Dept. of Ed Guidance for Developing Campus Emergency Operations Plans
WASHINGTON – Here a guidelines from the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center released on how K-12 schools, institutions of higher education (IHE) and houses of worship can develop high-quality emergency operations plans.
“These guides align and build upon years of emergency planning work by the Federal government and are the first joint product of DHS, DOJ, ED and HHS on this critical topic,” the center said in a statement. “The guides are customized to each type of community, incorporate lessons learned from recent incidents, and respond to the needs and concerns voiced by stakeholders following the recent shootings in Newtown and Oak Creek and the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma. Schools, IHEs and houses of worship can use them to create new plans as well as to revise and update existing plans and align their emergency planning practices with those at the national, state, and local levels.”
In addition to the emergency management content, in the higher education document there appears to be new guidance concerning the Clery Act’s timely warning and emergency notification requirements, claims S. Daniel Carter, who is director of the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative for the VTV Family Outreach Foundation.
“It is noted, on page 49, for timely warnings that they must be ‘communicated to individuals with disabilities, including those who have hearing or vision disabilities, as effectively as they are to others,’” he says. “Further, on page 50 for emergency notifications, it is similarly noted that notification related information must be provided ‘to individuals with disabilities, including those with vision or hearing disabilities, as effectively as they are provided to others.’
“This appears consistent with the guide’s statement, made previously on page 24, that emergency operations plans ‘must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.’ That notation refers to ensuring ‘effective communication with individuals with disabilities (e.g., interpreters, captioning, and accessible information technology).’”
Read the guide for K-12 schools.
Read the guide for institutions of higher education.
Read the guide for houses of worship.
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