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Many thanks to Georgia Emergency Management Agency for their resources, assistance, and support in implementing this program in Alachua County. Table of contents Using the Template Page 2

Plan Sections Signature Page Page 4 Record of Revisions Page 5 Purpose and Scope Page 6 Situation and Overview Page 7 Concept of Operations Page 16 Direction, Control, & Coordination Page 23 Communications Page 26 Administration, Finance, and Logistics Page 28 Plan Review & Maintenance Page 29 Exercising the Plan P age 30 Appendices Page 32 Using the template

1. Why was this Emergency Operations Plan (EOP)

Template developed?

This EOP template was created by Alachua County Emergency Management (ACEM) to provide faith-based leaders with a tool to begin assessing the safety of the schools, preschools, or daycares run by their organizations and to serve as a foundation for emergency response planning.

2. Where can additional information be found about emergency planning for educational ministries?

Alachua County Emergency Management (ACEM) is ready to assist your house of worship in developing your educational ministry EOP. Please contact ACEM at (352) 264-6500 or [email protected] for more information or visit praiseandprepare.alachuacounty.us to learn more about preparedness.

3. How should this template be used?

This plan template was written to be customizable to fit the needs of any house of worship that chooses to use its content. Much of the information gathered for the house of worship emergency operations plan will be useful in creating this document. This template is designed to help you use the information already gathered to form an EOP that is specific to your school, preschool, or daycare. Depending on the size of your school, preschool, or daycare, this document may be an additional appendix in your house of worship EOP or may stand alone as a separate EOP. The template is an all-inclusive document written to be short and concise; it is organized for easy reference and not intended to overwhelm the individuals responsible for EOP development or implementation. Additionally, more detailed information can be found in the appendices. The plan developers are encouraged to add or delete information as is appropriate for their organization. It is expected that modifications will be made to the plan, supporting forms, and reference materials contained in the template. Throughout the plan, there are Tips, Notes, and Suggestions for plan developers that will be highlighted in yellow boxes (see example on page 3).

Generally, these tips, notes, and suggestions are pointing plan developers to supporting material in the corresponding appendices or making suggestions for plan developers to consider. When adapting this plan to meet your specific needs, it is expected that these yellow highlighted tips, notes, and suggestions will be deleted from the plan, unless the planning team determines they should be kept with appropriate modifications. In addition, there are several places throughout the plan indicating information to be filled in, like [insert name of your house of worship]. These gray prompts are intended to prompt plan developers to incorporate the information specific to their house of worship and to change the color to black.

4. Where is a good place to start the Educational Ministry Emergency Operations Planning process? Thinking about where to begin when developing an emergency operations plan can be a daunting task. However, if you have already completed your house of worship’s emergency operations plan, the task of creating an EOP for your educational ministry should be much easier. You will use the same process to develop this EOP as you did your house of worship EOP, but you have already gathered much of the necessary information. Many of the steps and planned responses will be the same for both EOPs. See the “Example – Tips, Notes, and Suggestions” on this page for information about completing a Facility Safety Assessment. See “How to Make a House of Worship Emergency Operations Plan”, provided in the Praise and Prepare Toolkit, for more detailed information on the planning process. This information can be used for planning both EOPs.

Signature page

The mission of [Insert name of your school, preschool, or daycare] is to [insert mission here]. To accomplish this mission, [Insert name of your school, preschool, or daycare] must strive to provide a safe and secure environment for all its attendees. This document provides an overview of how we plan to address an emergency or disaster that may interrupt our [Insert name of your school, preschool, or daycare] community.

This plan has been developed in accordance with guidance provided by:

 Alachua County Emergency Management

 [insert other entities or documents that guided your planning process]

This plan will be reviewed and updated annually by the Emergency Planning Committee.

______

(Name of School, Preschool, or Daycare)

______

(School, Preschool, or Daycare Leader Signature)

______

(Emergency Planning Committee Chair Signature) ______

(Date)

Record of revisions

Date of Update Section of Document Changes Made Updated Purpose & Scope

The purpose of this document is to outline the process for how [Insert name of your school, preschool, or daycare] will prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergency or disaster incidents. This document will cover:

 Facility Safety Assessments

 Educational Ministry Snapshots

 Potential Emergencies/Disasters

 Different Levels of Emergencies/Disasters

 Roles and Responsibilities

 Response Protocols

 Procedures for Specific Types of Emergency and Disaster Incidents

 Appendices with Additional Information Situational overview

Disasters and emergencies can strike any place at any time. An emergency or disaster could have devastating, long-lasting impacts on [Insert name of your school, preschool, or daycare], its students, and its staff. Impacts could include injury or loss of life; negative emotional or spiritual impact; damage or loss of the facility; damage or loss of equipment or furnishings; or loss of personal property. To mitigate the potential impacts on [Insert name of your school, preschool, or daycare], the [name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] developed this plan as a guide for how to address disaster or emergency situations that may impact the facility, the students, and the staff.

Assessment of Existing Operations

To develop an efficient and effective emergency response plan, [name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] began by:

[Explain your process – did you review the existing Facility Safety Assessment or did you need to create one specifically for the educational buildings? Regardless of which was required for your organization, include the completed Facility Safety Assessment in your appendix. A sample Facility Safety Assessment is included in Figure 1.0.] [Explain your use of the Educational Ministry Snapshot (Figure 2.0). This document should be used to provide an overview of your educational ministry and its regular participants – students, teachers, staff, etc.]

Figure 1.0: Facility Safety Assessment

The Facility Safety Assessment, available in the Praise & Prepare Toolkit, provides a thorough understanding of the facility’s strengths and weaknesses. Figure 2.0: Educational Ministry Snapshot

The Educational Ministry Snapshot, also provided in the Praise and Prepare Toolkit, gives the opportunity to accurately account for all students, teachers, and staff. Special Needs Populations

Each school, preschool, and daycare has a unique and diverse make-up. Some students may need more assistance during an emergency or disaster than others. Knowing who might be in this category before an event can save time and protect lives during an event. Some things to consider:  What students, teachers, or staff are present in your house of worship that may require additional assistance during an emergency? (Examples include: wheelchair bound or other mobility limitations, those with functional needs, hard of hearing, deaf, etc.)  What accommodations need to be made by your organization to better assist these individuals when they are on campus? (wheelchair accommodations, sign language interpreter, etc.)

Special needs in the [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] consist of: [list special needs populations in your organization – this could include specific disabilities as well as other known health conditions, allergies, etc.].

The special needs plan for the [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] is as follows: [list specific actions to be taken in day-to-day and large-scale emergencies to accommodate special needs individuals in your organization – designated office staff to assist teachers with special needs students to evacuate their classrooms, individuals designated to assist wheelchair bound students through accessible exits during an evacuation, etc.]

Threats and Hazards assessment

After assessing facility safety and reviewing the educational ministry snapshot, the [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] completed the situational overview by reviewing the threats and hazards determined by the [Name of house of worship leadership team].

[Each of the forms required for the threats and hazards assessments are included below. The threats and hazards will likely be the same for your organization as for the house of worship. Another assessment may be completed if other threats or hazards are present only for your school, preschool, or daycare. However, if no additional threats or hazards are present, insert the house of worship’s assessments here. If an assessment is required for your school, see the House of Worship Emergency Operations Plan Template for details on Threat and Hazards planning and assessment.]

Table 1.0: Potential Threats and Hazards

Day-to-Day Natural Technological Human-Caused Disturbances Most likely to happen during Resulting from acts of Involves accidents or Caused by the regular operating nature the failure of systems intentional actions hours (i.e. Sunday and structures of an adversary Services, weekly office hours)  Fires  Flooding  Hazardous  Missing Child  Internal Power  Severe weather Materials (kidnapping) Outages  Thunderstorms Release  Domestic  Unintentional  Severe winter  Utilities Failure Violence Equipment weather  Transportation  Organized Failure  Hurricanes Incidents Terrorism  Congregant  Tornadoes  Structural Attack Health  Wildfires Collapse  Civil Challenges  Wind  Radiological Disturbance  Unintentional  Sinkholes Release  Cyber Attack Emergencies  Droughts  Explosion or  Active that suddenly accidental Shooter make the releases from  Chemical facility industrial plants Agent Attack uninhabitable  Biological Attack

Table 2.0: Specific Threats and Hazards Asset assessment

[The asset assessment may have been completed in the House of Worship Emergency Operations Plan or it may need to be completed specifically for your educational ministry. This section outlines the steps in the event an asset assessment needs to be completed. If the assessment was completed by the house of worship planning team, insert the assets related to the educational ministry in this section.] The [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] also completed an asset review to determine what assets are available within the school, preschool, or daycare to prepare for, respond to, and recover from an emergency or disaster situation. This includes physical and financial assets (Tables 3.0). This review also considers assets that would need to be protected or removed from the facility in an emergency situation (Table 4.0).

[Figure 3.0 does not apply to schools, preschools, and daycares and has been removed from this template.]

Table 3.0: Response/Recovery Assets This table can be used to identify assets that could be used in the response and recovery of [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare ] following a disaster or emergency. Table 4.0: Response/Recovery Assets This table can be used to identify assets that would need to be relocated and/or protected in the event of an impending disaster or emergency (student records, financial records, insurance documents, etc.) Concept of Operations

Once the [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] finished the situational overview, the next step was to outline operational procedures. The [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] began developing the operations protocol by breaking down the responsibility of each participant in the emergency response process and outlining response protocols. This section of the plan covers roles and responsibilities, response protocols and plan activation.

Roles and Responsibilities

Identification of roles and responsibilities proved to be a critical step in plan development for the [Name of your school, preschool, or daycare leadership team]. This section will cover the different team and individual roles of the various participants on the [school, preschool, or daycare emergency planning team]. It will cover all applicable responsibilities, including:

[insert roles-school, preschool, or daycare leadership team, office staff (paid or volunteer), teachers, teaching assistants, the emergency management team lead (the incident coordinator), the medical response liaison(or team), the crisis counseling liaison (or team), the media liaison (or team), parent liaison(or team), the finance liaison (or team), and/or the building/facility coordinator].

The [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] recognizes that roles and responsibilities will be based on the scale of the emergency or disaster. A smaller, more internalized emergency will most likely be handled by the leadership team and the regular staff members (paid or volunteer), while a larger event necessitating the need for coordination with external stakeholders will most likely require the emergency management team lead to coordinate response efforts.

Educational Ministry Leadership Team

The Educational Ministry Leadership Team consists of [name or position of head of the establishment] as well as the designated leaders of [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare]. These leaders include: [list out leadership positions/titles identified-principal, vice principal, school director, etc.].

[Name of head of the establishment] has designated [insert position name or person] to act as the on-site emergency coordinator. The [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] is responsible for:  Training a small group of staff and/or educational ministry leaders in basic emergency action.  Creating a roster and schedule of regular activities and taking rosters with them if an evacuation is required [These rosters and schedules should include when classes or students are outside of their regular classroom for extracurricular activities – ex. Art class, recess, lunch, etc.]  Keeping parents and response agencies informed of emergency plans and revisions.

 Assigning roles of the emergency management team.

 Utilizing present communication capabilities and integrating future capabilities into the emergency plan.

 Identifying a specific evacuation meeting location on campus and off campus for students and visitors required to leave the building.

 Executing periodic safety checks.

 Designating a staff member to notify family members of the injured or to work with emergency personnel to notify family members when necessary.

 Designating someone to assist with identifying the injured and deceased.

 Designating sufficient personnel to handle phones.

 Developing a strategy for post-crisis orientation for staff and student body, where appropriate. The post-crisis orientation will allow staff and students to debrief and get an understanding of what occurred with the event.

 Having a roster with the names of students and teachers who are off campus at [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] related activities.

 Convening the emergency management team.

 Reviewing plans for on-campus and off-campus emergencies.

 Making notifications to the community about cancellation and re-start of classes.

 Conducting drills and making emergency operations plan revisions based on drills.

The staff at [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] consists of: [list different staff positions – paid staff, volunteers, volunteer coordinators, office administrators, etc.]

Staff participation during a day-to-day emergency response will be coordinated through the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team]. Staff will be responsible for:

 Participating in the development of the EOP and being familiar with all aspects of the plan.  Executing duties as outlined in the EOP.  Keeping the emergency management team lead informed of day-to-day emergency incidents.  Being familiar with all avenues of exit in each building.  Securing their classroom or office before exiting the building.  Accounting for all students under their supervision during the crisis.  Reporting to the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] any missing or injured students or teachers.  Following a prearranged plan of transportation and supervision to appropriate shelters.  Teaching emergency/disaster awareness and preparedness by incorporating these materials into existing curriculum.

Teachers and Teaching Assistants

Teachers and teaching assistants consist of: [List teachers by grade level. Be sure to include extracurricular teachers and teaching aids, such as music teachers, art teachers, PE teachers, etc.]

Teachers and teaching assistants are the main line of protection for students under their care. Therefore their main responsibilities are to student well-being as well as their own personal well-being. These responsibilities include:  Participating in EOP development and review to ensure all aspects of classroom management during emergencies are discussed.  Evacuating classrooms and students when required by emergency situations.  Maintaining an easy to access roster of classroom attendance. The teacher should take this with him/her in the event of an evacuation.  Incorporating preparation material into regular classroom curriculum.  Inviting parents to participate in classroom or school-wide exercises or drills.

Emergency Management Team

In addition to the educational ministry leadership team, the staff designated to support the leadership team, and the teachers and teaching assistants, [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] has also developed an emergency management team. This consists of specific positions activated during an emergency response effort that warrants additional coordination and is beyond the capacity of the educational ministry leadership team and the support staff. The [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] emergency management team consists of the following positions:

[insert position titles- emergency management team lead/incident coordinator, the building coordinator, the medical response liaison, the crisis counseling liaison, the media liaison, the parent liaison, and the finance liaison].

When activated, the emergency management team responsibilities include:

Emergency Management Team Lead (Incident Coordinator)

 Serves as Incident Coordinator

 Briefs [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] on incident specifics and response operations.

 Immediately identifies themselves as the emergency management team lead to the appropriate public safety personnel responding to the incident.

 Remains in close proximity to the incident location (at the facility or as close as possible).

 Coordinates the emergency response effort.

 Ensures that necessary notifications are made.  Acts as a liaison between the [insert name of school, preschool,

or daycare] and public safety personnel.

 Coordinates with all response participants including local

fire, police, medical response personnel, etc.

 Ensures that all team members are assigned duties and

understand all emergency procedures.

 Works with emergency response team members to evaluate

the emergency.

 Ensures proper emergency communication.

 Delegates needed emergency actions.

 Is prepared to assist emergency responders in crowd control and building evacuation, if requested.

Building Coordinator (Facility Coordinator) [This position will likely be filled by the same individual as the house of worship building/facility coordinator.]

 Is familiar with the floor plans of each building and the emergency evacuation procedures for any emergency – medical, fire, tornado, etc.

 Provides status reports and briefings to the emergency management team lead.

 Coordinates with the emergency management team lead and the local emergency agency/agencies on evacuations and other emergency actions.

 Serves as a lead on emergency planning activities and works closely with the emergency management team lead on emergency response coordination.

 Assists with recruiting emergency management team members.

 Schedules trainings for the emergency management team.

 Communicates ongoing and evolving emergency response plans.

Medical Response Liaison [This position will likely be filled by the school nurse, if such a position exists in your organization.]  Provides emergency first aid and assistance, according to their training, until medical assistance arrives.

 Immediately identifies themselves as the medical response liaison to any personnel responding to the incident.

 Assists in triage activities.

 Conducts a primary assessment of the medical emergencies and reports this assessment to appropriate personnel.

Safety Response Liaison (or team) [For smaller schools and houses of worship, this position could be filled by the same individual as the house of worship safety response liaison. For larger schools and houses of worship, a separate person may need to fill the position.]

 Evacuates assigned building or section and is responsible for reporting to the incident coordinator that their

assigned section has been cleared during an evacuation.

 Immediately identifies themselves as the safety response liaison to any personnel responding to the incident.

 Helps to implement and announce lock down procedures in their assigned section(s).

 Performs other intervention procedures as the situation dictates

 Works in coordination with the building maintenance to minimize hazards.

 Maintains hand-held radios to coordinate with emergency management team lead and other team members, if available and as appropriate.

Crisis Counseling Liaison [This position will likely be filled by the school guidance counselor, if such a position exists in your organization.]

 Assesses the need for onsite mental health support.

 Determines if there is a need for outside agency assistance.

 Provides onsite intervention/counseling, according to their training and qualifications.  Manages the well-being of those from the [school, preschool, or daycare] that are responding to the incident, students, and staff, and reports it to the [insert name of head of the establishment].

Media Liaison [This position will likely be filled by a school official or leader.]

 Works with the [insert school, preschool, or daycare leadership team name] to develop strategies for addressing media inquiries.

 Meets the media and communicates a consistent message to be delivered to the community.

 Coordinates and advises on the preparation of news statement and arranges interviews.

Parent Liaison

 Serves as a liaison between parents and the [insert name of the school, daycare, or preschool leadership team]

 Coordinates response to parents who may arrive at the educational ministry with inquiries about the incident and the well-being of the children involved.

 Advises parents of the situation and advises them if

their child was involved in the emergency.

 Assists those who wish to take their child home after the

emergency has been cleared.

Finance Liaison

 Tracks resources that may be needed to help the house of

worship and/or congregants respond to and recover from the

event.

 Tracks the source (who or where the resource came from) and the use of resources (who used/is planning to use the resources).

 Works with the house of worship to determine expenses and needs for response and recovery, when the house of worship and the educational ministry operate under different financing and/or budgets. [When these function under the same department, this person will be the same as the house of worship finance liaison.]

 Maintains record keeping for possible reimbursement by insurance agencies or government entities.

Response protocols

This section outlines [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] specific emergency response protocols including: [insert applicable response protocols for your school, preschool, or daycare- closings, emergency procedures, evacuation protocol, family reunification protocol, media protocol, communication equipment protocol, etc. Refer to your house of worship’s “Response Protocols” section, as many of these will likely be the same.].

Closings

[Insert school, preschool, or daycare closing procedures and methods for communicating these closings to the students, parents, and teachers. Include who will make this decision.]

Emergency Procedures

Emergency procedures explain how the [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will respond during [insert applicable emergency procedures -normal operations, operations during impending severe weather, operations during a heightened state of security requiring preventative lockdown, operations during a heightened state of security that requires evacuations, operations during a crisis response protocol, and procedures for returning to normal operations, etc.].

The [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] will be the main authority to initiate building lockdown or evacuations. The [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] will designate several key personnel who are authorized to make such decisions. All designees will be made aware of their responsibility and the scope of their authority to act. This section outlines procedures to be performed by the designated individuals when deemed appropriate. Designated individuals will be relieved of such responsibility upon the arrival of the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] or local emergency responders.

[Refer to the house of worship EOP for guidance on this section. It is very likely that this section will match the house of worship’s response protocols. Use each protocol specific section to identify what protocol steps may be different or in addition to the house of worship’s responses. Also be sure to list who is responsible for each step that might vary from or be in addition to the house of worship’s EOP.]

Direction, control, and Coordination

This section describes the framework for all direction, control, and coordination activities. It explains who provides overall direction, control, and coordination of an incident and which staff are responsible for supporting the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team]. This section describes the chain of command used by [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] for: 1. Day-to-day operations 2. Large-scale emergencies

Figure 4.0: Day-to-Day Operations Emergency Coordination Structure Figure 5.0: Large-Scale Emergency Coordination Structure

communications

After establishing operational procedures and determining the flow of direction, control, and coordination, the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] also reviewed methods of communication.

Information Collection and Dissemination

[This section will likely be similar to the house of worship’s Information Collection and Dissemination sections. Please review the house of worship EOP. Use this section to note any changes that would be implemented in the educational ministry plan to collect and disseminate information.]

Contact with Students or Staff

When direct and prompt communications with students and staff is necessary, the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] will initiate the established chain of communication for general notification. Figure 6.0 should be used to create an emergency phone tree. A physical copy of student and staff contact information can be found [state location of contact information – with insurance, student records, and other important documents; in appendix of this plan; etc.].

The following protocol should be followed for sharing information via the emergency phone tree. Phone tree leaders should be aware of this protocol in order for clear and accurate information to be disseminated:

1. The person at the top will start the notification process. It may be helpful to have a brief script prepared with space available for event specific information. 2. Ask the contacted person to write down the specific information rather than conveying the information from memory. 3. Give facts about the event. 4. Be sure to have alternative phone numbers in order to reach someone who is out of the home or office. 5. If no one answers, leave a message and try using the alternate method of contact. If contact is still not made, contact the rest of your list, as well as those assigned to the person who did not answer. This should ensure that everyone gets the information in a timely fashion. 6. Confirm that each person will make contact with the next person(s) on the chart.

7. Prearrange with individuals at the end of the list to contact the person at the top once they receive the message. The LAST person on the notification chart should CONTACT THE FIRST person to ensure that the chart is completed and that the message was accurate.

Figure 6.0: Emergency Phone Tree This figure should be used to create an emergency phone tree for your educational ministry. Separate phone trees can be created for contact with parents, contact with staff, etc., based on the needs of your organization.

Administration, Finance, And logistics

In the event of an emergency or disaster incident at [name of school, preschool, or daycare], the [school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] will be responsible for identifying additional resources to meet the needs. This section covers general support requirements and the availability of services and support for all types of incidents, as well as general policies for managing resources. This section also identifies and references policies and procedures that exist outside of this plan.

[The presence of this section in your school, preschool, or daycare EOP is dependent on if your organization’s finances are separate from that of the house of worship. This section should be detailed if your organization is under a different budget or financial system. If it is the same system, however, this section can be reduced, only listing differences between the two plans, or eliminated. If it is reduced or eliminated, the house of worship EOP should be referenced as the main source of information for this section.]

This section outlines each action regarding the administration and management of an emergency or disaster at [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare]:  The [finance liaison] will be the individual in charge of administrative responsibilities and requirements that will be used to provide accountability for finances and resources that are used.

 The [insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will use [indicate method for tracking key activities, i.e. word, excel, a scanner, etc.] as the method by which accurate logs of key activities will be maintained. (Examples of activities to be recorded include when a lockdown, evacuation, or reunification protocol goes into effect; when a message goes out to the community about the event that occurred; when the last child is picked up from the reunification site; etc.)

 [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will use [indicate method for maintaining vital records, i.e. database, QuickBooks access, hard copies stored in predetermined location etc.] as the method for maintaining vital records.

 [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will use the following

sources [insert type of sources here, i.e. insurance, emergency fund,

etc.] for replacement of assets.

 [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will use the following

methods for keeping financial records: tracking resource needs;

tracking the source and use of resources; acquiring ownership of

resources; etc.

Plan review and Maintenance

The [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] shall approve this plan and review the Facility Safety Assessment, the Educational Ministry Snapshot,the Asset Assessment, and this emergency plan [insert how often: quarterly, annually, etc] and present for formal approval to the [head of the establishment].

Before formal approval is given, this plan shall be shared with [insert other key leaders or figures that should review the EOP, i.e. key team members, stakeholders, teachers, etc.] for review.

The [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] shall submit the plan for review to outside entities. These include: [list other entities that will review the plan – local emergency management coordinator, denominational association, etc.] Exercising the plan

The [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] will practice this plan [insert how frequently the plan will be exercised: quarterly, annually, every two years] to ensure all stakeholders are aware of the plan and understand their role. The [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] may choose from several different types of exercises to practice the emergency operations plan. Below are descriptions of the different types of exercises the [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] may choose to conduct:  Tabletop exercises are small group discussions that walk through a scenario and the courses of action a house of worship will need to take before, during, and after an incident. This activity helps assess the plan and resources and facilitates an understanding of emergency management and planning concepts.

 Drills involve testing one aspect of the plan. Examples of drills include: practicing an evacuations, implementing a lockdown protocol, or sending a test message through the phone tree.

 In functional exercises, leaders and participants react to a realistic, simulated events (ex: a bomb threat or an intruder with a gun), and implement the plan. However, this does not include outside entities.

 Full-scale exercises are the most time-consuming activity in the exercise continuum and are multiagency efforts in which resources are deployed. This type of exercise tests collaboration among the agencies and participants, public information systems, communications systems, and equipment. An emergency operations center is established (usually by the local emergency management agency) and the Incident Command System is activated.

[Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will make a decision about how many and which types of exercises to conduct after consideration of the costs and benefits. [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare] will also consider having representative(s) participate in larger community exercises to ensure that efforts are synchronized with the entire community’s efforts.

The [Insert name of school, preschool, or daycare leadership team] will take the following steps to conduct the exercises effectively:  Include local emergency management officials and community partners  Communicate information in advance to avoid confusion and

concern

 Exercise under different and non-ideal conditions (ex: time of

day, inclement weather, etc.)

 Debrief and develop an after-action report that evaluates results, identifies gaps or shortfalls, and documents lessons learned

 Discuss how the plan and procedures will be modified, when necessary, and specify who has the responsibility for modifying the plan. Appendices

[Appendices should only be created if this educational ministry EOP is a separate document. If this is an appendix to a house of worship EOP, the house of worship’s appendices will also apply to the educational ministry information.]

[Include appendices as appropriate for your school, preschool, or daycare. The following are potential appendices to develop and include. Templates for Appendices A-C have been created as part of the house of worship EOP. They are likely the same procedures that will be used by your education ministry, but can be modified to fit your needs. Informational appendices that include results from the Facility Safety Assessment, Educational Ministry Snapshot, etc., should be included if this is a separate EOP document and should contain the original assessments and reports. Other appendices should be developed based on your school, preschool, or daycare needs.]

Sample Appendices  Appendix A: Natural Disasters  Appendix B: Human-caused Disasters  Appendix C: Accidents Other Potential Appendices  Facility Safety Assessment  Educational Ministry Snapshot  Special Needs Population List  Completed Asset Assessment

 Drill Checklist

 Bomb Threat Checklist

 Transportation & Trips

 Day-to-Day Operations Emergency Operations Coordination

 Example Large-Scale Emergency Coordination

 Fire Exit Routes & Evacuation Assembly Areas

 Emergency & Medical Equipment Location Plan

 Communications Plan

 Membership Care Plan

 Awareness, Education, and Training Plan

 Exercise and Drill Plan