Emergency Preparedness in Early Childhood Education

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Emergency Preparedness in Early Childhood
Education

• Opening Minds Conference 2013

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Agenda
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• School emergency response planning
• Emergency management overview
• The planning process
• Legal and administrative requirements
• Overview of emergency response plan
• Training and exercise
• Resources
• Questions and Answers

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School Emergency Response Planning
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Importance of Planning
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• Safety above all
• Emergencies of all shapes and sizes occur in
  schools every day
• Significant impact on students, faculty, staff,
  parents, and the community
• Physical
• Emotional
• Legal and ethical responsibilities to the
  students, staff, faculty, and parents

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St. Barnabas UMC Tornado

• Prior to event, had an emergency response plan
  that included tornado drills
• 82 students at school when tornado occurred
• Roof lifted up, sprinkler system breaks, tree is
  uprooted and punctures wall in education wing

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St. Barnabas UMC Tornado

• Teachers direct students to interior portions of
  education wing in darkness through flooded
  hallways
• No injuries reported except for one 5 year old
  complaining of head pain following her braids
  being pulled on by the boy that liked her
• Instituted reunification plan to connect parents
  with students

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St. Barnabas UMC Tornado

• Facility badly damaged 3.6 million in repairs
• Students finished year at neighboring early
  childhood education program
• School and church re-opened in September

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Impact of Newtown Preparation

• Advanced security system in place
• Conducted emergency drill in September
• All exterior doors locked at 930 am
• Visitors required to report to main office and
  present i.d.
• Students arriving after 930 must be walked into
  the building

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Impact of Newtown Response
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Impact of Newtown Response

• Parents hear of event and start arriving at Sandy
  Hook, complicating response efforts
• Sandy Hook Fire Stations becomes gathering place
  for families of victims
• Nationwide media interviews survivors,
  townspeople
• New York City provides portable morgue bodies
  not removed until night after shooting

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Impact of Newtown Recovery

• Sandy Hook classes not in session for two weeks
  transferred students to new school
• Nationwide conversation on gun control
• 8.5 million in monetary donations, warehouse of
  toys, stuffed animals, books, school supplies
• 100 million lawsuit filed against State of
  Connecticut

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Lack of Planning
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• There is a lack of planning done in school
  systems in the United States
• Many school systems on the K-12 level have plans
  but they are not comprehensive
• Many early childhood education institutions have
  no plan at all

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Why the lack of planning?
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• Accountability
• No system set up to monitor planning efforts
  amongst early childhood education providers
• Funding
• Budgets are stretched to capacity
• Lack of grants for ECE
• Time
• Lack of staff time to dedicate to research and
  writing
• Focus on educational benchmarks
• Knowledge
• Expertise is in educational administration, not
  emergency planning

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Questions?
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The Emergency Management Overview
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Four Phase Cycle
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Mitigation and Prevention
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• All actions taken before a disaster to reduce
  its impacts
• Structural mitigation
• Projects that reduce economic and social impacts
• Non-structural activities
• Procedures and practices that raise awareness of
  hazards

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Preparedness
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• Governments, organizations, and individuals
  develop plans to save lives, minimize disaster
  damage, and enhance disaster response operations
• Preparedness plans
• Emergency exercises and training
• Communications
• Resources inventory
• Public information

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Response
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• Phase where action is taken to resolve an
  emergency
• Emergency management plans are operationalized
• Activate the plan
• Deploy resources
• Activate communications plan
• Work with first responders
• Accounting for staff and students
• Preparing for recovery phase

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Recovery
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• Actions that return staff and students to
  day-to-day operations
• May overlap with response or continue on for
  months or years
• Restore utilities, clear pathways, repair damaged
  facilities, provide emotional support services,
  etc.

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All-Hazards Approach
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• Develop protocols to prepare for all hazards
• Incorporate community partners into planning
  process
• Increases ability to respond to disaster or
  emergency
• Standardizes certain processes
• Operational concept
• Command structure
• Communications

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Incident Command System (ICS)
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• Standardized management structure
• Pre-determined group of individuals charged with
  roles and responsibilities with Plan, regardless
  of emergency type
• Necessary in order to implement All-Hazards
  Approach

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ICS Roles
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• Incident Commander
• Overall direction and control over on-scene
  response until relieved by first response or
  response ends
• Assess situation and orders specific actions
• Command Staff
• Safety Officer Identify, assess, and prevent
  safety threats
• Liaison Point of contact for external parties
  and organizations
• Public Information Point of contact for public
  and media
• Action Team
• Operations Perform tactical tasks
• Planning Compile and assess incident status
  information
• Logistics Provide resources and support for all
  functions
• Finance/Administrative Manage expenditure and
  insurance

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Questions?
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The Planning Process
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Six Steps

• Form the collaborative planning team.
• Understand the situation.
• Determine goals and objectives.
• Develop the plan.
• Prepare, review, and approve the plan.
• Implement and maintain the plan.

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1. The Team

• FEMA Questions for Identifying Stakeholders
• Who might be responsible for what is intended?
• Who can make the planning process more effective
  through their participation or less effective by
  their non-participation or outright opposition?
• Who are the voiceless for whom special
  efforts have been made (e.g., the disability
  community)?
• Who can contribute financial or technical
  resources?

• Possible Planning Team Members
• Local law enforcement
• Fire Department
• Emergency medical services
• Public health
• Community mental health
• Local emergency management
• Child protective services
• Social services
• Teachers
• Board members
• Building representatives

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2. Situation Overview

• Information to Include
• Major geographic points
• Typical weather patterns
• Hazard Analysis
• Building Infrastructure
• Number of staff
• Number of students
• Persons with special needs
• or considerations

• Analyzing the Hazard
• Severity of impact
• Catastrophic, Severe, Moderate, Minor
• Warning Time
• None, 6-12 hours, 12-24 hours
• Probability of Occurrence
• High, Medium, Low

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Community Hazards
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• Severe Thunderstorm
• Tornado
• Hail
• Flooding
• Severe Winter Storm
• Infectious Disease Outbreak
• Earthquake

• Terrorism
• Hazardous Materials Release
• Bomb Threat
• Active Shooter
• Intruder
• Transportation Accident
• Medical Emergency
• Child Abduction
• Structural Fire

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Special Considerations
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• Vulnerable population
• Age range 2-6 years old
• Differing cognitive levels
• Multiple stakeholders
• Parents
• First Responders
• Teachers
• Administration
• School schedule
• Entry and Exit

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Planning for Children with Special Needs

• Consideration of those with special needs should
  be done at every step of planning process
• Working with parents to understand how their
  child reacts under duress
• Working with first responders to ensure knowledge
  of children with special needs at the school
• Train staff on procedures involving children with
  special needs
• Incorporate special needs issues into exercise
  objectives and goals

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3. Goals and Objectives

• Determine overall goals and objectives for plan
  what do you want out of an incident response?
• Determine overall goals and objectives for
  individual hazards using hazard analysis.

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4. Developing the Plan

• Will review the basic concepts of an emergency
  operations plan in next section

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5. Prepare, Review, Approve

• Who will author the plan? The courses of action
  for each hazard?
• Team reviews drafts of plan to ensure consistency
  with goals and objectives.
• Approval is dependent on organization.

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6. Implement and Maintain

• Responsibilities for distribution and
  implementation of the plan should be incorporated
  into development of the plan.
• Includes how teachers, staff, parents, and
  students will be trained on the contents of the
  plan.
• Timeline for exercising the plan

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Legal and Administrative Requirements
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Minimum Components of Plans
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• Concept of Operations
• Description of schools overall approach to
  emergency response
• Statement about how and when emergency plan will
  be implemented
• Description of how Incident Command System (ICS)
  will be implemented
• Direction and Control
• Definition and Assignment of Roles/Responsibilitie
  s in Chain of Command
• All members of Emergency Teams
• Designated Backups for each Role and
  Responsibility
• Description of Planned Response
• What should happen? When? At whose direction?
• Specific planning for specific hazards
• i.e. Severe weather, fire, bomb threats,
  structural failures, bus accidents, failure of
  utilities or loss of service, release of
  hazardous materials (indoors or outdoors),
  presence of an intruder, use of weapon, or taking
  of hostage, public health or medical emergencies,
  earthquake, nuclear power plan accident (if
  within 25 miles)

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Minimum Components of Plans (cont.)
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• Resource Inventory and Accounting
• Supply and equipment caches
• i.e. first aid kits, food/water, emergency
  lighting, walkie-talkies, battery-operated
  radios, etc.
• Method for accounting for whereabouts of students
  and staff
• Emergency contact lists
• Process for releasing students into care of
  parents or legal guardians
• Training and Preparedness
• Description of training and materials used to
  ensure all students and staff understand warning
  signals and know what to do
• Information about the school
• i.e. Hazard analyses, area maps, building layout,
  etc.
• Records of results from Emergency Drills

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Emergency Drills
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• Minimum Drills Required each school year
• 3 School Evacuation Drills
• At least 1 of 3 must include participation of
  local Fire Department
• 1 Bus Evacuation Drill
• 1 Severe Weather or Shelter-in-Place Drill
• Recommended each school year
• Law Enforcement Drill
• Include participation of local Law Enforcement
• May involve reverse-evacuation or lock-downs

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Annual Review and Reporting
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• Annual Review Meeting
• Review and update Plan and discuss results from
  Drills
• Diverse Participating Parties
• i.e. School Board, principals, first response
  organizations, education-related organizations,
  etc.
• Annual Review Report
• Summarize recommended changes
• State which changes will be implemented
• Send copy of Report to each Participating Party
  and to the Regional Superintendent

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Common Requirements for Planning
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• Developed with aid of community Public Safety
  agencies
• Based on a hazard analysis addressing multiple
  hazards
• Include Incident Command System and assigned
  responsibilities, including designated backups
• Gather essential supplies and assemble kits to
  support response action
• Include a system of accountability for all
  students and adults in the building
• Include a reunification system for releasing
  students to legal parents or guardians
• Include a system for regular review and updating
  of plans

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Common Requirements for Drills
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• Implement notifications that alert all students
  and staff in and around the building of emergency
• Ensure movement to safe areas in a reasonable
  amount of time
• Include primary secondary evacuation routes and
  safe areas
• Account for students with special needs during an
  emergency
• Ensure communication with first responders during
  response
• Taught and tested through regularly scheduled
  drills and exercises involving Public Safety
  agencies

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Liability
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• Almost anyone can be sued, for nearly anything,
  at almost any time
• Qualified Immunity
• Applies to public schools (local unit of
  government)
• Actions taken in the course of official action,
  including emergency management
• NOT actions outside of official action
• NOT for reckless or willful misconduct
• Negligence
• Duty Breach Causation Injury
• In loco parentis schools take on some of the
  duties of a parent
• Where legal and administrative requirements
  exist, planning and response is within the scope
  of employment

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Questions?
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Overview of emergency response plan
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The Basic Plan (CPG 101)
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• Introductory Material
• Introduction to Plan
• Concept of Operations
• Direction, Control, and Coordination
• Information Collection, Analysis, and
  Dissemination
• Communications
• Administration, Finance, and Logistics
• Plan Development and Maintenance
• Authorities and References

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Introductory Material
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• Cover Page
• Approval and Implementation Page
• Gives approval to plan via delegating authority
• Record of Changes
• To track any updates or changes to plan
• Table of Contents

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Introduction to Plan
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• Purpose
• General statement of what the plan is meant to do
• Scope
• States the scope of emergency and disaster
  response and entities and geographic areas to
  which the plan applies
• Situation Overview
• Relative probability and impact of hazards
• Geographic areas likely to be affected by hazards
• Vulnerable facilities
• Population distribution and locations
• individuals with disabilities, or functional
  needs
• Location of resources in school (first-aid kits,
  fire extinguisher)
• Planning Assumptions
• What you assume to be true

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Concept of Operations
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• Schools approach to emergency response
• National Incident Management System
• National set of principles that ensure all
  involved in response/recovery understand their
  roles and have the tools needed to be effective
• Implementation of Incident Command System
• Nationally recognized system for direction and
  control
• Initial Response
• How are first responders notified
• Who is responsible until first responders arrive,
  who coordinates with first responders

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Organization and Assignment of Responsibilities
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• Lists the tasks to be performed by position and
  organization
• Possible roles
• Director/Principle/Building Administrator
• Incident Commander
• Teachers/Teacher Aides
• Administrative Staff
• Students
• Parents
• Board of Directors

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Direction, Control, and Coordination
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• How will you control the incident? State of
  Illinois requires use of Incident Command System
• Incident Commander
• Authority to direct operations until incident
  management can be established with local
  authorities
• Coordination with Board of Directors
• Coordination with First Responders
• Coordination with Parents
• How will you manage and track child pick-up?

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Communications - Internal
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• Between staff and/or faculty members
• Emergency contact lists
• Methods of communication
• When to communicate
• Procedures for communication

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Communications - External
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• Communications with parents
• Call down procedures? Text alert? Email alert?
• Communication with the media
• Communication with first responders
• Communication during recovery process
• External communication tools and methods

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Administration, Finance, and Logistics
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• Agreements and Contracts
• Equipment, supplies, personnel
• Record-keeping
• Administrative controls (fund management)
• Activity Logs (track major incident decisions)
• Incident Costs
• Personnel costs, especially overtime
• Equipment operations costs
• Costs for contract services or equipment

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Plan Development and Maintenance
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• Approval and Dissemination of Plan
• Who is responsible for disseminating plan to
  stakeholders?
• Plan Review and Updates
• How often will the plan reviewed? When will it
  be updated?
• Training and Exercising the Plan
• Description of training and exercises that have
  taken place or will take place
• Record and results of all training and exercises

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Appendices
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• Specific procedures per possible hazard
• Evacuation (fire)
• Reverse Evacuation (hazards outside of building)
• Lockdown (intruder, active shooter)
• Shelter-in-place (severe weather, hazardous
  materials release)
• Power failure
• Public health emergency
• Bomb threat

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Questions?
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Training and Exercises
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Recommended Training
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• FEMA Online Courses
• IS-100.b - Introduction to Incident Command
  System
• IS-200.b - ICS for Single Resources and Initial
  Action Incidents
• IS-362.a - Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for
  Schools
• IS-700.a - National Incident Management System
  (NIMS), An Introduction
• IS-800.b - National Response Framework, An
  Introduction
• Other
• CPR
• First Aid

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Training for Teachers/Parents
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• Teachers
• Conduct a Plan Seminar
• Review communication procedures
• Parents
• Distribute plan and offer overview
• Ensure communication procedures are understood

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Exercises (Drills)
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• Required
• Evacuation drills (3)
• Bus evacuation drill (1)
• Shelter-in-place drill (1)
• Recommended
• Lockdown drill
• Communications drill
• Phone tree drill

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Questions?
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Resources
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Resources
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• www.schoolemergencyplanning.com

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Contact Information
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• Tamara Habib
• 312.972.3762
• thabib_at_schoolemergencyplanning.com
• L. Paul Lewis
• 312.380.1316
• lplewis_at_schoolemergencyplanning.com

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Questions?
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