NIMS Activity 15: Participate in an exercise program that involves first responders

Schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) will participate with local, State, and community partners in an all-hazards exercise program that integrates NIMS concepts and principles and involves first responders from multiple disciplines, agencies, and organizations.

PREPAREDNESS: EXERCISES

Activity 15: Participate in an all-hazard exercise program based on NIMS that involves first responders from multiple disciplines, agencies, and organizations.

Schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) will participate with local, State, and community partners in an all-hazards exercise program that integrates NIMS concepts and principles and involves first responders from multiple disciplines, agencies, and organizations.

Association to NIMS

When K-12 schools and IHEs are appropriately trained with their community partners, the all-hazards incident response capabilities are improved. All agencies involved in incident response and emergency management participate in realistic multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional exercises to improve integration and interoperability. This type of training ensures that personnel at all jurisdictional levels and across disciplines can function effectively together during an incident. Joint practice helps to bridge the gaps between the educational community and their partners.

Schools and campuses can design, conduct, and evaluate a variety of functional exercises to achieve proficiency. Or, they can collaborate with local, State, and or community emergency management agencies to participate in pre-existing large-scale exercise program or drill. Drills provide instruction and/or training for personnel on particular roles, responsibilities, plans, and/or equipment. Additionally, these exercises test the plan. These scenario-based trainings are categorized by tabletops, functional exercises, and full-scale exercises.

• Tabletops allow the collaborative team to talk through an emergency scenario in an informal, stress-free environment. A tabletop exercise is a facilitated, scenario-based group discussion regarding the coordination of plans, procedures, and resources with partners. It typically lasts two to four hours.
• Functional Exercises are stressful simulated events that allow participants to work through plans and procedures in a real-time scenario, typically based in an operations center environment. The exercise pace can be increased or decreased depending on participants' ability to work through their plans and procedures. School buildings and campuses are useful settings for hosting simulated events because they provide realistic sites for training and give partners advance-knowledge of the building.
• Full-scale Exercises involve multi-agency responses where resources are actually deployed. Exercises require participants to move actual people and resources while working through plans and procedures in real-time.

Implementation Guidance

Schools and IHEs should participate in local, regional, and/or State multi-discipline and multi-agency exercises on a regular basis (dependent on the type of drill or exercise to be held and the size and complexity of the systems involved). Exercise activities should address immediate response actions (lockdown, evacuation, and shelter-in-place), notification and communication systems, transfer of command, first-aid, family reunification, and resource management. Practice can include drills, tabletop, functional, and/or full-scale exercises. The exercise program should build from NIMS concepts and principles and include evaluation and corrective action activities.

Evaluations can play an important role in exercise. Evaluations should provide both quantitative and qualitative data and contribute to improvements in the plan. The ability to identify both strengths and areas for improvement is critical to strengthening the exercise program, the plan, and the partnerships. The findings of the evaluation team meetings are compiled in the After Action Report, which documents the effectiveness of the exercise. It serves as the basis for planning future exercises, enhancing the plan, and taking corrective action. The After Action Report is the responsibility of the evaluation team leader or chief evaluator, working with the evaluation team.

Sample activities demonstrating that K-12 schools and IHEs are participating in an all-hazards exercise program based on NIMS with community partners include:

• Scheduling and conducting a series of planning meetings and an exercise with community partners;
• Developing a timeline for an exercise program - i.e., schedule meetings for tabletops, functional exercises and full-scale drills;
• Using an evaluator in meetings for developing a tailored tool capturing the effectiveness of the plan, capacity of the team, implementation of NIMS activities, and the ability to respond to the specific scenario; and
• Informing the local media and community of the exercise event before, during, and after it occurs.