School Response: NIMS Compliance

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) in action

An overview of NIMS-related school safety measures now required by Colorado law, and NIMS guidelines provided by the Federal government.

Creating Calm from Chaos

The National Incident Management System, Colorado Schools and SB08-181

by Michael Dorn

Introduction

At 9:12 on a Tuesday morning, a group of third grade students are collecting samples for a science project on the school's nature trail. A number of them suddenly become violently ill and fall to the ground. A minute later, the school is notified that a traffic accident has occurred one-half mile from the school and a tanker truck has tipped over releasing an apparently toxic chemical. The lives of students and staff now depend on how quickly the school's principal and crisis team can make key decisions, wisely use available resources, coordinate their actions with area public safety officials and communicate with emergency responders. In short, children may die needlessly if school officials are not able to utilize a proven structure to gain control of the incident quickly.

NIMS

Fortunately, such a system has already been developed for schools and has proven its effectiveness in hazardous materials incidents, natural disasters, hostage situations and other crisis events that have actually impacted schools in Colorado and around the nation. The system is known as the National Incident Management System or NIMS. NIMS includes a step-by-step general crisis response system known as the Incident Command System or ICS which has been in use by public safety agencies, hospitals, schools and other organizations since the 1970s.

NIMS is a nationally standardized structure for local, state, federal and private agencies and organizations to help them work efficiently using teamwork and standardized concepts to make the most important decisions first using close coordination of available resources to prepare for, respond to and recover from crisis situations effectively. With strong bipartisan support, the Colorado legislature and governor passed Senate Bill 08-181 which was introduced by Senator Tom Wiens making Colorado's General Assembly the first in the nation to spell out in detail a School Response Framework based on our National Response Framework, which incorporates NIMS and ICS. 

This groundbreaking legislation will assist schools in dramatically improving safety and the level of emergency preparedness. Senate Bill 08-181 is designed to help Colorado schools continue to improve their level of emergency preparedness in a meaningful, achievable manner tailored to local risks, resources and realities.

Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs)

Besides requiring schools to implement NIMS, a key point of the legislation is a section designed to ensure schools and community response agencies collaborate closely in planning and preparing for emergencies. The legislation requires schools to formalize memoranda of understanding commonly known as MOUs with community partners. MOUs are written agreements outlining roles, responsibilities and use of resources during a crisis between collaborating organizations. For example, a school district should have MOUs in place for all off site family reunification sites not owned by the district. Schools lacking formal MOUs have frequently experienced major difficulty in resolving major crisis events.

Drills and Exercises are Needed to Make NIMS a Reality

Experience has demonstrated that a thoughtful and progressive drill and exercise program tailored to the school environment is one of the most effective ways to help test school plans, procedures and equipment while allowing school employees and their community partners to practice implementing plans, procedures and using emergency equipment under carefully simulated crisis conditions. SB08-181 embraces this concept as a way to carry out the implementation of NIMS in a realistic manner. This creates a sense of empowerment, confidence and comprehensiveness in emergency preparedness which allows responding school employees and public safety officials to turn chaotic situations into controlled and organized resolution of the crisis at hand.

Interoperable Communications

One key to successful resolution of school crisis situations requiring a public safety response involves the concept of interoperable communications. In a number of school crisis situations, school and public safety officials have reported extreme frustration and difficulty in resolving the crisis due to their inability to talk to one another via radio systems. A significant part of the support initiative for SB08-181 involves efforts to help educate schools and community partners regarding new concepts and technologies making interoperable communications more feasible for schools. The ability of a school principal to talk directly to paramedics during a crisis event could easily mean the difference between life and death for an injured child.

Conclusion

Senate Bill 08-181 raises the bar for the level of school preparedness while providing a support network for Colorado school leaders and their organizations. The concepts required in the legislation focus on informing, planning, training, maintenance of communications equipment, and coordination of drills and exercises. These processes are already in place in Colorado schools and the legislation formalizes the incorporation of the NIMS into these existing efforts. SB08-181 was crafted to make its requirements not only achievable for all Colorado schools, but to support them in making existing efforts more efficient.

Upcoming Resources

To help schools that are not already NIMS compliant improve to meet the requirements of SB08-181, the State of Colorado is providing a number of free resources to help schools and their community partners. First, a much more detailed document will follow this summary document to help schools understand the requirements of SB08-181. This document will include easy to understand explanations of NIMS, MOUs, the drill and exercise process, interoperable communications and other concepts related to the implementation of NIMS along with a list of frequently asked questions and answers developed with the assistance of Colorado educators. A series of implementation tools including a rubric and implementation checklist will also be available. These tools will be supported by a series of training sessions held at locations around the state.

Senate Bill 08-181 is a major step in continuing the efforts of Colorado educators and their community partners to prepare for major crisis events. As we have seen, crisis situations have impacted many of our nation's best schools in communities that were considered by most to be safe places to live. Your efforts to develop a NIMS compliant school or district could easily one day save lives. Please join us in furthering the effort to protect Colorado's most precious natural resource -- our children.

For a more detailed version of this overview, along with attachments, please see Using the Best Tools to Prepare for the Worst in this section of the website.