Safe Schools Planning Templates

In 2001, Safe Havens International analysts developed a set of emergency operations planning templates for use by the more than 4,000 Boys and Girls Clubs of America world wide.  These templates were so well received, Safe Havens decided to create similar templates for K-12 schools.  The templates are now licensed for use by more than 8,000 American K-12 schools as well as by dozens of colleges, universities and technical college.  Safe Havens is proud that the templates have been selected for use state wide in two states to date. 

While the templates in no way replace the extensive planning process that schools must do themselves to properly prepare for any incident, they can help by reducing the number of hours needed to develop the document by providing a framework to work with and sample protocols to give planning team members a starting point. We find that many schools fall into the trap of either having their plans written for them by an outside consultant with too little input from the school or buying a "plan in the can" that they can insert their district name into and claim as their own with little or no actual development or input. The Safe Havens templates allow schools to develop their plans internally while resisting the tempation to take an easy but irresponsible route.

The Indiana School Safety Specialists Academy, part of the Indiana Department of Education, adopted the templates for use by public and private schools throughout the state. As part of this licensing, Safe Havens staff provided three two-day train the trainer sessions to 300 Certified School Safety Specialists throughout Indiana who are not only trained to use the templates, but to conduct tactical site surveys of school facilities and to develop, coordinate and evaluate drills and exercises using the exercise package provided in the templates.  Those who completed the training are also licensed to teach the Safe Havens Tactical Site Survey Training program in Indiana.  Clarissa Snapp, the Director of the Academy, and her staff report very positive feedback in the program.

After the success of the Indiana program, the Wisconsin Homeland Security Council in partnership with the Wisconsin Technical College Foundation licensed the templates and train the trainer program for all K-14 schools, colleges, universities and technical colleges in the state of Wisconsin.  Seven two-day conferences are being held around the state of Wisconsin to train 700 instructors and twenty master instructors in the use of the templates and the delivery of the Tactical Site Survey training program. In addition, each attendee receives a CD-ROM with the templates and several other documents and PowerPoint presentations to assist them in the planning process, and lifetime updates are provided via a password-protected website.

Safe Havens analysts are now nearing the completion of the development phase of ready reference flip chart templates for school nutrition personnel and school resource officers to augment the current templates for faculty & staff, administrators & crisis team members, bus drivers & route supervisors and after-hours events staff.  Safe Havens is also currently translating several of the templates into Spanish and is considering the development of a version of the templates in Vietnamese due to the response to the July presentation by Michael and Chris Dorn in Ho Chi Minh City.

For a free sample and more information on the templates, click here, and our Free Resources page features a few resources pertaining to the Tactical Site Survey Process, which is part of the templates and the planning process. For licensing and pricing information please contact us today.   

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