Resources For Schools

How to prepare your school, staff and students for disasters and emergencies

Preparation Tips for Your School

Schools give children more than an academic education, providing consistent routine, social support, life skills, maybe even meals. Any disruption in those connections can be deeply distressing – for students and for you and your colleagues. The Red Cross can help you prepare for disasters and emergencies in order to minimize the risks to your school and community.

Is your school prepared for emergency? If you’re like most of us, the answer is no, you’re not as prepared as you would like to be. It can be difficult to know where to begin – and where to go from there.

That’s why we created American Red Cross Ready Rating™. This free, self-paced membership program begins with a self-assessment of your level of preparedness to reveal areas for improvement and helps you track your school’s progress in increasing your preparedness through a customized, OSHA compliant Emergency Action Plan. As a Ready Rating member, you will also gain access to a Resource Center with additional information and tools to prepare your school.

Get Started >

In an emergency, your teachers and other staff may be called upon to help ill or injured students. Are they equipped with the skills and confidence they’ll need? As the leading provider of OSHA-compliant health and safety training, the Red Cross can help your team prepare for a crisis.

Learn More >

Preparation Tips for Your Staff

Disasters and emergencies can strike any time, anywhere. That’s why the Red Cross encourages all households to become “Red Cross Ready” to weather a crisis. If your faculty and staff are Red Cross Ready at home, any emergencies they face may have less of a disruptive effect at work. And the knowledge and skills they develop can be brought into the classroom to help students and families become better prepared too.

Be sure you’re Red Cross Ready. That means:

1.
Assembling an emergency preparedness kit.
2.
Creating a household evacuation plan that includes your pets.
3.
Staying informed about your community’s risk and response plans.

More Ways Your Staff Can Prepare

Download the FREE Emergency App

Find our Emergency App in the Apple Store or Google Play

Or text: "GETEMERGENCY" to 90999

Aplicación de Emergencias - ahora disponible en español también!

Download the FREE First Aid App

Find our First Aid App in the Apple Store or Google Play

Or text: "GETFIRST" to 90999

App sponsored by Monsanto

Preparation Tips for Your Students

The American Red Cross works closely with schools and youth-serving organizations to raise awareness of disaster risk and build resiliency among young people. Our age-appropriate preparedness materials include engaging activities and easy action steps that your students will find both fun and effective.

The Pillowcase Project, sponsored by Disney, is a preparedness education program for grades 3 – 5 that teaches students about personal and family preparedness and safety skills, local hazards, and basic coping skills. Red Cross volunteers lead students through a “learn, practice, share” framework to engage them in disaster preparedness and survival skills. Upon completion, students receive a sturdy pillowcase in which to build their personal emergency supplies kit.

Available in 40 and 60 minute formats, this presentation is perfect for schools, after-school programs, Girl and Boy Scout troop meetings, and more. Presentations are customized to focus on a hazard that is important and relevant to the local community.

Fill out this form to request information, request a presentation, or become a volunteer with the program in your area.

For downloadable resources including lesson plans and activity sheets to teach youth of all ages about emergencies and preparedness actions they can take, visit Ready.gov/kids and click on the Educators tab. Resources are available for 4 Levels of youth, and for their parents.

Download the cobranded Red Cross and Disney Mickey and Friends Disaster Preparedness Activity Book, which teaches youth how to be prepared and stay safe during disasters. Using interactive games and activities, children and their families learn how to be better prepared for the unexpected in a safe and stress free environment.

Available in English and Spanish.

Download the Disney Action Kit to help your students learn what to put inside of their emergency preparedness kit or pillowcase, how to make a family plan, and additional steps to stay safe during an emergency.

Download the FREE Monster Guard App

The fun way to get prepared for real-life emergencies at home. For kids aged 7-11. Available in the Apple Store or Google Play

Or text "MONSTER" to 90999

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