires a strategic, proactive effort from school leaders, staff, and the community to develop the right safety plan and protocols. These protocols are then supported by tools through a school emergency alert system.
Emergency Operations Plans (EOP) can ensure standardization across large districts and enable tailored protocols for each school campus. EOPs are critically important to school safety. In a collaborative process involving school personnel and community partners, an EOP establishes a structured procedure that students and staff can follow in an emergency, leading to more efficient response times. Since EOPs also plan for protocols after an incident, schools can recover and resume normal operations faster.
Developing an EOP also helps schools identify gaps in emergency planning, giving them more time to strengthen their preparedness and identify needed resources. Once in place, these plans can—and should—be reviewed and updated frequently.
EOPs provide important safety benefits, such as:
- Preparedness: EOPs document a clear plan for various emergencies, from health emergencies to unwelcome visitors on campus. An established plan can accelerate response times and save lives.
- Inclusiveness: EOPs allow school districts to outline a strategy that accounts for diverse populations, including students and staff with disabilities and those who need special accommodations
- Accountability: EOPs clarify staff roles during an emergency, which decreases confusion and chaos and improves efficiency since staff know what to do and how to respond.
- Training: EOPs include regular training and drills that help staff and community members understand their roles before, during, and after an emergency.
- Trust: Parents have a stronger sense of trust in school systems that adopt an EOP, promoting an improved reputation for the school across the community.
With these benefits in place, an EOP improves safety during an emergency and promotes a culture of safety during everyday operations.
The Standardized Protocols to Know
There are many different types of safety protocols, but the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and the Incident Command System (ICS) are some of the main strategies utilized by schools across the nation.
The Standard Response Protocol standard actions and language to manage different types of emergency situations. These five actions are:
- HOLD: Requires students to remain in their rooms, with announcements to clear the halls.
- SECURE: Implemented when there is an external threat, requiring locking of outside doors and continuation of normal activities inside.
- LOCKDOWN: Applied when a threat exists inside the building, necessitating actions like locking interior doors and keeping occupants out of sight.
- EVACUATE: Used when moving students from one location to another is necessary, with specific evacuation points announced.
- SHELTER: Directed in response to specific threats like severe weather, providing tailored instructions for safety.
An Incident Command System facilitates collaboration and efficient management during emergencies, ensuring resources and personnel are effectively coordinated. ICS provides a standardized approach to managing emergencies, outlining roles such as:
- Incident Commander: Manages the incident by setting objectives and priorities, and oversees operations. They may handle all tasks in smaller incidents without delegating responsibilities.
- Operations Section: Executes the tactical response by deploying resources to meet objectives set by the Incident Commander.
- Planning Section: Collects and shares incident information, provides resources like maps, and documents all activities during and after the incident.
- Logistics Section: Secures necessary resources such as personnel and equipment, arranges logistics, and maintains facility support for the response.
- Finance and Administration Section: Handles financial aspects, including contracts, time tracking, injury claims, and costs, while maintaining comprehensive records.
ICS follows a series of six steps designed to facilitate effective management of every incident, regardless of size or complexity:
- Understand agency policy and direction.
- Assess incident situation.
- Establish incident objectives.
- Select appropriate strategy or strategies to achieve objectives.
- Perform tactical direction.
- Provide necessary follow-up.
Challenges to School Safety Planning
Even when administrators reference these existing safety protocols, creating a standardized emergency plan is challenging, especially when it’s across a large school district.
These challenges include:
- Multiple properties with varying layouts and features
- A large number of students with different age levels and abilities
- Students and staff with special accommodations
- Language barriers from large, diverse populations
For school safety protocols to be effective, all staff need to receive the same training for the location in which they work. However, districts are experiencing high staff turnover, making it harder to keep staff updated on safety protocols. During the 2022-2023 school year, 23% of teachers left their positions, which is higher than the teacher turnover rate during the pandemic. High turnover makes it challenging to keep everyone prepared.
Standardized training is also difficult because some staff travel between buildings, including special education instructors, counselors, speech therapists, administrators, school resource officers, law enforcement teams, and supervisors. For an EOP to be effective, such staff must be trained in protocols for multiple unique buildings.
Under these circumstances, establishing standardized EOPs in large districts and training staff on these EOPs is difficult, given the rates of turnover and movement of personnel throughout the district.
The Importance of Customizable School Emergency Alert Systems
Each school must develop safety protocols and school emergency alert systems based on the specifics of its buildings, grounds, population, and other factors. At the same time, schools need to ensure every individual can receive help during an emergency, no matter where they are. Emergency response protocols that are standarized across districts and enhanced with the right school emergency alert system empower staff to participate in and be protected by a district’s EOP, even in a large district and even if staff have not received training for a specific location.
A standardized response is important since staff members may visit multiple schools within a day. Some teachers start their careers at one school in a district and then move to another as they advance into new positions. Whether staff are on the move day-to-day or throughout their careers, they need a consistent safety plan.
School emergency alert systems are a critical component of a safety plan. Schools can equip staff with a mobile panic button like CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™, which can be integrated into the safety plan of every school. This ensures that staff can participate in the school’s safety protocols even if it’s their first day on campus or if they are moving across multiple locations.
Customization
With the Safety Platform, audio and visual cues can be customized and announcements can be tailored, such as those differentiating between drills and actual events (ie, “This is not a drill.”). Schools can specify what light colors and patterns correspond to different types of alerts. For instance, schools can change colored strobe lights to indicate different events, such as lockdown, shelter, in place, and evacuation. The colors can correspond with the Standard Response Protocol the schools follow. Schools can choose what appears on the lockdown screens of every networked computer and Smartboard.
Staff members throughout the district are equipped with a CrisisAlert badge. This badge goes with them from school to school and the protocols are the same in each building. The standardization provided by Safety Platform means that employees will always know what to do no matter where they are.
This is particularly helpful to districts experiencing high rates of teacher turnover. Even new teachers are equipped with a CrisisAlert badge and immediately integrated into a school’s safety protocols. And once a teacher is trained in safety protocols, they are trained for every school in the district.
When someone initiates an alert, first responders get immediate access to critical information:
- Name and telephone number of the user who initiated the alert.
- The exact latitude and longitude of the locating beacon that received the alert.
- If the beacon’s location is not available, the location of the alert’s latitude and longitude will be sent.
- URL access to a static map image of the current alert location, including labels, grid, assets, and alert pin.
- X and Y coordinates of the alert location on the map grid.
Support Safety Across Your District with CENTEGIX
Safety Platform empowers districts to customize their safety response while creating a standardized safety procedure across the school district and over multiple locations. With the right school emergency alert system, safety plans are enhanced with solutions that support faster responses. From their first day onward, staff have access to a safety solution that goes where they go and allows them to immediately request help in an emergency.
Implementing a solution that helps everyone on campus feel more prepared fosters a culture of safety and puts the emphasis back on what matters most: student learning. Improve your safety planning with the CENTEGIX Safety Platform.
