Hold meeting with school incident command team, school/district crisis team and communications team to address the following issues:
- What worked well — Did we follow our emergency plan? Did it work as expected? How did we communicate? Did we do everything we could to ensure safety?
- What must we improve — What parts of the plan didn—t work? Were responses prompt and appropriate?
- What lies ahead — What can we expect tomorrow? How will we communicate to key stakeholders?
Plan for the next day for issues that affect students and school staff.
- Will school be open?
- Where will students and staff gather?
- What actions must we take immediately regarding mental health, safety and security, internal communications and media?
- Whom do we need to contact in our community, such as elected officials, former board members, hospitals, first responders, opinion leaders, district leadership, principals, staff, parents, attorneys, etc.?
- What help do we need, such as volunteers for hotline, phone banks, media relations, family liaisons, etc.
- Appreciate that the media needs a story and your role is to provide accurate, timely information. Messages should include your concern about safety and what you are doing to assure a safe learning environment.
- Set a goal to heal and return to “normal” through your work with the media.
- Decide when, how and where to communicate with the media. Will the media have access to the building? Grounds? Consider sending a letter or email to the media asking for cooperation. Click here to download a sample.
- Determine how to monitor the media. Volunteers can monitor television news from the command center or from remote sites. Staff or volunteers should also clip local and national newspapers and monitor news Web sites.
- Develop media protocols. Decide how to handle interview requests with staff, students and families. Will a spokesperson appear on talk shows? How will local vs. national media requests be handled? Click here to download media interview request forms. Click here to download a sample form for media request for information. What advice will you provide staff, parents and students regarding media interviews? How will you work with the school district attorneys regarding media releases? Click here for media advice. Click here for media protocols at special events.
Hold an executive session with legal counsel and the district’s governing body (e.g., the board of education) to share what happened, discuss legal ramifications of the crisis and determine next steps.