Office of School Safety Offers New Standard Protocol and Reunification Training to Wisconsin Schools

MADISON, Wis. – As part of comprehensive school safety training, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of School Safety (OSS) is now offering training to all Wisconsin schools on the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and Standard Reunification Method (SRM) during a school crisis response. The procedures taught in this training are practical, action based, responses given to any situation within a school community to standardize response and reunification.

“This training is another example of the impactful, proactive work being done by the Office of School Safety,” said Attorney General Josh Kaul. “OSS is continually working to ensure that Wisconsin schools have a comprehensive toolkit to help keep kids safe.”

SRP provides standard vocabulary for all stakeholders to understand the response and status of an event. The vocabulary includes hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, and shelter.

• Hold is followed by a directive of where to hold, such as in your room or area, and is meant to keep hallways clear.
• Secure is followed by a directive such as get inside and lock outside doors and is meant to safeguard people inside the building.
• Lockdown is followed by the directive locks, lights, out of sight, and is meant to secure individual rooms and keep everyone quiet and out of sight.
• Evacuate may be followed be a location and is used to move individuals to a new location or out of the building.
• Shelter is followed by stating the hazard and safety strategy to keep everyone protected.

Having an SRM in place helps to alleviate stress during a crisis response and ensures that schools maintain proper chain of custody for every student. An SRM can be used during a variety of crisis responses including fires, floods, tornados, threats, and acts of violence to ensure students are reunified with their parents or guardians. Successful planning and implementation of an SRM requires partnerships with all involved stakeholders that participate in crisis response.

The SRP and SRM training provided by OSS is open to all community members in a participating school district. The training is one day and consists of both lecture and hands on scenario practice. Any Wisconsin school or district can reach out to OSS to request the free training. Training is modeled after the i love u guys Foundation curriculum.

OSS was initially supported by more than $2 million in federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance. OSS is currently supported by more than $1.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding which will end in December of 2023. DOJ has requested the legislature permanently fund OSS in the next biennial budget.

View the press release here.