Support Services

REGULATION: 401.01-2

CRISIS MANAGEMENT READINESS
 

The purpose of this regulation is to ensure crisis management readiness is developed and applied uniformly across the School Division. Crisis management is part of our approach to school safety that anticipates potential problems and establishes a coordinated response to minimize stress and disruption.

As required by Virginia Code § 22.1-279.8 and § 22.1-137.3, the School Division has developed a “Crisis Management Plan” (CMP) that addresses essential procedures, training, operations, and assignments required to prevent, manage, and respond to a critical incident or emergency for all students and employees. This plan is a template that requires schools to add essential information to make the plan unique to each site. Also, required by Virginia Code § 22.1-279.8, are school safety audits with components defined by the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety as:
 

• Virginia School Safety Survey (annually);
• Virginia School Safety CMP Review and Certification (annually);
• Training on school safety procedures during emergency situations for all students and employees (annually);
• The Office of Risk Management and Security Services shall provide the Chief of Police and the Fire and Rescue Chief (or their designees) with a copy of the Division’s CMP template for review (annually);
• The Division Level Survey (administered every three years); and
• The School Safety Inspection Checklist (completed every three years).
   

Every summer, schools shall review and update their CMP template which is located on the Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) intranet. Principals shall ensure that the updates to their CMP are posted on the “Crisis Management Plan School Pages” intranet page by the first Monday every August. The Office of Risk Management and Security Services shall review and approve updates.

The first important step is to assign a crisis response team at each school. This is essential for developing a plan. The crisis response team shall meet a minimum of once each semester to review readiness, update plans, or conduct mock drills. Agendas and meeting minutes shall be kept for record purposes and retained at the school.

Random drills shall be initiated by the Office of Risk Management and Security Services to evaluate the basic elements of the school’s plan and ensure they meet the requirements of the School Division. These drills shall include emergency evacuation, lockdown, tornado drills, and the accounting of all students and employees. These drills should not take more than 15 minutes.

To maintain crisis readiness, schools shall conduct drills as required by the “Code of Virginia,” the “Virginia Statewide Fire Prevention Code” (SFPC), the Virginia Board of Education, and this regulation. A copy of the “Drills Conducted Ledger” from the CMP is available for download on the Risk Management and Security Services’ intranet page. This ledger shall be maintained in the school and provided, as noted above, for the yearly CMP update. This ledger shall be updated as drills are conducted. Drills required during the school year are as follows:

Fire Drills – Two drills shall be conducted during the first 20 school days of every school year and at least one drill each month for the remainder of the school year. (See Virginia Code § 22.1-137; Sections 404.2.3 and 405.1 of the SFPC; Section 8VAC20-131-260 of the “Standards of Accreditation”; and Regulation 408.1, “Fire Safety.”)

NOTE:  The first fire drill shall be conducted within the first 10 school days and the second anytime within the first 20 school days.

Tornado Drills – Two drills shall be conducted every school year. One drill shall be conducted in November and the second in March to coincide with the Statewide Tornado Drill. (See Virginia Code § 22.1-137.1.)

Lockdown Drills – One drill shall be conducted during the first 20 days of every school year. PWCS shall conduct one additional drill after the first 60 days of the school year and another one during the second semester. (See Virginia Code § 22.1-137.2; and Section 8VAC20‑131‑260 of the “Standards of Accreditation.”)

Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students shall be exempt from mandatory participation in lockdown drills during the first 60 days of the school year but shall participate after the first 60 days in the drills.

Notification of lockdown drills to the parents and guardians of enrolled students should be made at least 24 hours or more before the lockdown drill; however, you should not provide specific times.

Earthquake Drill – One drill shall be conducted in October to coincide with the Great SouthEast Shakeout earthquake drill.

Annual Training of School Safety Procedures during Emergency Situations – Virginia Code § 22.1-137.3 requires principals to annually deliver training on crisis response procedures to every student and all employees in their school. This training shall be completed within the first month of school and its completion date documented on the “Drills Conducted Ledger.”

This training can be completed by viewing the appropriate training videos titled “Crisis Management–Basic Terminology and Response” for elementary students and “Crisis Management–Basic Terminology and Response with Defend Options” for middle/high school students and for all employees. These training videos are located on the “Crisis Management” section of Risk Management’s intranet page.

Each school is assigned an 800-megahertz radio for emergency communications which shall be monitored during school hours. Schools shall monitor channel “ZONE A P25–SB5.” Risk Management and Security Services shall conduct a radio call-down exercise once each semester to ensure these radios are being monitored and are in working order. These exercises shall be conducted between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., as to not interfere with bus maintenance operations. Further information on schools’ 800-megahertz radios can be found in the CMP template.

Crisis management procedures for all drills are in the CMP template and are available on the Risk Management and Security Services’ intranet page.

The Associate Superintendent for Finance and Risk Management (or designee) is responsible for implementing and monitoring this regulation.

This regulation and related policy shall be reviewed at least every five years and revised as needed.