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CISA webinar urges schools to use summer to update emergency plans and strengthen safety culture
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Summary
In a CISA virtual training, moderator Don Huff and panelists Dr. Renee Bradley and Dan Pascall urged K–12 leaders to use the summer pause to assess emergency operations plans, prioritize low-cost safety upgrades, expand training for all adults, and formalize partnerships with first responders and community groups.
Don Huff of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) hosted a one-hour virtual training urging K–12 leaders to use the summer months to review and improve emergency operations plans (EOPs) and strengthen a day-to-day culture of safety. He framed three objectives for the session: assess current readiness, prioritize short- and long-term improvements, and identify outside partners and resources to assist districts and schools.
Panelist Dan Pascall, chief executive officer of CoSecure, emphasized routine after-action reviews and risk-based prioritization. "When you stay ready, you don't have to get ready," Pascall said, urging schools to maintain a running index of unresolved issues and to convene security-focused committees rather than leaving problems to single staff members. He recommended focusing limited time and budgets on fixes that address likely, local vulnerabilities rather than high-cost technologies that may not solve day-to-day problems.
Dr. Renee Bradley urged including broader school voices — custodians, coaches and students — in planning. "Student voice fits into our safety and security discussions," she said, arguing that students and noninstructional staff often spot practical weaknesses in buildings and routines.
Speakers pointed to federal and freely available resources to guide planning, including a Department of Education guide to high-quality EOPs and Schoolsafety.gov materials. Pascall cited national data noting a gap between drills and plan maintenance: more than 90% of public schools regularly run drills, but only about 55% update EOPs consistently, a discrepancy he said should drive summer work.
The panel listed practical, low-cost measures that schools can complete over the break: interior classroom locks that secure from the inside, controlled entry points, trimming landscaping to improve sightlines, repairing fence holes, installing door-position switches that alert staff when a door is forced or held open, and clearing clutter from hallways to preserve natural observation. They also stressed testing communications and interoperability with first responders and establishing clear reunification procedures for families.
On training, the discussion distinguished who needs what level of preparation: "All adults in the building need to be trained on the procedures," Bradley said, while leadership, safety directors and SROs receive deeper role-specific drills. Panelists recommended basic first-aid and de-escalation skills for staff and cautioned that training requires top-down commitment to reserve multi-hour blocks rather than treating safety as a one-off agenda item.
The webinar closed with examples of successful prevention and recovery: Pascall described a near miss in which a student report, a practiced response and an SRO investigation led to a pre-event arrest. "Communication, organization and leadership" were credited as the decisive factors.
The session was advisory and informational; no formal votes or policy changes were proposed. Participants were directed to follow-up materials and MOU templates provided during the webinar.
