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575 School Safety: Crisis Planning
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575 School Safety: Crisis Planning

Roles and Responsibilities

How will the school operate during a crisis? Create an organizational system. In other words, define what will happen, when, and at whose direction.

Security guard speaking on a walkie-talkie.
It is important to figure out the best way to communicate during a crisis.

School staff should be assigned the following roles: (See Sample Roles and Responsibilities)

  • School Incident Commander (Principal or Site Administrator)
  • District Public Information Officer
  • Liaison to Emergency Responder (Asst Principal, Security, Office Staff)
  • School Safety/Security Coordinator (SRO, Security or Designee)
  • Operations Team Leader (Asst. Principal, Social Worker, Counselor)
  • Student Care and Recovery Coordinator (Mental Health Staff)
  • Student Supervision Coordinator (Asst. Principal, Dean, Security, Teacher)
  • Emergency Medical Coordinator (Nurse)
  • Student and Parent Reunion Coordinator (Office Staff)
  • Logistics Team Leader/Team (Asst. Principal, Building Engineer, Office Staff)
  • Finance Leader (Office Manager)

Planning

During the planning process, administrators need to assign both individuals and backups to fill the above roles. Also, if the district has not appointed a public information officer (PIO), it should do so right away. Larger school districts have staff who are only dedicated to this function. However, small districts use the superintendent, school security officers, or principal as their PIO.

Communication

Make sure you address how to get crisis information out in the most effective way to those who are directly or indirectly involved. One of the first steps for communication is to develop a mechanism to notify students and staff that an incident is occurring and then to instruct them on what to do. It is also important to determine how to best give information to them by using codes for evacuation and lockdown.

Figure out the best way to communicate with families, community members, and the media during a crisis. You may want to write template letters and press releases in advance. This will prevent staff members from doing this during the chaos and confusion of a crisis.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

3-4. During the crisis planning process, administrators need to make sure each crisis team member _____.

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