Keeping Students Safe Every Day: How to Prepare for and Respond to School Violence, Natural Disasters, and Other Hazards

Is your school prepared to deal with a crisis, whether it's a hurricane, an earthquake, an explosion at a nearby chemical facility, an active shooter, or one of many other possibilities? Does your school have an up-to-date plan to deal with hazards of all sorts? Do teachers and other staff members know what to do in emergency situations to protect their students and themselves from harm?

In this informative and comprehensive guide, school safety experts Amy Klinger and Amanda Klinger offer significant—and sometimes surprising—statistics on school safety, dispel common misunderstandings, and provide preK–12 school leaders with the specific information they need to prepare for and effectively respond to natural disasters, accidents, or violent events.

Readers will learn how and why it is important to

• Realistically assess threats and vulnerabilities.
• Create and implement an emergency operations plan that follows government guidelines and best practices.
• Decentralize authority and responsibility for crisis response.
• Distinguish between three levels of "lockdown."
• Plan for short- and long-term recovery following an incident.
• Make school safety an everyday component of school operations.

At a time when schools at every level and in every community face the possibility of a crisis event, Keeping Students Safe Every Day equips leaders with the knowledge they need to give their students, staff members, parents, and the broader community confidence that their school knows what to do and makes safety a top priority.

Amy Klinger, EdD, is a nationally recognized expert on school safety and crisis management. She is cofounder of the Educator's School Safety Network, which provides training, resources, and technical assistance to schools throughout the United States and Canada. Klinger has more than 28 years of experience in public education as a teacher, an elementary and secondary principal, and a central office administrator. She is an associate professor of educational leadership and program director at Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio.

Amanda Klinger, Esq., is a nationally recognized expert on school safety and crisis management. She is cofounder of the Educator's School Safety Network, which provides training, resources, and technical assistance to schools throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to direct training with educators and law enforcement officers, Klinger is a frequent presenter at regional, state, national, and international conferences on school safety and security. She conducts ongoing research on threats and incidents of violence in schools and frequently appears on or is interviewed by national media outlets on topics related to violence prevention, crisis response, and school safety.