Unfortunately, to be as safe as possible, schools must go beyond encouraging the very best behavior from students. They also must protect the students from dangers that come from outside the school. Natural disasters and acts of violence perpetrated on schools by outside elements-while quite rare-must be taken into consideration. For this reason, every school should have a school safety plan and ensure that school staff and students are familiar with the features of the plan that pertain to them. The plan should be developed by a school safety committee composed of a variety of school staff, including custodial and grounds staff, front office staff, bus drivers, teachers and support staff.

The plan should detail evacuation and lockdown procedures including secondary evacuation sites and ways for communicating with outside law enforcement and health and safety agencies. Procedures for using the media to communicate information to parents and the public must also be covered. The plan should include specific procedures to be followed in various emergencies as well as helpful checklists, forms, communication protocols and phone numbers. To be effective, every school safety plan must:

• Be developed by each school site based on the unique feature of the school and the community;
• Encourage open and frequent communication between outside agencies and school staff; and
• Ensure that various features of the plan are practiced regularly.