Are U.S. Schools Failing Risk Management Standards?

Here's food for thought: during the more than 2,000 average hours that U.S. adults are away at work each year, 68 million children are entrusted to paid caregivers.  

The most recent annual school disaster-planning report card from the Save the Children foundation, which tracks how the 50 states live up to mandating preparedness standards among public schools and daycare centers,  shows that the number of states fully meeting each principle has increased from four in 2008 to 17 in 2012.

If you do the math, a whopping 66 percent U.S. states are still not prepared to protect their young charges in the case of a disaster.

"The incentive for public-school risk management planning has to come from the state, which provides most of a school's budget," says Mike Liebowitz (pictured), director of risk management and insurance at New York University.

"Hypothetically, property insurers can give building owners safety incentives, such as a premium reduction for implementing flood-proof design in flood zones. However, property protection comes second to protecting a life—you only get one. Ultimately, school safety should be officially mandated, not unlike disaster planning in hospitals."

The report measures school preparedness by four standards:

1. The state requires all regulated child care facilities—K-12 and daycare—to have written evacuation plans for multiple types of disasters.

2. The state mandates a written plan to notify parents of an emergency, and another to reunite them with their children.

3. The state mandates a written plan for evacuating infants, toddlers and special-needs children with behavioral, physical, emotional or mental challenges.

4. The state requires multiple-scenario evacuation plans for at least public schools K through grade 12.  

The report shows that 27 states do not require all regulated child care facilities to have a disaster plan for kids with disabilities, or those with access and functional needs such as infants and toddlers. Dependent infants and toddlers make up 2 million of the children that may be affected by a disaster while in school, along with thousands of disabled children who need additional emotional, cognitive or mobility support from their caregivers.

Maryland made emergency preparedness a priority following repeat disasters such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11, an F4 tornado in April 2002, and the Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings that same year. When an earthquake struck in 2011, the state's most vulnerable students were protected. For example, when YMCA staff in Bowie, Maryland, felt earthquake tremors during naptime on August 23, 2011, they moved the sleeping children away from windows, placed the youngest in evacuation cribs, grabbed ready-made emergency bags for each child and moved into the hallway. The staff also accounted for the several students with disabilities.

Whether given national attention or not, 387 school shootings have been recorded since 1992, with 69 percent of the victims between the ages of 10 to 19. The most recent publicized tragedy in Sandy Hook, C.T., took the lives of 20 students and six adults in December 2013, imprinting that danger can come from within a student body or from trespassers.

"School shooting protection must be addressed on all levels, starting with the training of faculty and the administration, the students depending on their age, and screening of individuals coming in and out of the building. I'd start by bringing in a representative from the local police department who can provide insight into protecting students in a hostile situation," says Liebowitz. "Schools are all going to say they have limited funds to do things, but it shouldn't be an obstacle to emergency training, which you can do relatively inexpensively with the resources available in most towns. Drills aren't done everywhere, especially among elementary schools."