We are thrilled to share the exciting news that the Recovery Support feature has now been integrated into the Active Defender’s School Safety Platform, marking a significant enhancement to our platform! Having a reunification plan is crucial for schools in the event of a campus emergency necessitating the evacuation and reunification of students with their parents at an alternate location.

Such a plan ensures the safety and well-being of students by providing a structured and organized process for reunification, minimizing confusion and distress for all during a crisis. An appropriate plan enables schools to efficiently:

• Account for all students and their well-being.
• Establish clear communication channels with parents and relevant authorities to keep stakeholders informed, reducing stress and promoting calm.
• Establish clear communication channels with school staff supporting reunification.
• Verify parent/guardian identities.
• Facilitate smooth and orderly reunions with parents/guardians.
• Document successful student/parent reunifications.

The effects of not having a plan for reunification or an ineffective one, are detrimental to the well-being of students and parents, often resulting in long wait times, confusion, and increased stress. Such instances can imply a lack of preparedness and may quickly cast a negative public image on the school and district.

The addition of the Recovery Support feature provides a comprehensive solution for simplifying the complex procedures associated with overseeing, communicating, reporting, and ensuring accountability during crucial moments of student reunification.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how this innovative feature operates:

Initiating Recovery:

In the unfortunate event of a crisis necessitating the relocation of students, the Recovery Support feature empowers schools to respond promptly and efficiently in reuniting students with their parents or guardians.

Step 1: Initiating Recovery Requests

A designated staff member receives a student’s first and last name from a parent or guardian. This information is input into the Recovery Support feature, initiating the process by tapping the “student lookup” option.

Upon initiating the process, one of four status options will be displayed on the screen, providing crucial insights into the student’s current situation:

• Presumed Waiting: Indicates that the student is presumed to be in a secure location.
• Status Uncertain: Denotes the student’s status is currently uncertain.
• Guardian Identified: Confirms that the parent or guardian has been identified as authorized for student pickup.
• UNIFIED COMPLETE: The student and parent or guardian have been successfully reunited.

Step 2: Verification and Further Instructions

If the status indicates ‘Presumed Waiting,’ the staff member can enter the parent or guardian’s first and last name, along with their relationship to the student, to verify their authorization for pickup.

In cases where the status reflects ‘Status Uncertain,’ the staff member guides the approved parent or guardian to a designated holding area, where they can be provided with support as they await further instructions and updates.

Step 3: Reunification and Confirmation

Once the parent or guardian is confirmed for pickup, they are reunited with the student under the supervision of a staff member. 

A crucial step in this process involves capturing a photograph of the reunification moment, which serves as visual documentation. Subsequently, the staff member confirms the status as ‘UNIFIED COMPLETE,’ marking the successful conclusion of the recovery process.

For those interested in experiencing a firsthand demonstration of the Recovery Support feature, we invite you to contact us at japonte@active-defender.com or call 910-683-0090 to schedule a brief virtual demonstration.

With the Recovery Support feature, Active Defender continues its commitment to providing robust tools and solutions for ensuring the safety and well-being of students during critical incidents.

Whether there is a fire on the premises or an active shooter running around the building, an evacuation plan is to be followed so that all the students come out of the property unharmed. But since the majority of the students are all minors, it is the school’s duty to send them to their parents safely. Just like drills and other security measures, the reunification process also needs to be planned appropriately. However, before we dig into the details, you should know what reunification stands for.

What is Reunification?

School reunification plan is an operation that is an essential part of the school crisis response plan. This procedure makes the pathway of children reuniting with their parents or authorized guardians/adults easier and smoother in case of an emergency evacuation.

Things to Consider While Making a Reunification Plan

• • • Understand that every school is different and needs a different plan. Some schools have a larger space that creates more room for a smooth evacuation procedure, while others have a small platform and need to adjust there. Hence, plan your reunification process reflecting on your school and the needs of your students.
    • The best way to introduce a reunification plan to students is to demonstrate the procedure in the school handbook that is provided to them on the first day of school. After explaining in detail what reunification is and how it is supposed to be held, there can be multiple drills regarding evacuation done as well to make the actions clear.
    • Reunification plans usually work best when there is someone held in charge solely for the purpose of ensuring that the evacuation takes place efficiently and that all the students are safely sent to their parents. That person can be a part of the school’s administration team or a member of the higher-ups who will be adequately trained and briefed about the scenario so that during an emergency, they are the ones who can calm the students down and show them the right way out.
    • Inform parents about this procedure so that even they are aware of how to go about things and get a hold of their children when the situation gets rough.

How to Make a Reunification Plan?

To make a solid reunification plan, here are some tips to include;

• • 1. Allocate Spots

Divide the ground area into two different sections. One area will be where the parents who have not yet been catered to will stand so that they are helped and accounted for uniting with their children and the other section is for parents who have already been catered and accounted to so that they can move from the scene. This process is ideal to avoid mix-ups and confusion in the uproar.

• • 2. Create a Team

A helping hand team is also critical in a matter of emergency. These individuals should be trained to assess the situation and answer questions of both the students and the parents, all the while effectively ensuring transparency. Parents need to know what exactly is happening at the scene to get help or be present at the premises; therefore, social media updates, radio alerts, hotline help or manual announcements, anything would do as long as each parent knows what’s going on.

This team needs to be brave and uptight to evacuate students in a smooth manner. On the other hand, this team will also be responsible for guiding parents regarding the easiest way to track their children to escort each child to their parents safely.  Reference: The Comprehensive School Crisis Team: Roles and Responsibilities Slideshow

• • 3. Accessibility of Behavioral Health and Therapy

The school should introduce behavioral health classes or therapy sessions for each student to keep a check on their mental health. Another factor why this is important is because students themselves can detect unusual behavior in their classmates. Making a safe place at school for expression can also help children report if they see other students behaving weirdly, which could ultimately avoid a massive disaster and save young, precious lives.

The Master Plan

Let’s say there is an uncalled-for emergency at the school. How will the authorities find out? There are a number of other popular security measures like;

• • • CCTV camera footage – for which there needs to be someone who is monitoring each person in the building.
    • Panic buttons would work well if they are more in number and are scattered around the building, and students are briefed on how to use them so that the important is called without delay.
    • A reunification plan – in evacuation cases where children are to be safely handed to their parents.
    • Through broadcasting – with lives, social media, updates, radio alerts, anything that could be used. Whatever the situation needs to be broadcasted on a large scale so that more people know about it and quick action is taken.  Active Defender private mass broadcast is a suggested best practice to broadcast to all staff parents and students without have to always use public broadcasts.
      Reference: Crisis Communications Plan

Final Words

The protection and safety of students are the utmost priority of the school, and keeping the kids safe is why it is essential that they go above and beyond in efforts to maintain peace in a school. Even though emergencies can’t be avoided, the school administration should do their best to secure the students’ lives and mental health. It is their job to handle every situation responsibly, and this calls for immense planning and smooth execution at the scene.

All in all, to make the security measures stronger, a reunification plan needs to be in motion in case of an evacuation. Good plans provide peace of mind for teachers and essential protection for our students.