Most schools do not have a sufficient emergency plan in place. At best, today’s schools have a generic emergency plan in place that does not meet the needs of their particular facility. In most cases, administrators at these schools cut and paste the emergency plan document offered on the New York state Project SAVE or other state websites. These boilerplate emergency plans then go through a fill-in-the-blanks process where the names of the school principal, assistant principal, and other administrators are added. As a result, the emergency plans of every school district look essentially the same and do not go into details specific to the school.

Using a boilerplate emergency plan for every school district presents two significant problems. In the first place, it is difficult to provide adequate emergency training from a generic emergency plan that does not offer specific details. Secondly, if an emergency situation should occur where individuals are hurt or property damage results, anyone who gets a hold of the school’s emergency plan would clearly find significant contradictions in the plan.

The boilerplate emergency plan states that certain emergency committees are in place, includes important contact information in case of an emergency, and offers specific emergency plan details. By using this boilerplate emergency plan for each and every school, the emergency needs of each school are not being met and the information provided within the plan are not typically accurate or up-to-date.

To resolve current emergency plan deficiencies, it is essential to create specific district-wide emergency plans. This will ensure that individual plans are specifically designed with each school district in mind. The result of such customized planning will be specific emergency plans that meets the requirements of Project SAVE (NY), meet local requirements, and offer important details specific to each school district. This will create a much safe environment for students and faculty members across all school districts.