School Response Protocol
Standard Response Protocol
District 742 uses Standard Response Protocol, a uniform, planned and practiced response to any incident, as the foundation of a safe school and community. SRP is action-based, flexible and easy to learn. It rationally organizes tactics for response to weather events, fires, accidents, intruders and other threats to personal safety.
SRP is ever-evolving, created with extensive collaboration between experts such as first responders, public safety, schools, districts and communities. Its tactics are data-driven, researched, and based on experience and contemporary practices.
SRP is based on the response to any given situation, not on individual scenarios. SRP demands a specific vocabulary but also allows for great flexibility. The premise is simple - any of these five specific actions can be performed during an incident. When communicating these, the action is labeled with a "Term of Art" and is then followed by a "Directive." Execution of the action is performed by active participants.
It's Action Based
Hold is followed by the Directive: "In Your Room or Area" and is the protocol used when hallways need to be kept clear of occupants.
Secure is followed by the Directive: "Get Inside. Lock Outside Doors" and is the protocol used to safeguard people within the building.
Lockdown is followed by "Locks, Lights, Out of Sight" and is the protocol used to secure individual rooms and keep occupants quiet and in place.
Evacuate may be followed by a location, and is used to move people from one location to a different location in or out of the building.
Shelter and state the Hazard and Safety Strategy for group and self-protection.
Everyone is on the Same Page
The benefits of SRP become quickly apparent. By standardizing the vocabulary, all stakeholders can understand the response and status of the event.
For students, this provides continuity of expectations and actions throughout their educational career. For teachers, this becomes a simpler process to train and drill. For communities, it leverages the growing adoption of the protocols from residents of all ages. For first responders, the common vocabulary and protocols establish a greater predictability that persists through the duration of an incident.
People easily understand the practices and can reinforce the protocol. Additionally, this protocol enables rapid response determination when an unforeseen event occurs.
Parent Reunification
Circumstances may occur at the school that require parents to pick up their students in a formalized, controlled release. The process of controlled release is called a reunification and may be necessary due to weather, a power outage, a hazmat event, danger outside the school or if a crisis occurs at the school. The Standard Reunification Method is a protocol that makes this process more predictable and less chaotic for all involved.
Because a controlled release is not a typical end-of-school-day event, a reunification may occur at a different location than the school a student attends. If this location is another school, then those students may be subject to a controlled release as well.