Educational leaders have to be prepared for emergencies and know how to work with the emergency responders that will be coming to the school. As a paramedic with over 23 years of experience and experience planning and running major emergencies, and 10 years as an educator, I've seen school leaders who are well prepared for emergencies, and others that have had no training and no real idea what to do.

Districts need to work with the local fire, police and EMS agencies when planning for emergencies and should also work with state and regional emergency managers. Last year, we had the city's emergency management director speak to the faculty about some basic emergency issues and the police discussed active shooter responses. This is a start.

All staff need to have some basic emergency training. All administrators need to have training beyond that. Incident Command, Emergency Planning, and more are all needed. CPR, AED and basic First Aid should be taught to every staff member in your district.


Here are some free resources for preparing your school and staff for emergencies.


US Department of Education - Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools - Emergency Planning page

US Department of Homeland Security - School Safety Planning

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - Independent Study Program (free, online courses)
(this program is used by first responders (EMS, Fire, and Police also). I've taken over 25 courses on this program and found them to be very informative and well done. There are plenty of materials to download for future reference also.

Courses for educators and educational leaders:

• IS-100 SCa - Introduction to the Incident Command System for Schools - all educational leaders should take this course, especially building principals and assistant principals. All emergency responders in the US must take this course. ICS is how emergency incidents are run and school personnel should understand and use this system. 
• IS-362.a - Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools - This course covers basic information about developing, implementing, and maintaining a school emergency operations plan (EOP).

ALICE - Active Shooter Response Program - what most police departments are advocating.

American Heart Association Heartsaver First Aid, CPR, and AED - the class that best fits what educators need to know. Basic first aid, CPR and AED training.

• Classroom version - contact your local American Heart Association training center to schedule a course
• Mixed Online and practical session course - take part of course online and test online test and then have skills taught and checked by live instructor. 

Educational leaders, just like educators, can often feel overwhelmed with too many things to do. This can cause problems in the school because important tasks are not being completed. When the leader, for instance a principal, is overwhelmed, or tries to do too many things themselves, or tries to micromanage, the school can suffer. 


I am a paramedic and EMS officer and have over 22 years of EMS experience. One of the things every firefighter, paramedic/EMT, and police officer in the United States has to take is a basic incident command course. The basic course is available on FEMA's Independent Study Program and is a free, online course. Public Safety leaders (officers and the like) then take more intensive training including running drills. 


There is also an Incident Command course for Schools. IS-100.SCa Introduction to the Incident Command System for Schools is an excellent course that all school leaders should take in order to prepare themselves to handle emergencies in the school. 


Incident Command training is also an excellent way to learn more about leading a group and delegating authority. Incident Command includes some great aspects that can be used by any leader in almost any situation. Common terminology, task lists, standard job descriptions and responsibilities, support materials, and much more are all part of incident command and should be used in other areas also. Another concept is span-of-control. 

Span-of-control is a concept that says that a leader should only oversee 3 to 7 individuals, with 5 being optimal. This prevents the leader from being overwhelmed or being pulled in too many directions. It forces them to delegate authority to others. It is very important to maintain proper leadership, function, communication and efficiency. 


Principals and other school leaders should follow the span-of-control concept and have only 3 to 7 people reporting to them, with 5 as the optimal amount. Assistant principals, counselors, and teachers would be used as the "Section" leaders and then would have other people under them (committees). This would allow meetings to be smaller and more effective and work to flow better. The principal meets with their team, who then go and meet with their teams, and so on. 


With technology, it's easy to try to communicate and work with everyone all the time. But even with technology, people can only manage some much as one person. 




What do you think?