PREPaRE trains school-employed mental health professionals and other educators how to best fill the roles and responsibilities generated by their membership on school crisis response teams. PREPaRE is the only comprehensive, nationally available training curriculum developed by educators (each of whom have firsthand school crisis response experience and formal training) for educators. The curriculum is based on the following assumptions:

1. The skill sets of school-based professionals are best utilized when they are embedded within a multidisciplinary team that engages in crisis prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.
2. School crisis management is relatively unique and, as such, requires its own model.
3. By virtue of their professional training and job functions, school-employed mental health professionals are best prepared to address the mental health issues associated with school crises.

Specifically, the PREPaRE model emphasizes that members of a school crisis response teams must be involved in the following hierarchical and sequential set of activities:

• P—Prevent and prepare for crises
• R—Reaffirm physical health & welfare, and perceptions of safety & security
• E—Evaluate psychological trauma risk
• P—Provide interventions
• a—and
• R—Respond to mental health needs
• E—Examine the effectiveness of crisis preparedness

The model incorporates foundational documents provided by the U.S. Departments of Education (2013, 2019) and Homeland Security (2008). Specifically, the PREPaRE model describes crisis response team activities as occurring during the five mission phases of a crisis: (a) prevention (b) protection, (c) mitigation, (d) response, and (e) recovery. It also incorporates the U.S. Department of Education’s Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) guidance, and the Incident Command System (ICS) as delineated by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The empirical foundations for PREPaRE are detailed in School Crisis Prevention and Intervention: The PREPaRE Model (2nd ed.; Brock et al., 2016).

References

Brock, S. E., Nickerson, A. B., Louvar Reeves, M. A., Conolly, C. N., Jimerson, S. R., Pesce, R. C., & Lazzaro, B. R. (2016). School crisis prevention and intervention: The PREPaRE model (2nd ed.). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

U.S. Department of Education. (2019). The role of districts in developing high-quality school emergency operations plans. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://rems.ed.gov/docs/District_Guide_508C.pdf

U.S. Department of Education. (2013, June). Guide for developing high-quality school emergency operations plans. Washington, DC: Author: Retrieved from http://rems.ed.gov/docs/REMS_ K-12_Guide_508.pdf

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2008, December). National Incident Management System. Retrieved from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/NIMS_core.pdf