U.S. schools fall short in preparing for emergencies

WASHINGTON -- When it comes to preparing for emergencies, the nation's schools could be getting better grades.

While most school districts have plans for dealing with emergencies such as terrorist attacks, hurricanes or flu pandemics, those plans often fall short of what is needed, according to an analysis by the congressional Government Accountability Office. For example:

• About half of school districts don't have plans for continuing to educate students in the event of a lengthy school closure.
• School districts generally are not working with first responders or other community officials on how to implement emergency plans.
• Twenty-eight percent of school districts with emergency plans do not have specific provisions for evacuating students with disabilities in an emergency.
• Two-thirds of districts reported a lack of expertise and equipment such as two-way radios and adequate locks for school buildings as impediments to emergency planning.

The agency's findings were summarized Thursday by Cornelia Ashby, GAO director of education issues, for the House Homeland Security Committee.

Holly Kuzmich, deputy chief of staff at the Education Department, said the department requires school districts to certify that they have emergency management plans before they can get grants under the Safe and Drug-free Schools and Communities program. But Kuzmich acknowledged the department doesn't assess the quality of those emergency plans.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said he intends to change that. "I assure you that we will tighten that part of the requirement up, so there is some review of whatever is submitted," he said.

Lawmakers criticized the Bush administration for targeting for cuts a program that provides grants to districts to keep schools free of drugs and violence.

The administration wants to cut the Safe and Drug-Free Schools grant program from $300 million to about $100 million and wants to give the money to states to dole out, rather than directly to districts, Kuzmich said.

Lawmakers and witnesses also criticized the quality of data available on school violence.

Generally such information comes from surveys of principals and students rather than from actual crime data such as police reports, said Ken Trump, a consultant on school safety issues.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., is pushing legislation that would require federal education officials to collect data on crimes that occur at schools from law enforcement officials. The information would then have to be passed along to states.

"If we don't have correct data up to date, we don't know what schools are actually violent," McCarthy said.

Trump said the 2002 No Child Left Behind law has placed so much pressure on school administrators to boost academic scores that school safety issues have been relegated to the back burner.

The education law includes a provision that allows students in schools labeled "persistently dangerous" to transfer to other schools. However, very few schools are ever given that designation. The largest state, California, has never had a single school labeled persistently dangerous.

Robert Sica, a special agent in charge at the Threat Assessment Center at the Homeland Security Department, said assailants usually tell other people about attacks before they occur and typically are planning violence in a misguided attempt to solve a problem.

"Despite all of our best efforts, we will never prevent every incident of targeted violence in schools -- and I think we have to accept that," Sica said.

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On the Net:

House Committee on Homeland Security:

http://homeland.house.gov/