- Determine best location based on crisis site. Consult with school principal, facilities manager, security and law enforcement.
- Develop a list of supplies that will be needed at the command post. Click here for sample.
- Assign a volunteer coordinator who will solicit communications experts and volunteers from local, state and national sources, if needed. Click here for volunteer information.
Establish communications channels for internal and external audiences.
- Initiate phone tree and email to staff, students and parents. Carefully craft a script with what is known and not known to share with students and families.
- Create a recorded message on the district voice messaging system and update regularly as new information becomes available. Include a phone number where people with questions can reach a “real” person.
- Update the district and school Web sites with information about the crisis. Cross-reference hotline numbers and provide links to other resources, such as mental health support.
- Set up an information hotline staffed by central office personnel or trained volunteers from the teacher’s association, retired administrators, etc. Provide a script and answers to frequently asked questions. Have operators log calls and keep track of new questions that arise.
- Develop fact sheet template to be used throughout the crisis. Send fact sheet electronically to internal and external audiences daily at a set time, such as 10 a.m. Click to download a sample.
- Send group email. Send an email to staff at the affected site and all other central and school sites in the district with the latest information about what happened and what is being done. Provide information on how to get updates through the Web site and hotline.
- Deal with rumors. Make sure all central and school-based staffs have accurate information that they can share in the community to squelch rumors. Recognize how technology — such as cell phones and text messaging — can accelerate the spreading of rumors.
- Provide scripts for office personnel on answering questions or giving directions to staging area or other locations.
Prioritize stakeholders. Take care of internal audiences first, such as:
- Staff at the affected site, other schools, central office, substitutes and retired staff.
- Students and parents at the affected site.
- Students and parents at neighboring schools.
- Families districtwide.
- Key community leaders such as school board members, other elected officials and clergy.
- Media. Provide service to local media first, then national and international.
Continue meeting priority needs. These issues include facilities and people management.
- Reunite families. Have a list of all students and check them off when they are picked up by parents or legal guardian.
- Contact local hospitals. Establish a liaison between the school district and the hospitals to get ongoing reports of victims’ conditions.
- Secure building and grounds. Work with law enforcement to secure perimeter of school.
- Get top district officials to the scene. The superintendent and/or top administrators, along with key communications department staff, should tour the scene as soon as possible. Decide whether the superintendent will make a media statement.
Manage media relations. The media will want ongoing information. Be available, open and honest.
- Designate a spokesperson who can serve throughout the crisis. If the school district has a communications office, it’s ideal for the director to serve as spokesperson. Determine carefully whether the principal, superintendent or school board members will make public statements and who is most appropriate. Consider:
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- Is the official emotionally ready and able to give a statement?
- Does the community/media expect a high-level official to take an active, visible communications role?
- What are the legal considerations and long-term implications?
- Which official is appropriate: Who has the most information and represents the district best in the public arena?
- Prepare officials for their roles:
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- Provide talking points in writing.
- Prepare a list of frequently asked questions and answers.
- Practice, including asking difficult questions.
- Determine a specific length of time for the interview or media conference. Begin and end on time.
- Put the communications director in charge to introduce the spokesperson, manage the question-and-answer period and decide when the interview should end.
- Meet with media spokespersons from law enforcement and the fire/rescue agencies to determine how you will coordinate release of information.
- Develop a call log and track media calls, news agency and reporter names, and questions asked.
- Set up a regular schedule of press briefings. During the first few hours, as the incident is unfolding, hourly press briefings may be required, even if there is nothing new to report. That frequency can decrease as the situation stabilizes. Click here for media advice.
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- Discuss how the identity of victims will be released. Names should not be released until they are verified. Law enforcement, fire and rescue, hospitals and families should be involved in this decision.
- Provide information about evacuation. The media is very helpful in getting information out quickly, so families know where their children are and how to be reunited.
- Express sympathy and acknowledge pain and grief suffered by victims, their families and the community. Connect on a human level. Grant permission to feel the range of feelings associated with a crisis.
- Thank individuals and agencies. Acknowledge the good work of school staff, first responders and community agencies.
Take care of staff. Set up a staff meeting as soon as practical to talk with staff and express support and caring. Practice active listening, allowing staff to safely vent and be heard.
Make decision about classes the next day at affected schools as well as other schools in the district. Release information about the following day as soon as possible.