Severe weather drills prepare students and staff for weather-related emergencies as well as increase awareness, reduce panic, and improve emergency response times. Being prepared before inclement weather strikes includes having a robust plan for a quick, coordinated response.
Your severe weather plan should outline the courses of action your school community will take to prepare for, respond to, and recover from weather-related incidents. Taking steps to ensure clear communication—both in relaying information to your school’s students, staff, and community as well as receiving accurate weather information—is critical.
The following best practices will help you develop a severe weather plan that is built specifically for your schools, students and staff as well as the community that may use schools for emergency shelters.
1. Establish designated safe areas
Work with architects or engineers who are familiar with the campus and the local fire department or county emergency managers to determine the best safety zones for the weather hazards common to your area. Mark them on your school floor plan and signage throughout the campus.
Students and staff should be familiar with these zones and how to access them at different times of the day, including if they are in between class periods, at lunch in the cafeteria, or outside on the football field.
Including the safety zones in your Emergency Management System through Collaborative Response Graphics (CRGs) maps prepares first responders for more effective command and control when responding to unfamiliar locations. The technology goes well beyond an interactive floor plan by putting the identical mapping solution in standard use by public safety organizations across the country in the hands of first responders and school personnel simultaneously.
2. Well-defined roles and responsibilities
Eliminate confusion by making sure everyone knows what their role is during an emergency. It’s best practice to designate a responsible staff member or group of individuals as your Severe Weather Coordinator(s).
Your coordinator(s) should attend local weather training and be responsible for creating your plan and determining when to activate your response. Staff Compliance Training powered by PublicSchoolWORKS (PSW) is the ideal choice for K12 schools aiming to prioritize staff safety and compliance. This robust online staff training system automates every school employee training scenario, ensuring a seamless and efficient compliance process. Severe weather course options include:
- Tornado Preparedness
- Tornado Safety
- Earthquake Preparedness
- Emergency Procedures
- Hurricane Preparedness
- Severe Weather – Occupant Safety
Further, the district’s PSW Safety Advisor can also add individual school site evacuation maps to the courses.
Tip:
With the EmployeeSafe Suite powered by PublicSchoolWORKS, schools have the option to upload district or school evacuation plans/emergency procedures so that staff can easily access them digitally.
Schools can also upload any PDF into Raptor Alert, such as school maps, building floorplans, and Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Users can access this information from wherever they are 24/7.
3. Practice emergency procedures
Your severe weather plan is only valuable if the procedures are routinely practiced. Drills familiarize your school and community with your plan as well as individuals with their responsibilities, roles, and actions. This helps everyone feel prepared so they can confidently respond and keep everyone safe in an actual severe weather situation.
Considerations for more effective drills:
- When you’re scheduling drills, think about the location, duration, time, and frequency.
- Let stakeholders—including guardians—know about drills well in advance so no one is caught off guard.
- Every drill should strictly follow your weather plan and EOP, and your staff should use the same technology they’d use in a real emergency. This allows your school community to gain more familiarity with the plan and become more confident with each drill. It also creates “muscle memory” in participants that increases response efficiency.
- Drills should also be conducted to test your school’s procedures and policies and reveal areas of weakness. Your safety team should immediately debrief after every drill. Teachers and students should also be encouraged to provide feedback.
- Analyze drill performance: To assess your drills well, schools need a method of tracking drill data and creating comprehensive reports that enable your staff to analyze what is working—and where you need to improve performance.
4. Involve parents and community members in the process
Effective emergency response requires more than internal planning—it requires collaboration with parents, guardians, and local emergency management teams. Schools should proactively engage families and community partners when developing, testing, and refining emergency plans.
- Coordinate with local emergency officials to establish mutual understanding of each other’s protocols. Ensure your school’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) includes contingencies for shared facilities, such as being designated a Red Cross shelter.
- Use VisitorSafe™ to ensure campus safety, even in shelter scenarios. If your school becomes a temporary community shelter, use VisitorSafe to screen everyone entering the building against sex offender registries and custom banned visitor databases. Individuals flagged can be safely chaperoned or denied entry based on your policies.
- Plan for family reunification in weather-related evacuations or emergencies. Raptor Reunification ensures students are released only to approved guardians by verifying ID, checking sex offender status, and documenting each reunification with digital signatures and timestamps.
- Prepare for early dismissals or late arrivals with DismissalSafe™. Severe weather can cause staggered pickups, delayed openings, or adjusted dismissal plans. DismissalSafe allows parents to update dismissal preferences through the Raptor Safe app, while staff are instantly notified of changes—minimizing confusion and maintaining control.
- Include parents in weather drill feedback loops. After each drill, gather input from parents and local partners to identify opportunities for improvement. Raptor Drill Manager helps document performance and ensure compliance, while also providing insights that can shape future response.
These collaborative efforts strengthen trust and build a culture of preparedness—because no one should have to navigate a crisis alone.
5. Emergency Management System
Preparing for, responding to, and recovering from severe weather events can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. When you team with the right partner, they can bring knowledge and trusted solutions to keep your school safe not only against weather-related events, but all types of school emergencies.
The right emergency management system should be customizable to your school and district policies, as well as empower you to:
- Prepare your school Prepare for, respond to and recover from any emergency. From instantly notifying first responders to accurately accounting for all individuals, the Raptor Emergency Management system puts the power to respond quickly and effectively in the palm of your hand.
- Initiate an emergency response Raptor provides various initiation methods, helping schools accommodate diverse user preferences, accessibility needs, varying levels of familiarity with the Raptor Alert app, and ensuring no gaps in alerting capabilities. Raptor enable staff to initiate alerts through wearable badges, mobile apps, web platforms, or other integrated technologies, offering flexibility and ensuring that alerts can be triggered in any situation.
- Account for each individual on campus Raptor Accountability provides real-time visibility of the location and status of students and staff during emergencies. By employing efficient tracking and presenting the information through a robust dashboard, Raptor Accountability facilitates quick and accurate accountability, thereby minimizing trauma and helping ensure the safety of all involved.
- Instantly Notify Everyone On Campus Push notifications, text messages, strobes, desktop alerts, and voice announcements activate at once through integrated technologies to communicate seamlessly across all audiences—including school staff, students, and emergency services.
- Communicate in Real Time In-app group messaging keeps staff and administrators connected during emergencies, enabling the instant sharing of updated instructions, exact locations, and other critical details.
- Reunify students with approved guardians With its patented technology, Raptor Reunification ensures a proper chain of custody, guaranteeing that students are safely and securely handed over to authorized individuals. By streamlining the reunification process through distinct roles and a user-friendly app, the software enables quick and organized reunions, minimizing chaos and alleviating stress and chaos.
As a single, unified solution, Raptor provides schools with one platform for incident alerting, drill execution, and emergency response coordination. It reduces response times by streamlining communication and action steps in one centralized solution.
Schools benefit from a unified, end-to-end emergency management solution that reduces complexity and ensures all critical safety functions are connected. By consolidating emergency communication, alerting, and accountability within one system, schools can act faster and more effectively during crises.
Staying safe during severe weather
School visitor and emergency management systems can greatly improve your preparedness, response, and recovery. Raptor VisitorSafe keeps track of everyone in your schools and integrates with Raptor Emergency Management. If you need to take shelter or evacuate, you will be able to account for everyone on campus—and keep track of where they are and how they are doing—on your mobile device, tablet, and desktop.
Raptor Emergency Management enables schools to efficiently manage and conduct weather-related school safety drills.
In the case of power and network failure, there are redundancies in place to ensure no gap in coverage. Additionally, Raptor Badge Alert seamlessly integrates with emergency response systems, ensuring rapid coordination and communication during both campus-wide crises and localized incidents.
To learn more, contact Raptor today to schedule a personalized demo.
Related Resources
Strategies for Effective K-12 Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery
Responding and recovering from a severe weather event starts with creating a plan to keep everyone safe.
Listen to this blog
4 minutes
