1. Matthew Taylor Associate Director Montana Safe Schools Center
School Tabletops, Drills and Exercises Emergency Management for Schools June 4-5, 2008 ~ San Francisco, California
Matthew Taylor
Associate Director
Montana Safe Schools Center
-Welcome and Speaker Introductions
-Ask attendees to raise their hands if they have completed a drill, a tabletop, a functional or a full-scale? (separately)
-Explain that this class is an advanced class intended to build upon skills and experiences that the attendees already possess
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools
400 Maryland Avenue, SW / Washington, DC 20202

2. Presentation Goals
Create Context and Justification for Emergency Exercises in Schools
Overview Types of Emergency Exercises
Outline Key Stakeholders
Steps for Building an Emergency Exercise Continuum
Guidelines for Table Tops, Functional and Full-scale Exercises
Promote Evaluation and Improvement Plans
Identify Resources
-Review each bullet point as a part of the “Presentation Goals”
-Explain that there is much material and content to cover in a short period of time

3. Context & Justification for Emergency Exercises In Schools
Clarify roles and responsibilities
Evaluate plans and procedures
Develop effective agency relationships
Assess resources and capabilities
Identify needs and solutions
Most states have legislation requiring school exercises and drills
Many emergency management agencies and other accredited public safety agencies must conduct various types of exercises on an annual basis.
-Basically, why do (and why should) local public safety and school officials conduct exercises
Question - Ask participants why exercises are conducted in their jurisdictions? (Likely one of the answers is listed here)
Read and explain bullets
-Roles and responsibilities are often misunderstood by many schools and public safety agencies (common problem)
-Exercising allows plans to be reviewed and put in to action to determine if the procedures contained within the plans actually will work during an emergency
-Developing effective agency relationships is one of the most important benefits of conducting exercises—you get to work with the responders who
will be responding to your facility to help you in the event of an emergency
-Many exercises reveal shortcomings or lack of resources/equipment (radios, vests, etc.)
-Many states have legislation that require certain types of drills (and their frequency) to be conducted during the school year
-Many public safety agencies (especially emergency management agencies) may be required to conduct various types of exercises during a
certain time period

4. School Exercises Are a Core Element of The Preparedness Phase
Elaborate on the fact that exercises are a core element of the “Preparedness Phase” of the Emergency Management Cycle
-Explain that exercises impact each phase of the cycle in some manner
-Example-If you do not build a good foundation for a structure, then the structure will likely look o.k. but will not withstand if strong winds
or other natural occurrences impact it adversely – the same principles apply with the emergency management cycle if exercises are not included as a key component

5. Emergency Exercises are Central to Fear Management
Alarmist
Complacency
We Should be Here
Proactive Liability Management
Question - Ask the attendees if they know someone they work with who is an alarmist (they fear everything and think that every emergency situation will occur in their facility)?
Question - Then ask the attendees if they know someone who they work with who is very complacent (or this person always states “it will never happen here”)?
-These types of people, in some form or fashion, exist in all of our workplaces, but we most attempt to move them toward the middle of the continuum in order to be in the correct mindset
realistic and well organized exercises held move these groups to the middle
-“Proactive Liability Management” is another term that describe this process and managing your liability through proactive procedures like conducting exercises

6. A Key to Effective Emergency Response in Schools...
...is exercising the "balance" between flexibility and consistency that is best developed through an exercise design continuum.
Flexibility
Good Judgment
Consistency
Trust
Knowledge
Sports analogy from public official in Columbine during shooting.
When you step up a level in sport (high school to college, college to professional level)
….The pace of the game quickens.
Same thing in school emergencies –
As the situation becomes more complex
The pressures and “pullers” (issues or people attempting to pull you away from your duties) speed up
The above diagram, reinforces that strong working relationships between schools and response agencies are the foundation of emergency mgmt (and a good exercise design program)
When an emergency is underway you have to make judgment calls as the situation changes (stick to the plan or not). The only way you’ll be able to do this effectively is if you trust your skills, the skills of your staff, and the agencies assisting or leading the response.
In the context of exercise design – you build the relationships with response agencies first (this may take time but exercises are a good ‘occasion’ to reach out); together you practice; through practice you gain knowledge of each group’s skills and roles (response agencies have a lot to learn about school culture, just as schools have a lot to learn about response agencies); from this working knowledge trust and mutual respect is built.
Practice
Time
Relationships

7. Types of Exercises
Orientation Meetings: Inform about emergency operations plans an emergency procedures (1-2 hours to do, 2+ days to plan).
Drills: Perfection of an individual emergency procedure (1/2 - 2 hrs to hold, 3+ days to plan).
Tabletops: Identify roles and responsibilities in different scenarios (1-4 hours to do, 1+ month to plan).
Functional Exercises: Roundtable simulation of emergency situation with realistic timeline (3-8 hours to do, 3 months to plan).
Full-scale Exercises: Multi-agency, on-site simulation of an emergency situation; all resources deployed (1/2 - multiple
days to do, 6 months+ to plan).
Read from the slide – Make sure that an emphasis is placed on the fact that the time estimates are just estimates based on best practices in emergency management
-School officials should realize that there is a certain amount of flexibility and time built in the timeframes (not straight time/hours) for busy schedules, etc.

8. “Stressful Simulated Events” “Getting Everyone on Board”
Types of Exercises
FULL-SCALE
“Resources Deployed”
FUNCTIONAL
“Stressful Simulated Events”
FULL-SCALE
"Resources Deployed"
DRILLS
“Single Agency”
TABLETOP
“Group Discussion”
-This flow chart depicts the typical exercise progression from the Orientation meeting to the Full-Scale exercise
----More details will be provided in additional slides----
-An orientation meeting is an initial meeting and helps get everyone involved in the process
-The next progression can go to a single agency drill or a tabletop depending on the choice of the exercise committee or exercise participants
-For example, a school may choose to do a lock-down drill in preparation for a full-scale that depicts an active shooter in the building
-A tabletop is a non-stressful, group discussion, often facilitated
-A functional exercise is the next step on the exercise progression scale and is more stressful and simulates events in real time without deploying actual resources
(Note: Some agencies and schools choose to skip the functional exercise in the exercise progression)
-The full-scale exercise is the final step in the exercise progression as resources are deployed and first responders (and school officials) tested
ORIENTATION
“Getting Everyone on Board”

9. Key Stakeholders To Include
School Officials (Board of Education, other school administrators and School based ERTs)
Law Enforcement (Police, Sheriff, SRO, State, Military Police, Tribal)
Fire Agencies (City, County, Correctional Facility)
Emergency Management (city, county, state)
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Air Medical Units
911 Dispatch
Transportation
Public Health
Media
Hospitals
Parent Groups
Students
Special Needs Populations
-There are many local, state, non-profit (Red Cross/Salvation Army, etc.) and federal agencies that may need to be included in your exercise process
-Of course, many of these agencies may be unintentionally excluded from the initial meeting (Orientation) but then identified as a participant to be included
Read agencies from the slide
Question - Ask the audience if they have any additional agencies that might need to be included in their jurisdiction that are not listed on the slide?
-Several groups that are often left out are students, parents and the media. All of these groups can contribute greatly to the exercise process.
-Also, mutual aid agencies that might respond to assist local or state agencies in responses to the school need to be invited if possible
-For example, if the school is in a very rural area, an active shooter situation might prompt the response of many different law enforcement agencies in the area
-It is important that these agencies work together to pre-plan and practice together…exercises can help
Note: “Transportation” can include school transportation (buses) or local bus and/or rail systems

10. Groups Who Can Assist You
Local Emergency Management Agency (LEMA)
Local Public Safety Agencies
School District Personnel or School Resource Officer
Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)
State and Local Homeland Security Agencies
A LEPC is a committee that is comprised of members from government, industry and elected officials who are involved in emergency planning activities in a community. Check with your local Emergency Manager.
-You are not in this process alone…in most cases the local EMA should “drive the bus” on the exercise process; however, jurisdictions differ all over the country and this may not be the situation for everyone
-Your local EMA generally coordinates for all local public safety agencies and is a good liasion with state agencies
-Other local public safety agencies like your local fire or law enforcement agency (or agencies) may be able to provide consultation
-Many school districts have district safety, security or law enforcement personnel who will likely be able to provide guidance and potentially develop scenarios for single schools
-In addition, many states have local and state homeland security agencies who may be able to assist schools with the exercise planning process
-Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC) may exist in your community or county. Basically, this is an organization comprised of local responders, industry in your area, schools, non-profits
and other concerned groups who plan and prepare for incidents typically involving hazardous materials. Funding for LEPCs comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is funneled to
the local agencies through state agencies which vary from state to state. LEPCs are often given money to conduct exercises and many times they choose scenarios that involve schools that may be located
near major highways, railways or near an industrial site. Check with your local Emergency Manager on the existence of an LEPC in your community. The school district should be represented on every LEPC.

11. Best Practices in Conducting Exercises
Practice a variety of different scenarios based upon risks in the school and community.
Utilize hazard / vulnerability data
Collaborate with Disaster and Emergency Services
Practice a variety of different response procedures, such as lockdown, shelter-in-place, evacuation.
Communicate information in advance (with parents, media and surrounding neighborhoods as appropriate).
Evaluate and document lessons learned in an after-action review and an after-action report.
Implement exercise outcome recommendations.
Don’t reinvent the wheel – use hazard / vulnerability data from that you local or county emergency management agency has already collected
Communicating in advance of an event with the surrounding neighborhood, being sure 911 dispatch uses clear information indicating this is an exercise only, notifying parents – these are all important steps to help you manage crowd control and to alleviate public concern.
Remember – conducting a structured debriefing (after action review) is a critical step in emergency exercises. Schedule it w/in a week after the event. Though the event is over and everyone may be busy again, it is very important not to overlook this step.

12. Best Practices in Conducting Exercises
Test the capacity of all agencies - not just schools.
Drill under different conditions (time, weather, staffing levels).
Identify weaknesses / continuous improvement - but design succession of exercises to instill feelings of “success.”
Make sure that one objective is to implement the Incident Command System (ICS) to be compliant with National Incident Management System (NIMS) and to better integrate with local response agencies.
Build it for success – not to break it (you’ll still
have many challenges and problems)
Remember to drill under different conditions
We suffer from the “sunny day syndrome”
Real events happen when it is raining, 10 degrees below F etc,.
Create barriers and challenges for participants to:
test ability to react and adapt (ex – the event controller may order that a certain, pre-designated evacuation route is blocked).
_______
When schools are “at the table’ in community wide exercises: be careful that you don’t get pushed around…or pushed out of the discussion just because you haven’t been historically part of such exercises. You are a critical part of the community…
…It is not uncommon that when external agencies, who have a lot of experience with such exercises, drive the planning, they may create scenarios that overwhelm the school or which can be traumatizing to students and staff (ex: active shooter exercises with extensive moulage or guns firing blanks are used).
***Remember – build and implement an emergency exercise design program slowly and thoughtfully. These should create a feeling of empowerment and confidence in the school, not a feeling of being overwhelmed or helplessly vulnerable.

13. Example: Developing a Tabletop
Pre-Planning
-Hazard Analysis
-Establish Objectives
-Inform the Media
-Orientation Meetings
-Set Timelines
-Identify Participants
-Pre-exercise Training
-Single agency Drill
Tabletop Exercise
-Identify a Facilitator
-Identify a Scribe
-Draft the Narrative
-Room Layout
-Breaks/Refreshments
-Presentation
-Copies of Materials
-Sign in Sheet
-Conduct the Exercise
After Action
-Immediate Debriefing
-Participant Evaluation
-Comprehensive Report
-Post Exercise Meeting
-Functional Exercise
-Full Scale Exercise
-Revisions
-Training
-Implementation
Table tops, functional exercises and full scale exercises have many things in common regarding planning:
All should be driven by real vulnerabilities in the school
All should have structured to text specific actions / objectives
You need to communicate broadly about the event, the planning timeframe, and the justification for it because everyone in the school community is a stakeholder in one way or another.
Ideally, participants should only be ‘tested’ on responsibilities they have been trained for or have at least been given information about. (the goal is to succeed here not fail)
A good facilitator is central to the event and to ensuring it is a comfortable learning exercise for everyone.
Next steps and lessons learned are vitally important to document and both come out of the After Action Review / debrief
Developing a tabletop exercise normally evolves over a 1-3 month period. The event typically lasts 1-4 hours.

14. Building an Exercise Design Continuum for Success
Select one of your school’s main vulnerabilities.
With response agencies, set a date years in advance for a full-scale exercise based on that vulnerability. Designate a Design Team Leader -- or make sure there is a Central School Liaison who is part of the external agency design team.
From that date, back into an orientation session.
Determine which procedures will be utilized in the full-scale exercise, then schedule a series of drills that separately address each one.
After several such drills, schedule 2-3 tabletops.
Next: hold a functional exercise.
Execute the full-scale exercise
Hold after action reviews throughout
Implement the evaluation results throughout
Good Planning Starts with having your end goal in mind. (Steven Covey – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Use “backward-planning”
The end goal from an exercise design continuum is to succeed in a full scale exercise that is based on realistic vulnerabilities the school faces.
Of course, the real end goal from a macro perspective is to minimize the loss of life, harm and property damage in the case of a real emergency. A full scale exercise is as close as we can get to planning for such an event.
With the end goal (full scale) in mind, then dissect out the various procedures that will come into play at that event. Schedule drills that test these procedures (communications, reunification, school-district-EOC coordination, offsite evacuation etc,.).
Design multi-agency table tops that combine these issues.
Ratchet up the stress level a bit and the unpredictability with a functional exercise.
…. All this leads to the full scale and the timeline for building skills and planning appropriately is realistic

15. Defining the Scope of Full Scale Exercise
Location:
Choose a realistic site. Consider traffic problems and safety issues.
Functions:
List operations to be practiced.
Be specific about the procedures addressed within each function.
Participants:
Which organizations need to be involved to carry out the functions being tested?
Which representatives from those organizations should be there?
Narrow the list to those who are required in order to carry out the actions.

16. Objectives
Descriptions of the performance you expect from participants to demonstrate competence
Clear, concise, focused on participant performance
Should state who should do what under what conditions according to what standards.
Within 15 minutes
after the evacuation notice is given,
members of the EOC
will complete notification procedures to
school administrators.
Who
Specific action
Conditions
Standards
It is easy to front load a scenario with far too many details, and at the same time, no clear expectations about what you are shooting for.
That is a recipe for frustration and confusion the day of the event.
Clearly defined, explicit objectives are the key to avoiding that problem.

17. Common Exercise Mistakes
Scenarios that are not unique to your area
Scenarios too complex for the LEA to manage
successfully
Timing of the exercise
No accurate critique of the exercise
Safety issues are not addressed properly
Planned and initiated too quickly
Some critical agencies are not included
After action items are not implemented

18. For More Information Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS):
Exercise Development/Design Courses (FEMA) Online Training:
(IS-120.A, IS-130, IS-139) – Source material for much of this presentation
Copy of DVD: “Education for Disaster:”
(OHS-GEMA)
Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP):
Readiness and Emergency Management in Schools Technical Assistance Center: exercise specific publications (Helpful Hints, ERCM/REMS Express, Lessons Learned)
Check for local and state resources too!
List of Excellent Resources.
Please note that much of the information from this presentation comes straight from FEMA’s online training courses and their Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburgh MD:
IS120a – An Introduction to Exercises
IS130 – Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning
IS139 – Exercise Design

19. THANK YOU!!! For More Information Contact:
Matthew Taylor:
REMS TA Center: (REMS)