Guidance for K-12 Public Schools

Guidance for K-12 Public Schools

Completion of the

National Incident Management System (NIMS) Progress Report

DRAFT APRIL 2006

While the public school system in the United States is not currently required to be NIMS compliant, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) strongly urges public schools to become aware of, and develop progressive competence in, the elements of the NIMS. Please see attached guidance document on this topic. This document is an effort to assist schools to complete the computer-generated compliance progress report developed through an inter-agency alliance with the Washington State Division of Emergency Management (WSEMD), the Washington State Department of Health (WSDOH), the Washington State Patrol (WSP), and the Washington State Department of Information Services (WSDIS). The data collection assists WSEMD to report to the U. S. Department of Homeland Security on the current state of preparedness of the various elements of our state and local government agencies (including school districts).

Preface: Public school districts completing this form should be guided by the notion that local schools are seen by the community at large as integral to community safety efforts. In many rural and remote communities, it may be that the only elected officials are serving on local school boards and fire districts. Schools offer communities both physical and personnel resources during emergencies, often providing safe havens for displaced individuals and employing staff with a wide array of expertise beyond that of their job descriptions.

The safety planning efforts sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education, OSPI, and other safety partners, has actively promoted the notion that schools need to develop "first-responder" capabilities for emergencies in collaboration with local police, fire, EMS, public health, and emergency management officials. Recent disasters in the U. S. have highlighted the fact that professional emergency responders may not be able to respond to all affected parties in a large scale incident; hence, the need for a more self-reliant approach to community safety.

Guidelines for Completion of Progress Report:

Item #

School District Guidelines

School districts are not required by federal or state law to adopt a policy requiring NIMS compliance. The exceptions that have been noted by the U. S. Departments of Education and Homeland Security, at this point, are when a district has a police department, or when a district has accepted federal emergency/disaster preparedness funds (e.g., the federal Emergency Response & Crisis Management, or ERCM, grant program qualifies as receiving preparedness funds). NIMS compliance will likely be a requirement for districts pursuing federal emergency/disaster funds in the future.

For school districts, the degree to which a district has a "role in emergency preparedness" is based on the nature, depth ad breadth of the agreements made with local emergency response agencies to support the regional community safety plan. If the district’s safety plan only addresses actions taken on school property with limited involvement of community agencies, it is likely that the district has no formal role in emergency preparedness. If, however, the district’s safety plan or the regional safety plan involves schools providing assistance to others (e. g, neighborhoods) requiring mutual aid, there is a formal role for schools in the preparedness process.

The Washington State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP), an overview of which can be found at http://emd.wa.gov/3-pet/pal/cemp/Basic-Plan/cemp-basic-03.doc , is a plan designed to maximize the coordination of resources to address declared emergencies and disasters. The plan is broken into 24 Emergency Support Functions (ESF’s) that provide state and local authorities with roles and guidelines to implement the integrated emergency management system when called upon:

Schools are required by RCW 28A.320.125 to coordinate their safety plans with local emergency response agencies. If the answer to "2" was "yes" it is reasonable that the answer to "3" would be the same.

Schools are often accustomed to managing media requests without going through a centralized information center addressing the needs of multiple agencies. This is likely a new element to many districts, and is often important only in large scale incidents. Schools are encouraged to work with the inter-agency Joint Information Systems efforts, but may not currently have this component in their safety plans.

Schools involved in the ERCM grant process are involved in the effort to assess current status and gaps. Instruments are being developed to assist districts to address this concern.

Preparedness funding is addressed under Item #1. The sources for this funding include grants from the federal Departments of Homeland Security and Education, or may be through the WSEMD through regional Homeland Security grants. Many districts have not received such funding.

NIMS compliant safety plans for schools include the elements of planning, training, response, exercises, equipment, evaluation, and corrective action. Many of the plans developed since the inception of the 1999 OSPI School Safety Plan grant have included these elements, but may not be in direct alignment with the new standards. The best way to determine such alignment is for district officials to complete the IS 700 NIMS course on-line at http://www.fema.gov/kids/fematce.htm .

This is straightforward: Does the district have a written mutual aid agreement with community stakeholders?

9-12

Guidelines for school officials who should complete NIMS courses:

Course	Content	School Officials Who Should Complete the Course
IS 700	Overview of NIMS and the Incident Command System	All school administrators who are responsible for student welfare, safety, or emergency response at both the district and building levels
IS 800	Overview of the National Response Plan, federal ESF’s, & how federal and local governments interact in disasters	All "personnel whose primary responsibility is emergency management" or safety/security; school districts should have at least one administrator trained at this level.
ICS 100	Overview of the Incident Command System, including roles & responsibilities of different responders	Personnel who are involved in the Incident Command structure, coordinating with emergency responders during an incident; this typically includes principals, assistant principals, security officers, custodians, office managers, school nurses and similar district officials
ICS 200	More detailed review of ICS as it relates to complex incidents	Same as ICS 800

To answer this question, schools need to review their training and exercise methods to determine if they include all of the elements of the NIMS.

This item simply wants to know if, during this reporting period, the school district has participated in a multi-agency NIMS compliant exercise.

An After Action Review is a formal debriefing process addressing a review of the incident, articulating the roles of individuals involved in response, lessons learned, and possible corrective actions.

16-17

The resource typing system developed by the NIMS Integration Center is designed to establish the location and amounts of supplies that might be appropriate to respond to specific types of emergencies or disasters. Most public school systems will NOT have the types of supplies needed to support large scale disaster reposnses, spo it is likely that schools should respond to this item with “N/A”. However, some school district who have partnered wioth local emergency response agencies to stockpile emergency supplies may need to refer to FEMA’s definitions, which can be found at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/mutual_aid.shtm . If a school is uncertain as to whether their assets match these categories, it is suggested they consult with the local regional emergency management agency to include this element in their safety plan.

The emphasis upon use of standardized English terms in the implementation of safety plans is an important element of the NIMS. Schools using codes as part of an alert and notification system should consider augmenting them to use clear, concise descriptions of the type of alert and the directions provided to students, staff and visitors. Example: "Code 1: Evacuate the building to designated areas. This is a fire drill." The use of "Code 1" without the additional descriptive information would likely NOT be in compliance with the NIMS.