In Louisiana, schools are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of their students during emergency situations, such as natural disasters. To ensure that personnel have access to the necessary information during these times, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has established an emergency preparedness and recovery contact point. This contact is responsible for entering and maintaining emergency preparedness and recovery information for the school. In the event of an impending emergency, the LDOE will contact the designated representative to remind them to complete and maintain the emergency preparedness and recovery panel. The Louisiana State Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is a structure for organizing and coordinating state resources by area of function.
This structure helps to ensure that assistance is delivered quickly and efficiently to communities affected by a disaster. The functions are classified according to the type of support or resource provided or managed in the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and its subcomponent, the Incident Command System (ICS). In addition to the ESFs identified within the NIMS structure, Louisiana has included Military Support as an ESF. The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services has primary responsibility for coordinating with local, parish and tribal governments, state and federal entities, support agencies, and non-governmental organizations to address the needs of mass non-medical care, emergency assistance, housing, and human services of disaster victims. All public elementary and secondary schools in Louisiana are required to prepare, maintain and implement a crisis management and response plan to help ensure that all students, teachers and school employees are in a safe facility and prepared to respond in the event of an emergency incident or disaster. The REMS Technical Assistance Center website provides free resources, training, and technical assistance (TA) for schools and their community partners.
It includes many tools and resources on emergency planning and responding to infectious disease outbreaks. The six-step school emergency preparedness and management (REMS) process helps create plans to continuously build and promote safe and healthy school communities before, during and after potential emergencies. The Emergency Management Institute also offers self-paced courses designed for people with emergency management responsibilities as well as for the general public. With these resources in place, Louisiana's emergency response system ensures that personnel have access to necessary information during an emergency situation.
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