NIMS Activity 18: Systems to present consistent and accurate information

K-12 schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) will use systems, tools, and processes to present consistent and accurate information (e.g., common operating picture) during an incident/planned event.

COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Activity 18: Utilize systems, tools, and processes to present consistent and accurate information (e.g., common operating picture) during an incident/planned event.

K-12 schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) will use systems, tools, and processes to present consistent and accurate information (e.g., common operating picture) during an incident/planned event.

Association to NIMS

Emergency management and incident response activities rely on communications and information systems to provide the necessary information to continually support situation awareness and a common operating picture for use by all emergency management personnel. The common operating picture is the descriptive overview of an incident and is used by all response partners. The common operating picture provides the incident information needed to make effective, consistent, and timely decisions. Furthermore, use of a common operating picture helps to ensure that the Incident Commander and response partners are all using the same set of information. Use of systems and processes provide timely, accurate information and sustain a common operating picture will support situational awareness and more effective response.

K-12 school and IHE use of information systems will support the NIMS framework, its unifying approach, and its key attributes of interoperability, reliability, scalability, and portability, as well as resiliency and redundancy:

• Interoperability refers to the capacity of the information and communication systems, processes, and tools to deliver continuous, real time information between their emergency management team and their response partners.
• Reliability, scalability, and portability refers to the capacity of the communications and information systems, processes, and tools to operate in any incident, regardless of the cause, size, complexity, location and support operations whether they are of a single jurisdiction or involve multiple response partners.
• Scalability in particular refers to the systems, processes, and tools capacity to support numerous additional users and partners as the response scale is increased.
• Resiliency refers to the capacity to continue operations in the event of damage or loss and redundancy ensures multiple modes for exchanging information in the event one system fails.

Implementation Guidance

The use of timely and accurate information by incident command supports effective decision-making and effective response activities whether the K-12 school or IHE incident serves as the single response jurisdiction or is supported by community response partners such as the local emergency management authority. The common operating picture supports the incident command system managing short- and long-term operations as it facilitates the collection and exchange of timely and accurate information.

K-12 schools' and IHEs' information systems, tools, and processes should facilitate information-sharing aimed at maintaining a common operating picture for use by all response parties. As K-12 schools and IHEs develop comprehensive all-hazards emergency management plans in collaboration with their community partners, efforts should be taken to help ensure that internal activities as well as activities with community partners utilize compatible and complementary information and communication systems, tools, and processes. The communication activities should work to continuously present a common operating picture and support all involved response agencies and personnel.

K-12 schools and IHEs should pursue opportunities to help build effective communication systems and programs that allow for critical functions:

• Accessibility and interoperability among all partners;
• Reliability, scalability, and portability regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity of operations (e.g., multiple jurisdictional response); and
• Resiliency and redundancy, or contingency options, within the program allowing for continued performance after damage or loss.

K-12 schools and IHEs emergency management teams should address communication and information management within the communications portion of the all-hazards emergency management plan. The teams should build an information system that supports incident command; the system should describe how and what information is gathered, shared, and analyzed to create situational awareness and a common operating picture. The emergency management team should also work closely with partners to create compatible communication systems that can work together. For example, the teams should ensure there is a mutual process for sharing information. Ideally, the radio communications system would be interoperable. But, if this is not feasible, there should be a redundant system for sharing information quickly between partners that ensure information is shared even if the actual equipment is not interoperable.

As K-12 schools and IHE institutionalize the NIMS concepts and principles, applying NIMS to any large-scale, school-hosted events (even non-emergency events) such as athletic events, ceremonies, and dances, the emergency management team can identify opportunities to ensure the systems, tools, and processes work to share information in real time. For example, when the ICS is activated for planning and hosting a planned school event (e.g., large sporting competition, graduation), efforts to create and work from a common operating picture may be practiced.

Sample activities demonstrating that K-12 schools and IHEs are utilizing systems, tools, and processes to present consistent and accurate information (e.g., common operating picture) during an incident/planned event include:

• Determining interoperability and compatibility of communication systems and tools with all community partners;
• Creating communication policies and processes for creating a common operating pictures; and
• Designing, conducting, and evaluating emergency exercises to identify that communications equipment and processes are timely and interoperable.