Minnesota School Safety Center Statewide Training Program
The MNSSC offers several free training programs and classes to assist school districts with emergency planning. School Safety Center staff members train public safety professionals and work with individual school districts to enhance school safety across the state. Trainings can be provided in greater Minnesota as well as the metro area.
Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools
This training is a designed to be a 2 or 2½ day course which covers basic information about developing, implementing and maintaining a school crisis plan. The topics addressed in this course include: understanding incident management; forming the planning team; developing a school emergency operations plan (crisis plan); and incorporating the Incident Command System principles and roles in the school emergency operations plan.
Tools for Schools: the 20 minute tabletop
This training is a 1 to 2 hour course in which our staff will demonstrate how to facilitate a tabletop exercise. It involves a step-by-step process and open discussion based on considerations, options and final actions to a probable and realistic scenario. Practicing this short tabletop exercise can help schools identify gaps in their written crisis plans and to better gauge how these plans would work in a real emergency.
School Resource Officer (SRO) Training
The SRO training is a 3 day course designed to assist School Resource Officers with maximizing their effectiveness in the delivery of law enforcement services in schools and help in preparing them to work in an educational environment. Topics include: contemporary school resource officer programs, SRO roles and responsibilities, supervising and evaluating the SRO and the program, contracts and Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), adolescent brain development, special education laws/concerns, social networking, cyber bullying/stalking/harassment, sexting, investigative technology and strategies addressing social media sites, law and policy pertaining to juveniles and schools, history of school violence, threat assessment, all-hazards emergency planning and response for schools, drills and exercises (bomb threats, school shooter/intruder, terrorist events, property crimes, fights, disturbances), safe-school facility self-assessment.
Facility Safe School Self-Assessment
This course is designed to be delivered in one of two ways; a 1 to 2 hour presentation for multiple school districts or a 3 to 4 hour hands on approach within one school district. The MnSSC has developed a Safe School Self-Assessment checklist for schools to use when conducting their own assessments, however some schools have asked for assistance while conducting their initial assessment. This training provides that support with instructors who will assist assessment teams in finding hazards and discuss best practices to mitigate those hazards.
Threat Assessment in Schools
This half day course provides guidance to schools on how to develop a threat assessment program which includes developing the school threat assessment team and guidance (key questions to answer) when conducting a threat assessment and making a determination. A school threat assessment program is a process for identifying, assessing, and managing students who may pose a threat of targeted violence in schools.
School Shooter / Intruder / Lockdown Enhancement Training
This training is a 3 hour course that can help schools develop strategies to prevent and prepare for potential school shooter/intruder situations. This course provides guidance to school staff so that they can prepare to respond to an intruder situation including universal emergency response procedures, lockdown enhancements and current best practices.
Responding to Bomb Threats
This awareness level 4 hour course provides assistance and guidance to school staff, who may be confronted with a school bomb threat, to evaluate the threat and make a decision on how to respond.
The Art of De-Escalation
This training is a one to two hour course designed to assist participants in developing communication tools to use during difficult situations or crises. Attendees will learn effective ways to remain in control of a situation while maintaining professionalism; will be able to apply techniques of crisis communications to almost any situation involving individuals who are upset, uncooperative or threatening; and learn the 5 basic steps of crisis communications.
Online Training Resources
The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers several free distance learning programs related to emergency management in schools.
This training focuses on the basic operation of the Incident Command System used by emergency responders nationwide in their response to emergencies and its application for managing school emergencies. Recommended for: superintendents, school administrators, school safety directors, and other school staff assigned to leadership roles in emergency response including district and building response team members.
This course covers emergency management operations, assessing potential hazards in schools and developing and testing a school emergency plan. It provides a useful overview for members of district and building response teams as well as all district employees.
This course provides guidance for emergency managers and implementers of children’s programs on meeting the unique needs of children as a result of a disaster or emergency. Recommended for student support services personnel and all school staff.
This course introduces and overviews the National Incident Management System (NIMS) that provides a nationwide template enabling all government, private-sector, and nongovernment organizations to work together in emergencies. Recommended for superintendents, school administrators, school safety directors and other school leadership personnel involved in district and building emergency response teams.
The U.S. Department of Education offers a series webinars on school emergency management. These classes are recommended for school administrators, school leadership staff, school safety directors and other school staff involved in emergency preparedness, response and recovery.
New Mexico Tech, under contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, developed an online training for first responders and school personnel who may respond to bomb-related incidents in schools.
Understanding and Planning for School Bomb Incidents (UPSBI)
This course discusses the components of a school’s response plan specific to responding to a bomb incident. It includes a section on threat assessment, defines critical actions for response, and ways schools can reduce their risk.
Congress and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium to develop and deliver relevant all-hazards training that reflects the needs of rural emergency responders and their communities. All training delivered by the RDPC is certified by DHS and is free.
AWR 148-W Crisis Management for School-based Incidents: Partnering Rural Law Enforcement and Local School Systems
This training provides a foundation of knowledge and skills that will enable rural law enforcement and school districts to establish school-based emergency response plans.
AWR 208-W Crisis Management in a Rural School
This course is designed to introduce principles and techniques for a coordinated response between first responders and school districts.