MGT-417: Crisis Management for School-Based Incidents for Key Decision Makers

Course Description

The purpose of this management and planning level course is to provide the operational-level details to support many of the topics covered in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved AWR-148: Crisis Management for School-Based Incidents - Partnering Rural Law Enforcement and the Local School Systems awareness-level course. Rural schools, law enforcement, other emergency responders, and community stakeholders are often limited in their access to resources, so it is imperative that all potentially affected parties collaborate in planning, preparation, communication, response, and recovery in the event of a school-based incident. Moreover, these affected parties must come together to practice their interoperable skills through drills and exercises to ensure the strategies in place provide for an effective crisis response and collaborative recovery. With the intent of building upon the foundation of the AWR-148 course and utilizing an all-hazards approach, this two-day course will provide content instruction, develop concept-specific skills, and provide opportunities for law enforcement, school personnel, and other community stakeholders to collaboratively apply the course objectives to both practice situations and their actual school communities.

Course Objectives

The following training objectives will be covered in this course:

• Discuss all-hazard approach as it relates to school-based or school-impacted disasters as well as explain the critical components of Emergency Operation Plans (EOPs). In addition, discuss the roles and responsibilities of school response teams, summarize the desired characteristics of potential team members, implement strategies for developing and organizing effective teams, and facilitate the collaboration needed with other community stakeholders.
• Describe how to plan for and conduct vulnerability assessments as well identify vulnerabilities using real-life examples in a scenario-based application. Define what constitutes a cross discipline vulnerability assessment team, discuss effective strategies for its formation and organization, and outline the associated roles and responsibilities of team members.
• Discuss Threat Assessment Management (TAM) and how it differs from vulnerability assessments. Explain Threat Assessment Inquiry, the component of TAM, the procedures for the development and organization of the TAM team, and define team goals, roles, and responsibilities.
• Implement improvements in response protocols regarding securing campus, evacuation, shelter-in-place, natural disaster response, and bomb-threat management. Create response protocols that will ensure effective interdisciplinary collaboration between emergency responders and the school.
• Evaluate and develop implementation protocols for crisis recovery involving all affected parties (e.g., students, administrators, staff, families, community stakeholders, emergency responders, mental health support, etc.).
• Demonstrate effective crisis management skills regarding mitigation, response, and recovery from a school-based or school-impacted crisis.

These goals will continue to support the participants' mitigation, response, and recovery capabilities in both a classroom and scenario-based training incident. This format fosters greater understanding and collaboration, and enhances operational capabilities between rural schools and their emergency response partners.

Mission Areas

• Mitigation

Prerequisites

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

It is highly recommended that participants take the DHS AWR 148 Crisis Management for School-Based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement and the Local School Systems awareness-level course.

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
• Public Health
• Public Safety Communications
• Security and Safety
• Other
• Education

Focus Area

Rural First Responders

Primary Core Capability

Operational Coordination

Training Certificate

Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium Certificate of Completion