STEP Best Practices

STEP was piloted in the 2008–2009 school year by over 100 instructors, including classroom teachers, guidance counselors, health teachers, safety officers, and local emergency preparedness personnel. These instructors shared their tips and best practices on implementing the STEP Program.

TIPS AND PRACTICES

1. Include Student’s Family
The number one piece of advice given by teachers in each state was to include families of your students in as many ways as possible throughout the STEP Program.
We found an overwhelming amount of positive responses from parents in all of our pilot schools. In fact, the one criticism parents had about the STEP Program was that we weren’t educating students at other age levels. Parents were not nervous or fearful about their children learning about disasters- especially when the instructors were confident about the importance of the materials. Including family members of your students can also be a source of support in making the program as effective as possible for your students.
2. Utilize Local and State Resources
Many instructors reached out to local and state resources to include these emergency experts in the STEP process. Consider bringing fire chiefs into classrooms to guest speak to students, having an emergency management director speak to your school's parent teacher organization, or taking your students on a field trip to your state’s emergency management operations center.
3. Ideas for Your Emergency Kits
Be creative (and encourage your students to be creative) about finding items to add to the emergency kits. Enlist members of your community such as your parent teacher organizations or local businesses to help donate containers or supplies. Consider sending your students to a local grocery or general store as part of a presentation lesson to ask store managers for any donations of food and water.
4. Review School and City Procedures
Take the time to look at the procedures your school and city have for handling an emergency situation so that you can make the connection between home and school preparedness. May instructors found that the STEP Program helped them have hard conversations with their students about emergency drills at their schools.
5. Investigate State Standards
Take some time to see what state standards these lessons cover. Science, comprehension, and social studies units have all been tied into the STEP curriculum.