The Arizona Republic just published a report on the safety of charter and private schools.  While every public school is required to have an emergency response plan, many private and charter schools are not required.

Most of the schools, however, have developed their own emergency plans anyway.

While the article focuses primarily on Arizona, there are some important safety items mentioned in the article that Nevada Charter schools can implement.

Here are some of the problems posed within the article:

1. Charter schools don’t know where to turn for resources on safety.

2. Charter schools don’t have the same relationships with local police departments to train their staff on emergencies as public schools have.

3. Charter schools do not invite police and fire departments to tour their campuses to become familiar with their floor plans.

4. Some charter and private schools may be more at risk because they are located in strip malls without security guards or cameras on-premises.

5. Some charter and private schools have more relaxed sign-in procedures than a traditional public school has.

This does not mean that every charter or private school is at risk.  In fact, many of them have even tighter security measures and policies in place than their public counterparts.  And, many of the students and parents interviewed in the article stated they felt much safer at their charter school than they would if they were attending a public school.

While insurance will certainly help respond in many of these tragic situations to help offset some of the devastating costs and effects it will have on a school; preventative measures will do a much better job.

To help your charter school in shoring up its current emergency plan, here are 20 questions as provided by the article and the Arizona Department of Education:

EMERGENCY-PLANNING QUESTIONNAIRE FOR SCHOOLS

1. Does your school have a multi-hazard emergency plan in place?

2. Are staff and students trained on the procedures?

3. How often has your school exercised the plan? Have any changes been made based on the exercise?

4. Does your staff know where your emergency checklists and resource manuals are located?

5. Do new hires, volunteers, student teachers, and substitutes get training on your emergency plan before starting to work?

6. Does every principal know how long it would take for local fire, police, or EMS officials to arrive after dialing 911?

7. Is your staff trained to handle emergency tasks until help arrives?

8. Is any of the school staff trained to do CPR?

9. Does your school have 911 on speed dial?

10. Does your school know how long it will take for a principal to obtain personnel or equipment from other facilities?

11. In an evacuation, does your school have enough buses to transport all the students to another site?

12. Do the local emergency services (police, fire, etc.) have floor plans for all school buildings in their jurisdiction?

13. Have your principals invited local police and fire officials to do a walk-through of their schools yearly?

14. When do the school practice fire, evacuation, and tornado drills? Is it at the “high traffic” times (i.e., lunchtime, class change, beginning and end of the school day)?

15. Does your school have a student-release system established? Is the staff trained to do their tasks?

16. Do you have procedures in place if an emergency occurs on a bus?

17. Who (besides the principal and janitor) has the keys to the buildings, classrooms, locked fences, and gates? What about after school and on the weekends?

18. If your school holds children after normal school hours because of a disaster in the community, is the school prepared to keep students for long periods? (Do you have enough food, water, medication, etc.)?

19. When does the school’s responsibility for the students end? Is your school legally responsible for students if they are kept at school?

20. Do you have a backup system for your vital records?