The Arlington Public Schools Emergency Management Plan embraces a strong emphasis on strategies that focus on preventing and preparing for emergencies of all kinds that could impact our operations.
Our school system provides some of the most influential and crucial experiences in a young person’s life, such as helping students establish themselves within the community, identifying future educational and career goals, developing lifelong social and emotional skills, and fostering connections with peers and mentors. As we remain committed to our noble mission, student success and well-being can be directly attributed to feeling safe in school.
Arlington Public Schools is committed to providing a safe learning and working environment. Many strategies are used to assist the school division in both awareness and preparedness regarding emergency situations. Emergency Response plans are developed to outline APS and standard response protocols to a variety of situations.
These plans are supported by established best practices and thoughtful consideration for the well-being of each individual school community. The State of Virginia and APS adopted the I Love U Guys Foundation’s Standard Response Protocol (SRP) to provide guidance for general response to any incident. The SRP is action-based and covers all hazards in nature. It does not focus on the variety of scenarios schools might face but rather a set of actions schools can implement to protect staff and students. SRP demands a specific vocabulary but also allows for great flexibility and use of situational awareness to determine the level of implementation.
In addition to the SRP actions listed below, there are hazard-specific threats that must be planned for in accordance with the Code of Virginia § 22.1-279.8.A. These threats may utilize the SRP action they are listed under as a primary response with additional actions assigned to school crisis team members.
This video, designed for Arlington Public Schools parents, provides an overview of the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and the Standard Reunification Method. Viewers will learn about scenarios where specific SRP actions are implemented, gaining insight into appropriate responses, and understand how the reunification process works. The video covers self-protective strategies, introduces the RACE and BATH acronyms used for different grade levels, and explains parent expectations during campus visits and emergencies. Specifically, this video offers an overview of the following information for parents:
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