Key Definitions

• Response: Response activities address the short-term, direct effects of an incident. Response includes immediate actions to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs. Response also includes the execution of emergency operations plans and of mitigation activities designed to limit the loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and other unfavorable outcomes.
• Recovery: Recovery includes the development, coordination, and execution of service- and site-restoration plans; the reconstitution of government operations and services; individual, private-sector, nongovernmental, and public assistance programs to provide housing and to promote restoration; long-term care and treatment of affected persons; additional measures for social, political, environmental, and economic restoration; evaluation of the incident to identify lessons learned; postincident reporting; and development of initiatives to mitigate the effects of future incidents.
   

Resources

Click on a link below to access mitigation resources.

• National Incident Management System
• Emergency Response – National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
• Incident Command System Resources
• IS-100.SCa, Introduction to the Incident Command System for Schools
• Recovery Guides
• Psychological Healing
• Developing After-Action Reports/Improvement Plans

National Incident Management System

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a systematic, proactive approach to guide departments and agencies at all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, in order to reduce the loss of life and property and harm to the environment.

• National Incident Management System
• Checklist of FY 2006 NIMS Compliance Activities for Schools
• Frequently Asked Questions About NIMS Implementation Activities for Schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEIS)
• NIMS Implementation Activities for Schools and Higher Education Institutions
• What NIMS Compliance Means for Schools

Additional NIMS resources are available on the NIMS Resource Center Web site: www.fema.gov/nims 

Emergency Response – National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities

The Emergency Response document lists resources available from the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF). The resources include the information and tools that schools should prepare in order to respond to an emergency.

• Emergency Response Information for School Facilities
  

Additional resources are available at the NCEF Web site: www.ncef.org

Incident Command System Resources 

The following Incident Command System (ICS) resources summarize key features of ICS and NIMS.

• Incident Command System Features
• Key Roles and Responsibilities
• National Incident Management System Components

IS-100.SCa, Introduction to the Incident Command System for Schools

The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) developed the Introduction to ICS for Schools course (IS-100.SCa) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education. The course is designed primarily for kindergarten through high school personnel.

The overall course goal is to promote school safety by:

• Familiarizing you with how ICS principles can be applied in school-based incidents.
• Preparing you to interface with community response personnel.

Additional information about EMI Independent Study courses is available at the EMI Web site: training.fema.gov

Recovery Guides

• FEMA Long-Term Community Recovery Planning Process – A Self-Help Guide
• FEMA Publication 229: Disaster Assistance – A Guide to Recovery Programs 

Response and Recovery Resources

Psychological Healing

• Emotional and Behavioral Reactions of Children to Disasters
• Guidelines for Student/Staff Sudden Death
• Managing the Psychological Aftermath of School Incidents Seminar (Word | PowerPoint)
• Planning for the Psychological Aftermath of School Tragedy
• Suggestions on Leading Class Discussions after a Death
• The Issue of Staff Grief
• When to Refer a Child to Mental Health Professionals: Preschool and Elementary School Students

Developing After-Action Reports/Improvement Plans

• After-Action Reports: Capturing Lessons Learned and Identifying Areas for Improvement
• Dakota County Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercise After-Action Report/Improvement Plan