WASHINGTON — Many D.C. Public Schools are skipping emergency drills, such as fire drills and lockdowns, according to a recent watchdog report. And a handful of schools may not have held any drills at all in some recent years.
Now, DCPS officials say they plan to start monitoring whether schools are actually conducting the safety drills.
Of 20 schools reviewed by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General for a special evaluation published Sept. 19, only one had completed the required number of emergency drills in the previous school year.
For seven schools, inspectors could not find any evidence the schools had held a single emergency drill in the 2014-2015 school year.
In a written response to the report, DCPS said it plans to launch an emergency planning team to come up with a “complete action plan” for monitoring schools’ emergency-response efforts.
The new team launches Monday.
Michelle Lerner, a spokeswoman for DCPS, declined to answer WTOP’s specific questions about the report or the new team. In an emailed statement, Lerner said: “The safety and security of our students and staff is our number one priority. We concur with many of the recommendations set forth in the report and are moving forward, including ensuring that all of our schools meet requirements set forth and are prepared for emergencies.”
‘Quite concerning’
Ken Trump, an independent school safety expert, told WTOP it’s not uncommon for schools to skimp on some aspects of emergency planning.
However, the fact that some D.C. schools reported performing no drills “is quite concerning,” he said.
“We have to make time in our school leadership planning to incorporate school safety,” he added. “Parents will forgive school officials if their test scores go down. They’re much less forgiving if something happens to their kid that could have been prevented or better responded to if it did occur.”
Among the other missteps uncovered in the report:
- 40 percent of D.C. schools had no written emergency plans on file;
- There was “little evidence” that schools were providing adequate staff training for dealing with emergencies; and
- D.C. Fire and Rescue Service, which is supposed to review and sign off on schools’ individual emergency-response plans, had not approved any of them for the school year reviewed by inspectors.
D.C. guidelines require schools to hold at least 11 fire drills during the school year and at least two emergency-evacuation drills, one severe-weather drill and two lockdown drills annually.
Only 10 percent of the schools reviewed by inspectors held the required number of fire drills and lockdowns, according to records reviewed by the IG. A quarter of schools held the required number of severe-weather drills and just 5 percent of schools held the required number of emergency evacuation drills.
Too many drills, not enough time?
For the report, inspectors randomly selected 20 schools (out of the 109 schools that were open in the District in the 2014-2015 school year) and examined online records submitted by school principals tracking when their schools hold drills. Inspectors then followed up with principals to ask for additional documentation and even asked DCPS to prod the schools into handing over records.
“Those efforts yielded little evidence of drills being conducted,” Jaime Yarussi, a spokeswoman for the D.C. inspector general, told WTOP in an email.
The report did not name any of the schools.
Some D.C. principals told inspectors they were not adequately informed of drill requirements and some said they found it challenging to find time to hold all the drills, according to the report.
“We find that in many cases, there’s a competition not only for money, but also a competition for time,” Trump said. “With all of the academic demands, short of a crisis in your own school district, your own backyard at a given point in time, school safety often falls to the back burner.”
Inspectors also found DCPS leadership lacked specific procedures and dedicated staff to track whether schools were actually performing emergency drills.
Not just paper-pushing
The IG said the lack of drills increases the risk that “school staff may not understand how they must communicate and coordinate their activities to be effective during an emergency.”
Trump said emergency planning isn’t just an exercise in paper-pushing, pointing to the shooting in South Carolina last week, in which a 14-year-old opened fire on an elementary school playground, injuring two students and a teacher.
“The sheriff credited school officials for having a plan that was properly executed as the shooting incident unfolded outside,” Trump said. “Seconds can save lives. Minutes can cost lives. And we want to make sure that school officials have taken reasonable steps to reduce risks and to plan and train their staff.”
DCPS did not dispute the inspector’s findings.
In its written response to the report, DCPS said the new emergency planning team, which will be situated in the School Safety Unit, has a dedicated budget and will be staffed by two full-time employees.
Also, DCPS is interested in acquiring new software from the U.S. Department of Education through which schools will be able to track monthly drills and other emergency-response planning efforts.
DCPS told inspectors they will also send principals monthly reminders about holding drills.
