AWR-148: Crisis Management for School-Based Incidents - Partnering Rural Law Enforcement, First Responders, and Local School Systems

Course Description

The purpose of the Crisis Management for School-Based Incidents - Partnering Rural Law Enforcement, First Responders, and Local School Systems course is to educate rural law enforcement personnel as well as school administrators and personnel on the elements that must be in place to effectively respond to an emergency at a school building or an entire school system. Schools continue to face incidents of violence as well as other crises that require coordination and collaboration within a community to ensure effective management strategies are in place. According to the Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2020 report released by the Institute of Education Sciences, 80% of public schools recorded that one or more violent incidents had taken place during the previous school year, amounting to 1.4 million incidents. Furthermore, as evidenced by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) 2021 report, Averting Targeted School Violence, the research has found that students display a variety of behaviors as they escalate towards violence to themselves or others. NTAC recommends that schools and communities develop multidisciplinary threat assessment programs to identify, assess, and intervene before violence occurs. This course provides information to the individual rural responder, school representatives, and other community stakeholders that will assist them in the recognition of school-based threats and the identification of protection measures and mitigation strategies necessary to secure our nation's school communities and minimize the impact of an incident on people, property, and the environment. 

Course Objectives

Module 1 - Introduction and Course Overview

• Review overall course learning objectives
• Conduct pre-test
• Explain how emergency response personnel and school staff need to work collaboratively to prepare for and respond to school-based crisis events.

Module 2 - Introduction to Incident Planning and Preparedness

• Identify major considerations for Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs).
• Describe roles and responsibilities within an EOP.
• List and provide examples of commonly identified vulnerabilities of schools.

Module 3 - Threat Identification, Prevention, and Mitigation

• Describe the various threats to schools.
• Explain targeted violence and the targeted violence process.
• Describe violence prevention initiatives.
• Explain the Threat Assessment Management process.

Module 4 - Incident Response

• Differentiate between functional annexes and threat/hazard specific annexes.
• Define different types of securing campus protocols, the situation(s) that would initiate such a response protocol, and roles of emergency responders and schools in the protocol.
• Describe considerations related to bomb threat management.

Module 5 - Incident Recovery

• Describe reunification and critical roles of law enforcement.
• Determine mental health needs after an incident.
• Describe incident recovery considerations.
• Describe collaborative roles of law enforcement and schools in post-crisis communications.

Module 6 - Post-Test and Course Evaluation

• Demonstrate a foundation of knowledge regarding crisis management for school-based incidents by completing a post-test.
• Identify areas of improvement as well as competency regarding the course content and instruction by completing a course evaluation form.

Mission Areas

• Protect

Prerequisites

Participants must be U.S. citizens. Foreign nationals may apply to DHS to attend on a case-by-case basis.

Other highly recommended prerequisites include: 

·        IS-100.c - Introduction to the Incident Command System

·        IS-700.b - National Incident Management System, An Introduction

·        IS-800.d - National Response Framework, An Introduction

Disciplines

• Emergency Management
• Emergency Medical Services
• Fire Service
• Governmental Administrative
• Law Enforcement
• Other

Focus Area

Rural First Responders

Primary Core Capability

Risk Management for Protection Programs and Activities

Training Certificate

Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium Certificate of Participation