Montana Safe Schools Center

Safety Drills

The Montana Safe Schools Center can help provide training and technical support in conducting safety drills in compliance with the school district Emergency Operations Plan or school safety plan.

Montana Law requires disaster drills to be conducted regularly and in conjunction with an adopted schools safety plan (20-1-401). There must be at least eight disaster drills a year in a school. Drills must be held at different hours of the day or evening to avoid distinction between drills and actual disasters (20-1-402).

Here are a few guidelines to consider when conducting crisis exercises and drills for schools:

Discussion-based drills can help students and staff start with a simple exercise. Select an appropriate exercise scenario based on a vulnerability assessment that identifies the types of risks or potential hazard that have a probability of occurring in a specific community. Discussion-based exercises are used to familiarize students and school staff members with crisis plans, policies, agency agreements, and emergency procedures. Orientation seminars and workshops can be an efficient way to introduce school staff members, first responders, and volunteers to the school’s crisis plans and procedures, and tabletop drills can be an effective first step in testing crisis response protocols (USDE, 2006). Examples of discussion-based exercises include orientations, workshops, and tabletop drills.

Operations-based exercises serve to validate plans, policies, and procedures; clarify roles and responsibilities; and identify gaps in resources. They involve school staff and students reacting to a simulated crisis, practicing the response to specific emergency conditions. They may include the mobilization of emergency equipment, resources, and networks. When planning operations-based exercises, it is important that schools start with less intense emergency drills and work their way up to functional exercises and full-scale drills. Practicing different types of emergency drills can help a school prepare for a more involved emergency response (Freeman & Taylor, 2010; USDHS, 2007). Examples of operations-based exercises include emergency drills, functional exercise, and full-scale drills.