Are Schools Ready If Disaster Strikes?
A government report looks at gaps in school district emergency management plans.
May 17, 2007 — -- There are 17,000 school districts and 49 million public school students — but will they be protected in case of an emergency or natural disaster?
A new government report presented to the House Homeland Security Committee in a Thursday hearing on the issue of school emergency preparedness raises some questions about the districts' emergency procedures.
The Government Accountability Office's Cornelia Ashby noted, in a prepared statement, that even though many districts have developed such plans, "in many districts, these plans, or their implementation, do not align with federally recommended practices."
Some of those practices include incorporating special needs students into the plan and coordinating with local law enforcement and first responders.
"Parents will forgive educators, legislators and others they have entrusted their children's educational direction to if their children's test scores go down for a year," school safety expert Kenneth Trump said in a statement prepared for the committee.
"They are much less forgiving if something happens to their children that could have been prevented or better managed when it could not be avoided," he continued.
There is no federal law requiring school districts to create and maintain emergency management plans, though GAO findings say 32 states report having laws or policies in place that require districts to do so.
The report says less than half of districts with emergency management plans bring the "local head of government" or the "local public health agency" into the fold when updating plans, a move the federal government recommends.
Just over half — 52 percent — of all school districts with the plans, reported to GAO researchers that they update those plans regularly — at least once a year — which shows that almost half do not re-evaluate the plans often. And 10 percent of districts report that they've never updated their plans.
The report says school officials indicate that communicating with students is not usually an issue, but reaching out to parents and coordinating with first responders can be challenging.
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