Successful emergency management requires active leadership.
The tone is set from the top.
Emergency management planning is both more efficient and more effective if prevention/mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery activities are planned and implemented at the district level. This is best accomplished through the establishment of an emergency management team (EM) at the district level.
Team Membership:
The district emergency management team should be lead by the Superintendent or the Assistant Superintendent. Given the responsibilities listed below, the school district’s emergency management team’s composition should be multi-disciplinary.
Ideally, membership consists of:
- Custodial Staff / Facility Directors
- Information Technology Directors
- Curriculum Directors
- Information / Communications Officer
- Business Manager
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- School Resource / Police Officer (SRO)
- School staff member with EMT certification or who serves as a volunteer fire fighter.
- School Psychologist or related personnel
- Athletics Director
- Transportation Director
- Parent Group Representative
- School Board Member or Trustee
- Student Leader
Within small districts, individuals may perform several of these functions. Regardless, in a large or small district such personnel are key members of an Emergency Management Team and each would take unique roles in the Incident Command System during an actual crisis.
Schools will have similar, but smaller emergency management teams that will implement the district emergency management plans and emergency procedures at the school level, augmenting these with school-specific policies and procedures, as needed.
Role of the district emergency management (EM) team:
In the Prevention/Mitigation, Preparedness and Recovery phases of the emergency Management Cycle, district's EM team responsibilities include the following:
- Provide district-wide planning and oversight throughout all four phases of the emergency management cycle.
- Report to the School Board on school safety and emergency management matters.
- Develop a comprehensive district-wide emergency management plan and emergency procedures with clear guidance to district schools about what role the district team vs. school based teams would play in common emergency situations.
- Implement current, best practices in school emergency management that have been adopted across the country and recommended by the U.S. Department of Education, FEMA and other state and federal agencies since 2001, specifically, integration with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and restructuring school response plans to reflect the Incident Command System (ICS).
- Develop a district-wide policy to implement and revise the emergency management plan and emergency procedures as well as have both reviewed by legal counsel and the board/trustees.
- Provide in-service training to school emergency management teams.
- Inform the general public about emergency management planning efforts in the school district.
- Establish and maintain working relationships with the public safety community, especially during the prevention/mitigation and preparedness phases of the emergency management cycle.
Single School Emergencies:
During the Response phase of an emergency at an individual school, the district EM Team team supports the individual school building level emergency management team in its response efforts.
There may be occasions where district EM Team members come to the school in an emergency and assume the ICS roles of building level staff. Such 'transfers of command' occur if the district EM team members are a) more equipped / trained to take that role, b) if the nature of the emergency has evolved to merit this transfer, c) or to provide relief to building level staff.
The likelihood of, and procedures surrounding such transfers should be clearly understood between the schools and the district prior to any real emergency situation. Drills and exercises provide the perfect occasion for such clarification.
Multi-School / District-wide Emergencies:
Should the scope of the emergency span multiple schools, the district EM team assumes a leadership role in coordinating the efforts of district employees, always, as with single school emergencies, in close collaboration with emergency response agencies.
In either situation, the district emergency management team should implement a NIMS-compliant Incident Command System (ICS) structure during the response phase. It is at the Superintendent’s discretion whether the team will operate under the ICS model under specific actions/event related to the prevention/mitigation, preparedness, and recovery phases as well.