In instances of disaster, households and college students look to high school leaders for stability, even when these colleges are closed resulting from catastrophe or tragedy. The current fires and flooding which have torn via communities throughout the nation are a tragic reminder that it might not be a query of if a disaster will happen in some unspecified time in the future, however when it is going to occur. Colleges commonly evaluate security practices and maintain drills for hearth, evacuation, shelter in place, and different very important actions that could be required when tragedy strikes. However there’s one disaster space that isn’t commonly practiced: communication.
Whereas nearly each faculty has an emergency handbook, not often do they comprise details about how the college will talk each internally and externally throughout a disaster. Happily, heads of college can play a significant position in making certain {that a} correct disaster communication plan is in place. By partnering with the advertising and marketing and communications workplace and addressing these steps upfront, your faculty will be higher ready to speak each internally and externally when wanted.
Know your disaster communications response staff.
Most certainly, there’s a plan for who’s accountable for attending to the scholars and sweeping the school rooms, however there isn’t usually a plan in place for speaking throughout a disaster. Along with the captains accountable for scholar security, there also needs to be positions decided upfront for speaking with college students, households, and the better neighborhood. Every faculty ought to designate a staff of the highest 5 individuals referred to as for in each scenario, together with somebody for communication.
Most individuals instantly consider media relations, and whereas sure, it’s necessary to know who will area media questions, disaster communication goes past that to incorporate documenting the scenario and figuring out the messaging that’s despatched out to the neighborhood. This position is usually referred to as the recorder, and each emergency plan ought to checklist the names and make contact with info for all authorised recorders.
A whole and thorough documentation of the method throughout a disaster will be helpful when recapping and reviewing the scenario, working with insurance coverage corporations and authorities, and figuring out the messages that should be conveyed to the college neighborhood and past. Having one particular person designated because the recorder—with a backup recorder additionally pre-determined—means different members of your disaster response staff and college know who to name and switch to at a second’s discover.
Along with a recorder, many colleges look to have backup help for sending info out shortly; these persons are a part of your disaster communication response staff. From electronic mail and social media to web site and father or mother portal updates, it’s necessary that you realize who has entry and the power to make these updates—together with contact info—ought to a disaster happen outdoors of regular faculty hours.
This staff additionally must know how one can talk with one another and the place they’ll meet, assuming it’s secure. Group chat choices are necessary for making certain everyone seems to be on the identical web page, be it by way of convention calls or walkie-talkies. It’s additionally necessary to find out a gathering place if the strains of communication are down, which ought to be stocked with obligatory provides they could want.
Set a protocol for speaking.
Usually, individuals assume that the pinnacle of college is the spokesperson throughout a disaster, however the actuality is that the pinnacle will probably be coping with the precise scenario and can need assistance. Having a pre-planned chain of staff members who will be spokespeople—ideally members of your disaster communication response staff—permits for flexibility and consistency of message. Each member ought to be conversant in outreach strategies, messaging tone and language, and capable of log into all communication providers—be certain to check these upfront.
Put together your messaging upfront.
Each faculty ought to assess its most-likely disaster situations. Hearth, shelter in place, and evacuation are frequent examples, however it’s necessary to determine what else may occur and what you would wish to speak. Many faculties have added lively shooter and intruder drills in addition to much less apparent conditions, similar to surprising faculty closures, delays, and early dismissals.
Climate and acts of nature could not really feel like main crises, however current occasions have confirmed they are often. Colleges must have a plan in place to deal with these conditions shortly and sometimes at odd hours of the day. Excessive warmth, snow, lightning, storms, excessive winds, and even poor air high quality are all disaster conditions that seemingly ought to be in your checklist, in addition to earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, and floods.
Predetermined and scripted messages offer you time to suppose throughout a disaster. Having messages pre-approved by the pinnacle of college, the board, and the communications division lets you inform individuals of the scenario and put together them for a way you’re going to ship follow-up info with out losing time.
These communications ought to at all times embrace the identify of the college and the date and time of the message. Households with kids at totally different colleges must know precisely who is asking and the way they’ll get extra info. Ending each scripted message with the identical line for how one can get extra info by way of a URL, father or mother portal, or telephone hotline will give them a method to verify in.
Decide the instruments you could want.
Realizing the conditions you could probably face helps you to draft a plan for every, together with the required instruments. When your web and telephones go down unexpectedly minutes earlier than the dismissal rush, what are you going to do? Planning for one thing like this upfront will allow you to get a message out shortly.
The established disaster headquarters ought to be stocked with a number of telephone strains, exhausting wired web and wifi, a number of laptops, iPads, cell telephones, and walkie talkies to make sure you can attain the surface world. A radio and tv with native and cable information networks might help you monitor developments of an off-campus disaster that will relate to you and decide if networks are masking your campus disaster scenario.
Don’t neglect to have ample charging stations with energy strips for powering a number of units directly in addition to backup power sources. Additional batteries and exterior chargers—together with a crank charger—will be helpful when energy is compromised, in addition to dongles and cords for connecting units to these energy sources. You’ll additionally wish to plan what to do if networks exit—so landlines, paper, and pencil provides also needs to be useful—in addition to flashlights in case you’re in the dead of night.
Know the place and while you’ll talk.
Speaking a transparent and constant message throughout dozens of channels is usually a problem, so streamlining your efforts is essential. It’s a good suggestion to create a disaster communications touchdown web page that serves as your essential hub for posting info, lowering the danger of lacking an outlet or posting incorrect or incomplete info in a single location. Your staff can share a novel URL similar to myschool.org/emergency on social media and your different retailers and direct all site visitors to this hub.
Not each scenario wants speedy textual content messages and emails, so it’s necessary to find out what’s warranted and when. Much less pressing conditions—a faculty cancellation with ample discover, for instance—may warrant an electronic mail and web site replace solely, whereas an surprising closure or early dismissal requires telephone calls and textual content messages to make sure that households and the neighborhood obtain info shortly.
It’s additionally necessary to find out outreach frequency. A quick-moving scenario that entails the authorities may warrant web site updates in your disaster hub web page each 15–half-hour and communication by way of electronic mail and/or telephone and textual content each 1–2 hours. A slow-developing scenario similar to a damaged water essential may want an preliminary message warning of potential closures the day earlier than, a fast replace in your web site hub a number of hours later, after which nothing till the following morning when speaking a ultimate choice.
You can too use your emergency outreach providers to trace the success of your message and decide if some households want extra private outreach to make sure they obtained the knowledge.
Have a continuity plan.
Guarantee you may have a plan if the college could also be closed for an prolonged interval—similar to throughout a healthcare disaster or when amenities are broken or destroyed. Decide how you’ll proceed speaking with households, college, and employees and how one can educate your college students remotely. Many faculties needed to scramble in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to offer distance studying, some extra efficiently than others. Whereas no one desires to return to these days, it’s a good suggestion to be ready by practising digital assignments and assessments, on-line class discussions, and many others. If you’re a Blackbaud buyer, these sources could also be useful.
Set expectations inside your neighborhood.
The easiest way to make sure correct communication is to arrange your neighborhood. Allow them to know that you’ve an emergency response course of and take a look at it greater than as soon as. Share the URL of your disaster hub touchdown web page and encourage households to bookmark it. As well as, inform households of your plan throughout a shelter-in-place situation, the place college students will go when evacuating the campus, and the way they’ll reunite with their kids in every case.
If households know what to do, the place to get info, and the way you’re going to speak, they’ll really feel extra assured throughout a disaster and will probably be much less inclined to inundate the college’s telephone strains.
Whereas nobody can really anticipate each want throughout a disaster, planning for correct communication each internally and externally could make all of the distinction.
This weblog was initially printed in 2021 and up to date in 2025.
