# Presentation: 586274

## RecoveryEmergency Management for Schools Training

**Gregory Thomas**
- Deputy Director of Planning and Response,
- National Center for Disaster Preparedness
- Mailman School of Public Health
- Columbia University
**Kelly Streeter**
- Project Director,
- Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 55
- Safe Schools/Healthy Students

- U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools
- 400 Maryland Avenue, SW / Washington, DC 20202

## Overview of Session

- Identify key messages
- Define the Recovery phase
- Introduce four key components of Recovery:
- Physical/structural recovery
- Business recovery
- Restoration of academic learning
- Psychological/emotional recovery
- Discuss how to prepare for each component of Recovery
- Review key “Issues/Debates” in Recovery
- Discuss Recovery scenario

## Key Messages

- The Recovery phase is designed to assist students, staff, and their families in the healing process and to restore educational operations in schools
- Success in the Recovery phase is based on pre-planning
- Strong community partnerships are critical
- Recovery involves four components:
- Physical/structural recovery
- Business recovery
- Restoration of academic learning
- Psychological/emotional recovery
- The Recovery phase is an ongoing process
- The type and breadth of Recovery activities needed will vary based on the size and scope of the incident

**Notes:**
Recovery efforts depend on the development of Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with both community mental health partners and service providers as well as pre-negotiated contract with various vendors and contractors
Key point is that most recovery efforts are going to be directed at common events.  Fiscal, physical recovery aspects are essential to plan for, although most common events create a need for mental health interventions.

## Phases of Emergency Management 

**Recovery**

**Prevention-Mitigation**

**Preparedness**

**Response**

## What is the Recovery Phase?

- The Recovery phase is designed to assist students and staff in the healing process and to restore educational operations in schools:
- Recovery can be a long-term process
- Planning for Recovery begins in the Prevention-Mitigation and Preparedness phases
- Providing for Recovery efforts requires leadership support
- Recovery planning and efforts must take into account physical recovery, business recovery, academic recovery, and psychological/emotional health of students and staff
- GOAL: Restore a safe and healthy learning environment

**Notes:**
If Recovery efforts are to be successful, upper-level administrators must be supportive of Recovery work and must reach outside of the school for help if/when it is needed
Those impacted by 9/11 are still in various stages of recovery, for example.
Leadership is needed at the Superintendent and Principal level, too.

## School/District Events That Require Recovery Planning and Efforts

- Violence in schools or community (assaults, robberies, etc.)
- Student and/or staff deaths
- Suicides
- Accidents (students hit by cars, bus accidents, car accidents, etc.)
- Infectious disease outbreaks
- Major natural disasters (tornado, earthquake, wildfire, hurricane, etc.)
- School shootings
- Terrorist events (i.e., 9/11)

**Probability of Event**

**High**

**Low**

**Notes:**
1. Note that events are loosely ranked and may vary by community.  For example, in some urban settings, there may be more community violence.
2. Suicides: 3rd leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds

## Recovery: Four Key Components

- Physical/structural recovery
- Business recovery
- Restoration of academic learning
- Psychological/emotional recovery

## What is Physical/Structural Recovery?

*Purpose:* To restore facilities necessary to
- enable educational operations
- Key steps to take during Recovery phase:
- Ensure human safety at educational sites
- Assess physical/structural component (e.g., damage assessment response team)
- Assess transportation and food services
- Determine availability of equipment and supplies (e.g., books)
- Debrief and incorporate lessons learned around physical assets and vulnerabilities into emergency management planning

**Notes:**
1. Physical recovery has direct impacts on the finances of school districts.

## How Can Schools Prepare for Physical Recovery Efforts in Advance?

- Recognize that steps taken in the Prevention-Mitigation phases can lesson the need for physical Recovery in some areas
- Be familiar with potential funding sources after disasters
- Be aware of what documentation would be needed to secure reimbursement for damage from major incidents
- Pre-determine strategies/policies for receiving donations following various types of incidents

## How Can Schools Prepare for Physical Recovery Efforts in Advance?

- Consider the structures and departments that will be involved in physical recovery
- Coordinate with relevant district departments to discuss recovery plans (e.g., safety and security, facility management, risk management, budget office, transportation, food services, technology services, etc.)
- Create Damage Assessment Response Teams to conduct physical assessments following major events

## What is Business/Fiscal Recovery?

*Purpose:* To restore critical business functions within
- the school/district as soon as possible
- Key steps to take during Recovery phase:
- Implement the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and/or Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP):
**BCP—**Plans that identify systems needed to operate; and, incorporate mitigation efforts so that operations can be sustained following an emergency
**COOP—**COOP planning ensures that the capability exists to continue essential functions across a wide range of hazards.

**Notes:**
Depending on the scope of the emergency or crisis, there will be different business/fiscal implications for schools to address.
Some districts will call it BCP and some will call it COOP. Basically, it is the idea of ensuring there is a system in place to enable work to get down – to ensure people are paid, for example.
COOP planning objectives include:  ensuring continued performance of essential functions; reducing loss of life and minimizing damage; ensuring succession to office of key leaders; reducing or mitigating disruptions to operations; protective essential assets; achieving a timely recovery and reconstitution; maintaining a test, training, and exercise program for program validation. 
Following a crisis, staff will be concerned about their own homes/families. Have a system for ensuring they are able to tend to personal concerns, while still assisting in the school-wide Recovery as necessary.
To register out of district students, your district will need a system for transferring records, such as IEPs to the new school
A key consideration here is: How can school districts make student records electronic and transferable?
Some districts have arranged situations where payroll can be managed from off-site of the district business offices.

## What is Business/Fiscal Recovery?

- Key steps to take during Business Recovery:
- Restore district administrative functions
- Ensure staff are supported
- Set-up automatic payment system
- Institute a system to register out of district students, and to register students in new schools
- NOTE: The level of BCP activation will be
- determined by the scope and breadth of the
- emergency

**Notes:**
Depending on the scope of the emergency or crisis, there will be different business/fiscal implications for schools to address.
Some districts will call it BCP and some will call it COOP. Basically, it is the idea of ensuring there is a system in place to enable work to get down – to ensure people are paid, for example.
Following a crisis, staff will be concerned about their own homes/families. Have a system for ensuring they are able to tend to personal concerns, while still assisting in the school-wide Recovery as necessary.
To register out of district students, your district will need a system for transferring records, such as IEPs to the new school
A key consideration here is: How can school districts make student records electronic and transferable?
Some districts have arranged situations where payroll can be managed from off-site of the district business offices.

## How Can Schools Prepare for Business Recovery Efforts in Advance?

- Identify, in advance, who has responsibility for closing schools, or sending students/staff to alternate locations in the event of an emergency
- Identify who is responsible for restoring which business functions for schools/districts
- Identify succession plans for each major administrative function
- Ensure systems are in place for rapid contract execution of Business Continuity Plans (BCP) in the event of an emergency
- Practice activation of the BCP or COOP to test for gaps that need to be addressed in planning
- Consider options for continuing educational operations to minimize disruption to student learning

**Notes:**
Under “Logistics” in NIMS, schools should identify who is responsible for restoring various components of the educational system: food services, transportation services, administrative support, etc.
Pre-negotiated contracts can be very critical to ensuring business/facility/academic Recovery following an emergency.
Some school districts have experienced delays in their ability to award critical counseling or other services contracts because of cumbersome contracting procedures.

## What is Academic Recovery?

*Purpose:* To facilitate students’ return to learning;
- restore structure and routine
- Key Steps to ensuring academic Recovery:
- Quick decision making regarding changes to school/academic routines
- Brief administrators and staff on situation(s)
- Communicate with parents/guardians on events and next steps

**Notes:**
1. Key questions to consider here are: How do we develop services to support student’s academics during the recovery phase? And Is the school safe? Can it be inhabited? Are there teachers available to teach?

## Why Is Academics Considered in the Recovery Phase?

- Youth exposed to repeated violence and trauma have been shown to have:
- Lower grade point averages (Hurt et al., 2001)
- Decreased reading ability (Delaney-Black et al., 2003)*
- More reported absences from school (Hurt et al., 2001)
- Increased expulsions and suspensions (LAUSD survey)
- Decreased rates of high school graduation (Grogger,1997)
- Restoring, or maintaining, a routine is helpful for students throughout the Recovery process

- *Source: Delaney-Black, V., Covington, C., Ondersma, S.J., Nordstrom-Klee, B., Templin, T., Ager, J., Janisse, J., & Sokol, R.J. (2002). Violence exposure, trauma, and IQ and/or reading deficits among urban children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 156 (3), 280-285.

**Notes:**
Rand corp: Exposure to violence (trauma) lower gpa, more absences
Trauma disrupts schools.
Impacts academics, 

## How Can Schools Prepare for Academic Recovery Efforts in Advance?

- Determine, in advance, who has the ability to decide when schools will close and when they will resume following closure (linked to Business Recovery)
- In most cases, this decision will be made at the local level with input from appropriate State representatives
- Key questions to be considered include:
- Can the school remain open safely?
- Can the school routine be maintained?  Modified?
- Are academic materials needed/available if school closes?
- Decisions about length of closure will vary depending on the scope of the incident

## What is Psychological/Emotional Recovery?

*Purpose:* To promote coping and resiliency for
- students, staff, and their families following an
- emergency
- Key Steps to promoting Psychological/Emotional
- Recovery:
- Recognize that the type and breadth of an incident impacts Psychological/Emotional Recovery
- Consider needs and services available for both short- and long-term Psychological/Emotional Recovery
- Work with internal and external partners who can support Psychological/Emotional Recovery and provide needed services

## Why is Psychological/Emotional Recovery Important in the Short-Term and Long-Term?

- Traumatic stress is an acute distress response that is experienced after exposure to a catastrophic event
- Traumatic stress occurs because the event poses a serious threat to:
- The individual's life or physical integrity
- The life of a family member or close friend
- One's surrounding environment
- Individuals who have witnessed injury or death are also at risk to develop a trauma stress response
- There will be a small percentage of those impacted by serious events who will have longer term reactions

**Notes:**
Trauma is determined by: physical proximity, emotional proximity, similar previous experience, fragile personalities, and/or history of emotional disturbances
Trauma can effect students by causing:
Behavioral changes problems
Poor school performance
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Depression
Suicide
Remember: Violence and Trauma effect school performance
Lower GPA
More negative comments in record
Higher absenteeism

## How Can Schools Support Psychological/Emotional Recovery in the Short-Term?

- Identify circles of impact and provide triage:
- Triage is the process of identifying the immediate needs of students and staff, and ensuring referral to appropriate services
- Provide psychoeducation for families, students, and staff
- Consider psychological first aid
- Consider utilization of services for staff through district Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
- Leverage union resources available for teacher support
- Be aware of impacts of possible trauma history

**Notes:**
Providing support for staff, as well as students, is critical
2. Psychological First Aid (PFA) is an evidence-informed modular approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism
PFA is designed to:
Reduce the initial distress 
Foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning
PFA meets four basic standards:
Is consistent with research evidence on risk and resilience following trauma
Is applicable and practical in field/school settings
Is developmentally appropriate across the lifespan
Is culturally informed and adaptable
3. Schools may want to work with teachers’ unions or teachers’ advocacy groups to offer additional MH services support for teachers.
4. NOTE: EAPs may not have suitably qualified counselors – districts should research this issue in advance.

## How Can Schools Support Psychological/Emotional Recovery in the Short-Term?

- Promote coping and resiliency for students and staff and to assist with the healing process
- Make individual and group counseling available during the first week after an event
- Offer Intervention strategies and models as needed:
- Trauma and grief focused school-based mental health programs
- Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS)
- Short-term individual, group, and family interventions

## How Can Schools Support Psychological/Emotional Recovery in the Long-Term?

- Conduct ongoing assessment/monitoring of mental health of students and staff
- Monitor attendance, grades, and counselor’s visits
- Provide care for caregivers (compassion fatigue)
- Incorporate lessons learned from each event into future planning efforts
- Remember to reinforce ongoing prevention programs
- Be aware of 'key dates,' such as trials, anniversaries, and holidays
- Incorporate prevention programming into district programs

**Notes:**
Traumatic stress affects both victims and caregivers
Depending on the event/crisis, key dates may include: anniversaries, upcoming Hurricane seasons, upcoming trial dates, etc.
3. It is critical that there is a system in place to support self-care.

## How Can Schools Prepare for Psychological/ Emotional Recovery in Advance?

- Identify both internal and external partners
- Consider local mental health agencies who may be able to assist
- Develop a structure for support
- Be aware of issuesaround “outside” vs.“inside” help

**Notes:**
Schools should research in advance what community resources exist to provide assistance in case of a school-based crisis. 
Whenever possible develop MOUs with local MH partners or even nearby school districts to help develop your structure for MH support.
Some schools will be leery of bringing in “outside” MH support
One option is to bring in external counselors to provide additional training for school/district MH staff.

## How Can Schools Prepare for Psychological/ Emotional Recovery in Advance?

- Before an event occurs, schools should:
- Consider expertise for providing mental health services at the:
- School level
- District level
- Community level
- Outline partnership agreements with relevant local partners
- Identify a school/district employee to coordinate partnerships with the community—a liaison officer
- Develop a process for screening and registering volunteers
- Assemble and train Crisis Recovery Teams:
- District teams
- School-based teams

**Notes:**
Many of community MH partners already have systems in place for inventorying donations – take advantage of these systems.
Generate supporting invoices for all purchases made to support Recovery
Liaison officer may be a member of your MH Recovery team
Good qualities to look for in crisis team members include:
Understanding of school culture or mission
Ability to establish rapport quickly
Ability to maintain confidentiality
Ability to listen to difficult feelings/experiences of others
Awareness of limitations
Supplies will be available in the district already, but, will also be donated once an emergency occurs – be prepared to deal with them.

## How Can Schools Prepare for Psychological/ Emotional Recovery in Advance?

- Develop template letters (that can be tailored) for alerting parents, families, guardians, students, and staff to emergencies
- Pre-determine strategies for accepting contributions/donations following a death/incident
- Outline strategies for dealing with “empty chairs”
- Consider a district policy for memorials (be consistent across events)
- Ensure a process is in place for parental consent for receipt of mental health services should they be needed

**Notes:**
Schools need to develop protocols for determining when and how MH services will be delivered.
Schools need to also remember to always document everything they do regarding service provision for students and staff.

## How Can Schools Prepare for Psychological/ Emotional Recovery in Advance?

- To ensure that schools are prepared to deal with the Psychological/ Emotional Component of** **Recovery, schools should proactively:
- Identify and train appropriate staff to provide developmentally and culturally appropriate mental health services
- Train mental health staff on specific interventions
- Provide basic training on available resources and common reactions to trauma for all staff (including administrators)
- Provide specific information to all staff regarding the school’s referral system (e.g., inform teachers about who students can go to for support, and the referral systems available)
- Train teachers/staff on early warning signs and on how to work with parents/guardians

**Notes:**
We are not recommending that schools train teachers to be psychologists – rather, that we equip them with a basic understanding of signs they can look for regarding emotional distress and systems available to them for referring students who may be in need of assistance.
Parents/guardians will often turn to teachers following an emergency to ask them how they should engage their children – teachers need to be trained on what they can say to support parents during this time.

## Key Issues for the Recovery Phase

*Issue #1:* Opening or closing schools after a traumatic
- event
- Policy options should be considered and outlined in advance
- Considerations:
- How long should the school be closed?
- How can parents/guardians weigh in on decisions about school closures?
- Who has the ultimate decision-making power regarding school closure?
- How will the community be notified?
- Ultimate question—Will the children be better off in school, or out of school?

**Notes:**
Remember: returning to school is a critical step in the beginning the healing process. Schools should think carefully about recommending prolonged school closures because students need a sense of routine to begin to recover.
One strategy that has worked well for schools is to host a “community meeting” following an event. This allows parents/guardians to express their concerns and gives administrators an opportunity to sense the pulse of the school community – this can help in the decision-making process regarding reopening schools.
Another thing to consider is to keep data within your district about when/how long schools are closed so you can begin to track this issue.
Remember closing school as financial implications on your community – parents have to stay home with kids, etc.

## Key Issues for the Recovery Phase 

*Issue #2:* Memorials after a student or staff death
- Policies should be considered and outlined in advance
- Considerations:
- Memorials can be controversial
- Questions may arise about how/if policies should vary depending on the type of death
- Memorials in schools should not add
- 	to the suicide “contagion effect”
- A date for removing memorial items
- How memorials might reinforce ongoing prevention programming (i.e., scholarship funds, etc.)

**Notes:**
1. Each school/district will have to decide for itself how to handle the issues of memorials

## Key Issues for the Recovery Phase

*Issue #3:* How to handle key dates
- Policies should be considered and outlined in advance
- Considerations:
- Be cognizant of anniversary dates but do not dramatize them
- Watch for reactions around holidays, anniversaries, and/or trial dates
- Prepare a constructive message for anniversaries
- Make sure educators watch for risk behaviors

**Notes:**
1. Key dates may include anniversaries of deaths, upcoming hurricane seasons, trial dates, etc.

## Interactive Scenario

## Scenario

- You are a member of the emergency management team at YOUR school.
- It’s early morning.
- School has just begun for the day.
- One school bus is late arriving due to ice on the roads.

## Details of the Incident

- The bus has 26 students from the  middle and high schools on board (ages 10–17).
- As the bus arrives, the driver is unable to stop the bus. The bus skids and then crashes through the wall of the music room.  There are 25 students in the music room.
- Two students are killed and 19 students are injured—four of them severely.
- The bus driver was found to be intoxicated.

## What are the first three steps you would take as an emergency management team member?

## Which students and staff are most in need of counseling? 

## 
Physical/structural recovery?
Business recovery?
Restoration of academic learning?
Psychological/emotional recovery?

- Physical/structural recovery?
- Business recovery?
- Restoration of academic learning?
- Psychological/emotional recovery?
** **

- What types of services would facilitate the Recovery process in the primary four components of Recovery?

## Summary

- Successful Recovery from crisis events is based on the planning conducted in advance of an incident.
- Schools need to plan for the physical/structural, business, academic, and psychological/emotional  Recovery needs of the school facilities, students and staff.
- The types and breadth of Recovery activities needed will vary based on the size and scope of the crisis event.
- Successful Recovery efforts are contingent on strong community partnerships, development of policies and procedures, and training of staff.

## THANK YOU

**For More Information Contact:**
**Gregory Thomas**: gat2101@columbia.edu
**Kelly Streeter**: KELSKUP@aol.com
**ERCM TA Center**: 888-991-3726 or info@ercm.org