Emergency Preparedness Planning Guide For Maryland Schools

Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

It seems that almost daily we can turn on our televisions or sort through social media and find an incident that happened at a school that caused a disruption. Most people today are only focused on active shooter incidents. While that is a very disruptive and horrific incident to encounter, there are many other incidents that your school could, and should, be planning for. Averting a School Crisis explains to its readers how to begin the school preparedness planning process for all the incidents your school can face. Understanding how to manage your vulnerabilities and putting your staff to use will save time and lives when an emergency occurs. It is up to you to help your school become prepared for its worst day.Averting a School Crisis is an excellent resource of knowledge and guidance. This text was prepared for all members of a community, first responders, administrators, and teachers, to serve as a resource to raise awareness and activities among our children and communities.

Written in accordance with the President's 2003 homeland security directive and the Department of Education's guidelines, and in response to the ever-present threats facing our school systems, this book helps schools and institutions develop a comprehensive emergency response plan. This book outlines programs and procedures that can be applied to any school system to address hazard mitigation and prevention, emergency preparedness and response, and recovery and restoration of school functions to an effective learning environment. It describes specific actions and assigns responsibilities and response roles to district and individual school staff emergency teams, cooperating agencies, and community response partners that have agreed to share responsibilities and resources as defined in this plan. This book also outlines, in the event of an emergency involving response by fire and/or law enforcement, the district/school site personnel who should establish an Incident Command System-based response organization in accordance with procedures outlined in the National Incident Management System. In addition, the authors predetermine, to the extent possible, operational procedures across any U.S. school system and cooperating governmental, private, and volunteer agencies for responding to and recovering from any and all types of natural, human, or technology-based emergencies that may occur within school system operations or outside the jurisdiction of the school system but nonetheless cause/could cause collateral impact to school system operations. Contents examine emergency notification and immediate actions; concept of operations, including first key actions, partnering with community agencies, and the initial briefing; crisis management team action checklists; response resources, including personnel, response team partners, emergency evacuation/receiving facilities, and emergency equipment and supplies; emergency response flip charts for principals, teachers, secretaries, and custodians; district incident-specific response protocols, covering 29 scenarios from accidents to weapons situations; and general response procedures for clean up, communications, cost accounting, tracking students and personnel. Appendices include training and exercises, forms, sample communications and letters, examples of status boards, and a stakeholder management plan.