This toolkit provides a wide variety of ideas and tools to help districts successfully strengthen safety and incident communications. Districts can customize their own strategy and resources based on their capacity and needs.
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Incidents can come in many forms and happen at any time, but districts should not only communicate about safety during or in the aftermath of a crisis event. While districts usually have individuals and teams in place to develop safety and security protocol (e.g., prevention programs, infrastructure, emergency drills, response procedures), they often do not effectively communicate districtwide preparedness to build trust and credibility within the school community.
There are three ways to use this toolkit. You can audit existing practices used to communicate information about school district safety and security, identify new opportunities to improve your safety communications processes, and prepare templates and resources to expedite communications around district safety and security.
This section helps users identify ways to incorporate safety updates, initiatives, and accomplishments into regular communication with students, staff, parents, and the community. Read the section.
Use this tool to develop a cross-functional incident response team as part of your district incident communications strategy. Read the section.
This section helps establish an incident communications plan to prepare for timely and effective dissemination of information. Read the section.
Use the tools provided in this section to guide communications leads in preparing for and executing internal and external communications when an incident occurs affecting the district. Read the section.