School safety training should do more than check a box. Your school needs training that helps every member of the community understand one thing: what to do when something goes wrong.
That means moving beyond annual presentations and one-size-fits-all sessions. Effective programs are clear, role-specific, and practiced regularly, and they include the people who aren't in the building every day.
Here are five ways to strengthen your safety training for the 2026-2027 school year.
1. Start With the Basics: Know What to Do
An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is only effective if people know how to use it. Staff should understand their responsibilities before, during, and after an emergency, and drills should give them a chance to practice the protective actions the plan outlines.
Start with a common baseline for everyone: How will the school communicate? Where should I go? Whom do I call? What does a lockdown or shelter-in-place mean?
Then build role-specific depth. The expectations for a classroom teacher differ from those for an administrator, a facilities staff member, or a member of the emergency response team.
Don't overlook substitutes, coaches, and volunteers. A one-page quick-reference card posted in classrooms and included in substitute folders can reinforce the basics for anyone who missed formal training.
2. Know How to Report, and What Happens Next
School safety also depends on recognizing and reporting concerning behavior.
Every employee should know how to report a concern and what happens after they raise one. Behavioral threat assessment (BTA) team members need deeper training. The National Center for School Safety polled safety experts on the topics BTA teams should cover, and the top answers included:
- Principles of threat assessment
- What behaviors warrant assessment
- How to evaluate the seriousness of a concern
- The role of each team member
Addressing student well-being is a safety issue in its own right, and a multidisciplinary approach should weigh both potential risk and the support a student may need.
3. Make Drills Practical
Rather than simulate the chaos or violence that can accompany a real emergency, drills should teach protective actions, like evacuating or staying in place, so students and adults understand what to do.
Staff should know how to initiate a lockdown or other emergency procedure, and understand actions like securing doors, turning off lights when appropriate, staying out of sight, and remaining quiet.
Drills should happen regularly enough to build familiarity, and every drill should end with an evaluation: What worked? What didn't? Who was uncertain? What needs to change?
4. Cybersecurity Training Doesn't End When Someone Clicks
Phishing awareness matters, but schools also need to train employees on what to do after a mistake happens.
Staff should know how to report a suspicious email, a compromised account, or another potential incident, and understand that reporting it early limits the impact.
The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools recommend annual awareness training, phishing simulations, additional training for privileged users, and remedial training after incidents. Tabletop exercises that test cybersecurity incident response, business continuity, and disaster recovery round out a strong program.
5. Boards Need to Know Their Role, Too
Trustees aren't emergency managers, but they still need to understand their role during a crisis.
Board training can cover crisis communications, governance boundaries, succession planning, and business continuity. Scenario-based exercises help trustees understand what information they should expect to receive, how to handle questions they aren't positioned to answer, and how to support school leadership during a crisis.
From Training to Readiness
Emergency preparedness, behavioral threat assessment, lockdown procedures, cybersecurity, and crisis communications work best as connected parts of one program rather than five separate ones.
For the 2026-2027 school year, that connection is what helps a school community stay prepared, confident, and clear on what to do next.
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