Key takeaways
- One in-service day gives staff a single exposure to a lot of material. Learning research shows people forget much of what they learn once.
- A federal practice guide on learning recommends reviewing key material after a delay of weeks to months, and using quizzes to bring it back. An influential review rated spaced practice and practice testing the most useful of ten study techniques it examined.
- That research mostly involves students, not school staff responding to emergencies, so the honest claim is modest: spacing and quizzing are well supported ways to help people remember.
- Federal school planning guidance calls for at least one annual meeting on the plan, training for substitutes and skills training for people with special roles.
- A practical model for small schools: one kickoff session plus a few minutes of review each month, with a short check question and a simple completion number.
School staff safety training works best as a habit, not an event. Keep your annual in-service day, then add short monthly refreshers with a quick quiz, so the procedures staff need in a crisis stay familiar all year.
By the ProtectED team. Last updated: October 2026.
Why is one in-service day not enough for school safety training?
Picture the typical August in-service: the emergency plan, fire routes, lockdown, medical procedures, visitor rules and reporting, all in one afternoon, alongside everything else. Then nothing until next August.
Two problems follow. First, there is a lot to absorb in one sitting. Second, the procedures most needed in an emergency are the ones staff use least, so they get no natural review during the year. By spring, a teacher may remember that a procedure exists but not the steps.
What does learning research say about spacing and quizzing?
The strongest summary for educators comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Its practice guide, Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning (2007), was written by a panel of learning researchers. Two of its recommendations apply directly:
- Space learning over time (rated moderate evidence). The panel recommends exposing learners to key concepts on at least two occasions separated by several weeks to several months, noting that delayed review often markedly increases how much people remember. The full guide also says to expect substantial forgetting at first, and that relearning is easier than the original learning and slows later forgetting.
- Use quizzes to re-expose learners to key content (rated strong evidence). The guide says taking a quiz can directly promote learning and reduce the rate at which information is forgotten.
A widely cited 2013 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, led by John Dunlosky and Katherine Rawson of Kent State University, compared ten common learning techniques. As the Association for Psychological Science summarized, two received the highest overall utility rating: practice testing and distributed practice (spacing study over time).
An honest limit: this research mostly studies students learning academic content. We are not aware of strong studies that test spaced, quiz-based training specifically for school staff emergency procedures. The principles are well supported and low cost to apply, but treat them as sound guidance, not a guarantee.
What does federal guidance say staff should be trained on?
The Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans treats training as part of keeping a plan alive. It recommends:
- At least one meeting a year to walk everyone through the plan
- Showing staff where evacuation, reunification, media and triage areas will be
- Quick reference guides that remind staff of key actions
- Posting key information, such as evacuation routes, throughout the building
- Training for specific skills tied to roles, such as first aid
- Training substitute teachers on the plan and their roles
The 2026 drill guidance from NASP, NASRO and Safe and Sound Schools adds an important point: students look to the adults in charge, and when adults are well trained and calm, students are more likely to follow. It calls for training adults carefully, responsibly and continually, and for preparing staff to recognize common trauma reactions before drills.
Who needs safety training at a small private school?
Everyone who supervises children or works in your building:
- Classroom teachers and assistants
- Substitutes and long-term subs
- Front office and admissions staff (often the first to meet a visitor)
- Coaches and aftercare staff, who are with students outside normal hours
- Bus drivers and carpool staff
- Facilities, food service and custodial staff
- Regular volunteers
New hires should not wait for next August. Give them the essentials in their first week.
What should a year of staff safety training cover?
Here is a sample monthly plan. Keep each refresher short, focused on one topic, and end it with two or three questions.
| Month | Refresher topic |
|---|---|
| August | Plan overview, roles and who is in charge if the head of school is away |
| September | Fire evacuation routes and accounting for every student |
| October | Lockdown basics |
| November | Visitor procedures and what to do about an unescorted adult |
| December | Medical emergencies and where first aid supplies are kept |
| January | Severe weather and shelter-in-place |
| February | Recognizing and reporting concerning behavior |
| March | Reunification: how students are released to verified adults |
| April | Communicating with families during an incident |
| May | Year in review: lessons from drill debriefs |
Time refreshers to land just before the matching drill when you can. A two-minute review of lockdown the week before a lockdown drill makes the drill itself a second, spaced exposure. See our sample drill calendar.
How do you know if staff safety training is working?
You do not need a learning management system. Track three things:
- Currency: the share of staff who completed this month’s refresher. One number is easier to act on than a binder of sign-in sheets.
- Misses: which quiz questions people get wrong. A question most staff miss tells you what to reteach.
- Drill results: whether problems from one drill debrief show up again in the next.
Are there federal online courses for school staff?
FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute offers online, self-paced courses that work well for staff with bigger roles:
- IS-362.a, Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools: designed for teachers, substitutes, counselors, parent volunteers, coaches and bus drivers. Listed at three hours.
- IS-100.c, Introduction to the Incident Command System: the basics of the command structure responders use. Listed at two hours.
These are good for your planning team and anyone who will lead during an incident. They are not a substitute for regular practice on your own school’s procedures.
How ProtectED helps
ProtectED’s Safety Minute gives every staff member a three-minute lesson each month of the school year, taken right in the app, on topics from published federal guidance: lockdown, evacuation, shelter in place, medical emergencies and more. Each lesson ends with a short quiz, completion and scores are recorded for every staff member, and your dashboard shows staff training completion as one percentage any time you look. Training currency also appears on your Parent Safety Page.
The Core plan covers up to 30 staff for $99 a month on a 12-month school-year plan, or $990 a year paid up front.
See where your staff training stands. The free Safety Snapshot takes about 12 minutes, needs no account, and includes training among its eight readiness areas. For the rest of the picture, read how to write a school emergency operations plan, what to tell parents about your safety plan and our school safety checklist.
Frequently asked questions
How often should school staff receive safety training? Federal planning guidance recommends at least one meeting a year to walk all parties through the emergency plan. Learning research suggests adding short refreshers spaced across the year, because reviewing material weeks or months later helps people remember it.
Is one annual in-service day enough for school safety training? It is a good start but rarely enough on its own. Research on learning shows substantial forgetting after a single exposure, and that spaced review and short quizzes help people retain information. Most of that research involves students, so treat it as a strong guide rather than proof for every setting.
Who needs safety training at a private school? Everyone who supervises children or works in the building: teachers, substitutes, front office staff, coaches, aftercare staff, bus drivers, facilities staff and regular volunteers. Federal guidance specifically says substitute teachers must be trained on the plan and their roles.
Are there federal online safety courses for school staff? FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute offers online courses such as IS-362.a, Multi-Hazard Emergency Planning for Schools (listed at three hours), and IS-100.c, Introduction to the Incident Command System (listed at two hours). Check the course pages for current details.
How do I know if staff safety training is working? Track the share of staff whose training is current, watch which quiz questions people miss, and compare drill debriefs over time. If the same mistakes repeat in drills, retrain on that topic.
Sources
- Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse, Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning (2007) and the full practice guide (PDF).
- Association for Psychological Science, Which Study Strategies Make the Grade?, summarizing Dunlosky et al. (2013), Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
- U.S. Department of Education et al., Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans (2013), hosted by the FBI.
- NASP, NASRO and Safe and Sound Schools, Best Practice Guidance for School Safety and Lockdown Drills (April 2026).
- FEMA Emergency Management Institute, IS-362.a and IS-100.c course pages.