New Recovery Support Web Page By Readiness & Emergency Management For Schools (REMS)
After an emergency event has occurred, school communities aim to return to a sense of “normalcy” and restore a safe and supportive learning environment. This is referred to as “recovery,” one of 10 recommended emergency management functions that schools address in their emergency operations plans (EOPs). As a function, recovery applies to a range of threats and hazards and can be implemented in about every incident imaginable. The type and breadth of recovery required following an event depends on the extent and magnitude of the emergency and can range from immediate (minutes and hours after an incident) to short-term (days and weeks after an incident) to long-term (weeks, months, or even years after an incident). There are four types of recovery: academics; business services; health, social, emotional, and behavioral; and physical and structural. Although most recovery activities are implemented during and after an incident, the more ready an entity is to implement them before the emergency occurs, the more effective and faster the recovery will be.
NEW Web Page to Support You
The REMS TA Center created a NEW Web page intended to be used by K-12 schools, school districts, state education agencies, and regional education agencies in the aftermath of an emergency to support their recovery efforts. This page contains a repository of resources that education agencies may use and share to provide support to schools with the different phases and types of recovery. Resources are vetted by the REMS TA Center and organized according to timeframe (immediate, short term, long term) and recovery activity, as listed below:
- Activating the Recovery Annex within a school EOP
- Communicating with the school community
- Coordinating and collaborating with community partners
- Offering Psychological First Aid
- Providing trauma-informed care
- Conducting site assessments
- Supporting continuity of teaching and learning
- Teaching resilience strategies to educators
- Managing donations and volunteers
- Managing bereavement and loss
- Developing after-action reports
- Offering mental health services
- Managing tributes and memorials
You are invited to use, share, and bookmark this Web page for reference at any time. If you have any questions or need technical assistance about recovery or another EOP topic, please do not hesitate to contact the REMS TA Center Help Desk, via toll-free phone 1-855-781-REMS [7367], or by completing the online TA request form.