Response | The Office of School Safety

Guidance for Postcrisis Family Reunification

After a crisis, students should be reunited with their primary caregivers and families as soon as practically possible. Reestablishing social support is one of the oldest and most powerful interventions for reducing risk of traumatic stress. This new NASP member resource details what districts and schools should consider when developing its goals, objectives, and courses of action in relation to reunification.

Colorado School Safety Resource Center Response Materials

A Media Guide on the Reporting of School Tragedies

Created by the Colorado School Safety Resource Center in October 2014
This guide summarizes the copycat effect that media coverage can have on suicides and school shootings. Tips for covering school tragedies responsibly are presented.

Response: Emergency Actions for K-12 Schools (CSSRC: Updated)

As part of a collaborative work group effort, and recently approved by the advisory board of the CSSRC, it is recommended that K-12 schools have protocols for five basic emergency actions to help ensure safety of all individuals on school site in the event of an actual emergency or for various crisis situations: lockdown, lockout (secured building), shelter-in-place (including weather shelter), evacuation, and a protocol for release and reunification of students to reunite them with parents/caregivers after an event.
The document is intended as guidance to Colorado schools and recommends consultation and development of protocols with community emergency responders, customizing procedures as needed for individual school sites and developing plans for students and staff with special needs. In addition, key messages include that all staff and students be trained through drill and practice, parents informed of protocols, and that schools review plans after all drills and actual events.

Colorado Department of Education

Parental Notification - HB18-1269

HB18-1269 (now C.R.S. § 22-1-130), requires local education providers to notify parents if an employee or former employee is charged with certain felony offenses. The time, place and manner of those notifications are spelled out in the new law, and may require policy changes in your school or district. The CSSRC convened a multidisciplinary workgroup last winter to address similar issues, and created a toolkit with sample letters to provide guidance. The legislation passed after the workgroup had disbanded, but the toolkit was updated to reflect the changes.
Toolkit: Parental Notification Recommendations for School Districts Pertaining to the Arrest of a Staff Member for the Sexual Exploitation of a Child (PDF)
CDE has posted instructions for schools to follow when employees have been charged with crimes.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Emergency Preparedness and Response
- The CDC Emergency Preparedness and Response website is CDC's primary source of information and resources for preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. This site continues to keep the public informed about public health emergencies and provides the information needed to protect and save lives.
- Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication (CERC)
  - Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (Manual): Second Edition 2014
  - Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication is an approach to communicating effectively during emergencies. These principles are used by public health professionals and public information officers to provide information that helps individuals, stakeholders, and entire communities make the best possible decisions for themselves and their loved ones. CERC recognizes that during emergencies, we work under impossible time constraints and must accept the imperfect nature of our choices. CERC draws from lessons learned during public health emergencies and research in the fields of public health and emergency risk communication.
  - The CERC program consists of: training, resources and shared learning.
- Learn How to Shelter in Place at School
Guidelines for the Field Triage of Injured Patients
- Part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Injury Prevention and Control
- Contains links for online courses, fact sheets, posters, and other tools to help decide how to handle injured people.

Colorado Department of Public Safety

2015 - Reference Guide for School Personnel Concerning Juveniles Who Have Committed Sexually Abusive and Offending Behavior
- Created by the Department of Public Safety and the Colorado Department of Education in collaboration with school districts and law enforcement and human services agencies, the Guide is designed to provide information to school administrators, teachers, and other staff regarding the supervision of juveniles who have committed sexual offenses. The document provides best practice guidelines related to the responsibilities of the school administration in developing a safe and inclusive environment and school community.

SAMHSA Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Traumatic Stress and Suicide After Disasters Supplemental Research Bulletin
- This issue highlights recent research on disasters and their relationship to traumatic stress, suicide rates, and suicidal ideation, planning, and attempts. It examines how rates of suicide, and suicidal thinking and behaviors, have changed - or not - following disasters both natural and human caused. The bulletin covers post-disaster traumatic stress and related conditions.
Disaster Response Template Toolkit features public education materials that disaster behavioral health response programs can use to create resources for reaching people affected by a disaster. The Template Toolkit includes print, website, audio, video, and multimedia materials that disaster behavioral health response programs can use to provide outreach, psycho-education, and recovery news for disaster survivors. Many of the links contain sample materials and online tools that have been used in previous disaster situations across the country. The templates can also be adapted for future use as desired.

I Love U Guys Foundation

Standard Response Protocol (I Love U Guys Foundation)
- This website provides a training guide, PowerPoint presentations, workbook and other on-line materials free of charge to Districts, Departments and Agencies to assist in a uniform classroom response to incidents at school.

Los Angeles Unified School District

Elementary School Lockdown: One School's Success Story
- This video was created by the Los Angeles Unified School District as a lockdown training video. Watch it to learn how a busy elementary school prepares and coordinates their lockdown procedures.
- Remember to check with your district and school for specific procedures that apply in your district.
Triage for Teachers: Sorting the Victims Training
- In this video, created by the Los Angeles Unified School District, non-medical personnel can learn how to sort and categorize wounded victims during an emergency. If time is short, you may skip to minute 6 in the video to bypass the scenario and proceed directly to the triage procedures.
- Be sure to check with your district and school for specific procedures because this video was made in California for a specific district.

National Association of School Psychologists

National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)

NCTSN Resources
- The NCTSN offers both online and in-person training on a range of topics. All the resources on child trauma were developed by the NCTSN. Raising public awareness about the scope and serious impact of child traumatic stress is central to raising the standard of care and increasing access to quality services for traumatized children and their families.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

The National Center for Missing &, Exploited Children opened in 1984 to serve as the nation's clearinghouse on issues related to missing and sexually exploited children. Today NCMEC is authorized by Congress to perform 19 programs and services to assist law enforcement, families and the professionals who serve them.
National Emergency Child Locator Center (NECLC)
- The National Emergency Child Locator Center is operated by NCMEC and activated during Presidentially-declared disasters. Its mission is to assist in reunifying children separated from their parents or legal guardians in the aftermath of a disaster.
Unaccompanied Minors Registry (UMR)
- The UMR serves as a centralized and protected database where information pertaining to unaccompanied minors can be stored. It supports the ability to collect, store, report, and act on information related to children missing or lost as a result of a disaster.
Captured on Film: Survivors of Child Sex Abuse Material Are Stuck in a Unique Cycle of Trauma
- Survivors of child sexual abuse material live with the debilitating fear the photos and videos memorializing their sexual abuse as a child and shared on the internet will forever remain online for anyone to see.

Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center

The REMS Technical Assistance Center's primary goal is to support schools and school districts in emergency management, including the development and implementation of comprehensive emergency and crisis response plans. The Center disseminates information about emergency management to help school districts learn more about developing, implementing, and evaluating crisis plans.

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Responding to a Crisis at School
- This supportive document for schools was created in 2008 by the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA.

U.S. Department of Education

Bomb Threat Guide and Software
- An interactive CD-Rom planning tool for schools created by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Free CD-Rom Order link (for Education and Law Enforcement personnel only)

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Role of First Responders in Child Maltreatment Cases: Disaster and Nondisaster Situations
- Created in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Using Social Media for Enhanced Situational Awareness and Decision Support: Virtual Social Media Working Group and DHS First Responders Group (Published - June 2014)

U.S. Department of Justice

Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) - the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services is the office of the U.S. Department of Justice that advances the practice of community policing in America's state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.