NIMS Activity 22: Credential emergency management/response personnel

Schools and IHES will work with State education and emergency management officials to ensure proper authorization and access to credentialed personnel during an incident response, including those persons provided through mutual aid agreements.

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Activity 22: Initiate development of a State/Territory/Tribal-wide system (that incorporates local jurisdictions) to credential emergency management/response personnel to ensure proper authorization and access to an incident including those involving mutual aid agreements and/or assistance agreements.

Schools and IHES will work with State education and emergency management officials to ensure proper authorization and access to credentialed personnel during an incident response, including those persons provided through mutual aid agreements.

Association to NIMS

The resource management process can be separated into two parts: resource management as an element of preparedness and resource management during an incident. The preparedness activities (resource typing, credentialing, and inventorying) are conducted on a continual basis to help ensure that resources are ready to be mobilized when needed. For the purpose of NIMS, credentialing is the administrative process for validating personnel qualifications and providing authorization to perform specific functions and to have specific access to an incident involving mutual aid.

The credentialing process entails the objective evaluation and documentation of an individual's current certification, license, or degree; training and experience; and competence or proficiency to meet nationally accepted standards, provide particular services and/or functions, or perform specific tasks under specific conditions during an incident. Organizations, governmental agencies responsible for coordinating emergency responses, volunteer management agencies (e.g., Red Cross, Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals, Medical Reserve Corps, etc.), and other potential users of volunteers (e.g., schools, hospitals, fire and police departments, etc.) all must develop protocols governing the activation and use of volunteers.

Implementation Guidance

K-12 schools and IHEs should work closely with their community partners and local emergency management authority to determine any potential needs for volunteers during response. Schools and IHEs should also be prepared to receive additional response and recovery staff from partners as well as volunteers from the greater community. IHEs, districts, and schools utilizing volunteers, especially spontaneous volunteers, are responsible for ensuring each volunteer's eligibility and qualifications to participate in a response. Therefore, schools and IHEs should take steps in advance to ensure any additional personnel aiding in response and recovery efforts are trained and qualified. Schools and IHEs should develop a system for determining qualified personnel before providing them with applicable access and authorization to participate in response and recovery efforts.

The credentialing process helps ensure in advance of emergency incidents that the professionals are highly-qualified and trained in the task needed. Securing qualified service providers and professionals in advance will help ensure that qualified persons are accessible and available on behalf of the school and campus communities in advance of an emergency incident. Through the establishment of partner agreements, schools may better access additional services and service personnel in the event of an incident. Qualifications for additional personnel can be stated in the agreements.

Schools and IHEs can take advance measures to help ensure that assistance can first be provided by qualified service providers arranged in advance and secondly supplanted by credentialed volunteers. This can be addressed in the overall planning process and supported by partner agreements established among partners. Schools and IHEs should also prepare to respond to a potential onslaught of seemingly well-intentioned persons wanting to volunteer. Having a written policy in place for receiving volunteers, will help schools and IHEs determine in a consistent and documented fashion who can or cannot assist when spontaneous volunteers arrive after an incident occurs.

Schools and IHEs will want to consider protective measure on behalf of its students and staff. For example, many schools and IHEs use systems that immediately verify a person's identity and compare it to known sex offenders lists, prior to granting school building access. Schools can consider similar efforts when determining spontaneous volunteer procedures into their response plans as well as creating roles for untrained volunteers.

Sample activities demonstrating that schools and IHEs are working with State education and emergency management officials to identify qualified personnel and a credentialing system for maintaining registries of trained, qualified volunteers to be used during response include:

• Schools and IHEs work with their State education agency partners to identify potential staff resources and create systems for securing assistance;
• Schools and IHEs contact State education and emergency management offices to seek opportunities to access State-level credentialing systems or registries.
• Schools and IHEs work with community partners to identify and secure applicable service providers and create systems or partner agreements securing additional personnel in the event of an emergency.
• Schools and IHEs look to regional educational partners and create agreements to provide assistance in the form of emergency response and service providers;
• Schools and IHEs develop written policies for the use of volunteers and qualified staff: and,
• Schools and IHEs work with local community partners to develop opportunities to maintain common sets of volunteers.