No Arizona Schools Tested Their Emergency Plans Or Met State Minimum Standards
By Staff Reporter |
None of Arizona’s schools have fully implemented and tested their emergency plans, nor did they fully meet the state’s minimum standards.
The Arizona Auditor General published a new report on Monday finding that no schools throughout the state met Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) Minimum Standards. Those standards were developed jointly by the Arizona Departments of Education (ADE) and Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA). The auditor general determined that some of the standards were “too vague, may be impractical, or lack a clear purpose,” therefore hindering adequate adherence.
In its report, the auditor general found that most schools had fewer than half of EOP Minimum Standards, and some charter schools didn’t have any EOPs.
“Most schools we visited had not provided emergency procedures training to all staff, including substitute teachers; had not conducted all required safety drills; and had not posted certain safety reference materials, which could affect their preparedness to respond to emergencies,” read the auditor general’s report summary.
The auditor general determined that all schools needed increased outreach, guidance, and training on emergency planning.
Schools don’t have the entire burden of change on them, however. The auditor general also determined that ADE and DEMA had greater responsibilities ahead of them to ensure improved EOP Minimum Standards compliance: ensuring charters know their responsibilities to develop EOPs, analyzing staffing and resources needed to initiate compliance monitoring processes, communicating the monitoring plan and authority resource needs to the governor and legislature, evaluating what additional guidance is needed for school compliance and providing necessary assistance, and completing a comprehensive standards review with stakeholder involvement and working with stakeholders to clarify emergency response agencies’ roles in EOP development.
While ADE agreed to the changes recommended by the auditor general, DEMA did not.
In its response, DEMA said it didn’t have the opportunity to review the entire unredacted auditor general’s report, nor did it have an opportunity to review any of the EOPs the auditor general reviewed to reach its conclusion. The auditor general issued a response clarifying that the confidential draft report provided to DEMA only redacted those references concerning other entities unrelated to DEMA and its responsibilities, and that three other entities were given similarly-redacted reports.
DEMA further asserted that state law didn’t authorize its agency to develop EOPs for every district or charter; rather, DEMA said that the State Board of Education and ADE bore statutory responsibility for supervising and regulating public school conduct.
“Industry practice is to develop generalized planning standards which set a minimum threshold that allow each school district the flexibility to tailor their EOP to their unique circumstances or particular needs,” said DEMA. “As the primary agency responsible for enforcing standards with school districts, DEMA contends that it is ADE’s responsibility to inform districts of statutory requirements to adopt EOPs meeting the minimum standards. DEMA understands that ADE has full-time school safety and preparedness planners that can support this purpose and has an opportunity to communicate any additional resource needs to further effect this recommendation through their Audit response process.”
The auditor general’s response also addressed these refusals from DEMA, noting that it hadn’t required DEMA to develop school EOPs but rather evaluate whether additional outreach, guidance, and training would help schools better plan for safety emergencies.
The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools also refused some of the auditor general’s recommendations. The charter board said that it agreed with the auditor general and the state on the importance of EOPs, but that it lacks the “resources or subject matter expertise” for monitoring and enforcing compliance with minimum EOP standards.
“The Charter Board believes it is appropriate for a state-centralized review process to be established to monitor whether EOPs meet the required minimum standards. This process would ensure that both charter and district schools are held to the same standards of review and oversight,” said the board. “Furthermore, it would assign the responsibility of evaluating whether EOPs substantively meet the Minimum Standards to the appropriate agency—one with the necessary resources and expertise to effectively monitor compliance.”
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