Key takeaways
- A school emergency operations plan (EOP) is a written plan for what your school does before, during and after an emergency. Federal guidance for building one applies to public and nonpublic schools alike.
- The federal process has six steps: form a team, understand your situation, set goals and objectives, develop courses of action, write and approve the plan, then train, practice and maintain it.
- A complete plan has three parts: a basic plan, functional annexes (such as evacuation, lockdown and reunification) and threat- and hazard-specific annexes.
- Federal guidance says no part of a plan should go more than two years without review. Many schools review every year.
- Free federal tools exist. For most small schools, the hard part is finding the time, not finding a template.
To write an emergency operations plan for a small private school, follow the six-step process in the federal Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans. Build a small team that includes your local fire and police partners, assess the risks your campus actually faces, write clear actions for each one, get the plan approved and shared with responders, then train staff and practice it every year.
By the ProtectED team. Last updated: October 2026.
What is a school emergency operations plan?
A school EOP tells your staff who does what, and when, if something goes wrong: a fire, a medical emergency, severe weather or a threat near campus.
The standard reference is the Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans, published in 2013 by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Justice, together with the FBI and FEMA. It is written for public and nonpublic schools. Its planning principles are worth keeping in front of you: leadership supports the work, assessment fits the plan to your building, all threats and hazards are considered, the whole school community is included (including people with disabilities and limited English), and all settings and times are covered, from field trips to evening events.
Does a small private school need an emergency operations plan?
Whether your state legally requires a private school to have a written plan varies, so confirm with your state education agency. Even where no law applies, a written plan matters more at a small school, not less. With a lean staff, the person who usually makes decisions may be off campus when something happens. The federal guide specifically recommends spelling out who takes over decision-making when the school administrator is absent.
What are the six steps to writing a school EOP?
| Step | What you do | What you have at the end |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Form a collaborative planning team | Gather staff, a parent and community partners | A team, defined roles and a meeting schedule |
| 2. Understand the situation | Identify threats and hazards and assess risk | A prioritized list (high, medium, low) |
| 3. Determine goals and objectives | Set before, during and after goals for each priority | At least three goals per threat, hazard and function, with objectives |
| 4. Plan development | Write courses of action: what, who, when, where, why and how | Actions for every objective |
| 5. Plan preparation, review and approval | Draft, review, approve and share the plan | A final, approved EOP |
| 6. Plan implementation and maintenance | Train, exercise, review and revise | A plan people actually know |
Step 1: Form a collaborative planning team
The federal guide recommends a core team drawn from across the school (administrators, teachers, a nurse, facilities staff) plus a parent and community partners such as your fire department, law enforcement and local emergency management office. The guide’s test: small enough to collaborate closely, large enough that no single person carries the load. Set a regular meeting schedule.
Step 2: Understand the situation
List the threats and hazards your school could face. Start with what your team already knows, then ask your local emergency management office, fire department and police for information about what has affected your community before.
Next, assess risk: how likely each event is, how severe the impact would be, how much warning you would have and how long it might last. The guide also describes site, culture and climate, behavioral threat and capacity assessments. For the physical site, the CISA K-12 School Security Guide and its web-based School Security Assessment Tool walk you through a vulnerability review.
One point matters for rural campuses: the guide notes that if first responders would take a long time to arrive, your plan may need other measures to compensate.
Step 3: Determine goals and objectives
Decide which threats and hazards the plan will address. The guide recommends going beyond only the “high” risks. For each one, write at least three goals: one for before, one for during and one for after. Then add specific, measurable objectives.
Actions that repeat across hazards, such as evacuating and accounting for everyone, become your functional annexes.
Step 4: Plan development (courses of action)
For each objective, write the course of action: what happens, who does it, when, where, why and how. The guide suggests walking through a realistic scenario to test whether each action is feasible with the people and resources you actually have.
Step 5: Plan preparation, review and approval
The guide describes a traditional format with three sections:
- Basic plan: your overall approach, roles, authority and how the plan is maintained.
- Functional annexes: the guide covers evacuation, lockdown, shelter-in-place, accounting for all persons, communications and warning, family reunification, continuity of operations, recovery, public health, medical and mental health, and security.
- Threat- and hazard-specific annexes: for example, fire or severe weather.
Write for the person who will use it under stress. The guide recommends checklists, plain language, short sentences and, for classroom teachers, a one-page summary of what they need to know and do.
Check that the plan is adequate, feasible, acceptable, complete and consistent with state and local requirements. Then approve it, share it with responders and anyone else who uses your building, record who received a copy, and protect it from people not authorized to have it. Our article on what to tell parents about your safety plan covers that line in detail.
Step 6: Plan implementation and maintenance
A plan on a shelf does not protect anyone. The guide recommends:
- Training: at least one meeting a year to walk all parties through the plan, visits to evacuation and reunification sites, and training for substitute teachers. See why one in-service day is not enough.
- Exercises: building from tabletop discussions to drills and, where practical, larger exercises with community partners. Our guide to how often private schools should run drills has a sample calendar.
- Review: many schools review annually, and no part should go more than two years without review. Also update after real incidents, exercises, and changes in staff, facilities or policy.
Is there a free federal tool for writing a school EOP?
Yes. The REMS TA Center (U.S. Department of Education) built EOP ASSIST, free software that walks users through the six-step process and exports a customized plan. Two honest caveats for small schools:
- The software is designed to be installed on a server by IT personnel, at the state, regional, district or school level. Many small private schools do not have that capacity, so ask your state school safety center whether it hosts a copy.
- There is an offline EOP ASSIST Interactive Workbook that works in a PDF viewer and Microsoft Word. When we checked in October 2026, the REMS TA Center website was not loading, so the links above point to archived copies.
FEMA’s online course IS-362.a, Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools, is another solid starting point. It lists a course length of three hours.
Where do small private schools usually get stuck?
The friction is capacity, not the process. A head of school who also teaches and covers carpool rarely has spare weeks to write a dozen annexes and keep drills, training and reviews on schedule, so the plan drifts. Start with our school safety checklist for small private schools to see where you stand.
How ProtectED helps
ProtectED is a school safety program built for small private schools. Setup is about 10 minutes of questions about your campus. From your answers, it drafts 11 core safety protocols from published federal guidance, which you review and approve. It then puts a full year of drills on your calendar (drill autopilot), sends every staff member a 3-minute Safety Minute each month, and gives families a Parent Safety Page. It does not replace meeting your local fire and police partners, and we encourage every school to do that.
ProtectED is $99 a month on a 12-month school-year plan, or $990 a year paid up front, and it is parent-ready in 7 days or your money back.
Not sure where your plan stands? Take the free Safety Snapshot. It takes about 12 minutes, needs no account, and shows your readiness across eight areas with the three gaps worth closing first.
Frequently asked questions
Do private schools need an emergency operations plan? Legal requirements for private schools vary by state, so check with your state education agency. Federal planning guidance is written for both public and nonpublic schools, and a written plan is what lets a small staff act quickly when the head of school is not in the building.
What are the six steps for writing a school emergency operations plan? The federal Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans lists six steps: form a collaborative planning team, understand the situation, determine goals and objectives, develop courses of action, prepare, review and approve the plan, then implement and maintain it.
How often should a school update its emergency operations plan? The federal guide notes that many schools review their plans every year and says no part of a plan should go more than two years without review and revision. It also recommends updates after real incidents, exercises, and changes in staff, facilities or policy.
Is there a free template for a school emergency operations plan? The REMS TA Center created EOP ASSIST, free software that walks users through the six-step process and exports a plan, and an offline EOP ASSIST Interactive Workbook. Your state school safety center may also offer a template.
Who should be on a small school’s emergency planning team? Include an administrator, a few teachers, whoever manages facilities, a nurse or first aid lead if you have one, a parent, and local partners such as your fire department and law enforcement. Federal guidance says the team should be small enough to work closely but large enough that no one person carries the load.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education et al., Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans (2013), hosted by the FBI.
- REMS TA Center, EOP ASSIST (archived page).
- REMS TA Center, EOP ASSIST Interactive Workbook (archived page).
- CISA, K-12 School Security Guide Product Suite.
- FEMA Emergency Management Institute, IS-362.a: Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools.