How prepared are public schools for disasters?

What is it about?

Schools are places of daily mass gatherings which make them an ideal target for mass casualty incidents caused by an active shooter, bombing, or terrorism. Schools may also be affected by natural disasters such as tornadoes, fires, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes, and biological incidents such as pandemics and bioterrorism. Disasters can strike at any time or any place, and no one is immune to the potential consequences of a disaster. This article explores what we currently know about disaster preparedness in public schools. An integrative review was conducted using the electronic databases of PubMed, CINAHL, and Eric. The most significant finding in our integrative review is that although schools have some level of preparedness for disasters, there are multiple components that are missing.

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Why is it important?

In light of the recent pandemic our findings are timely and valuable for identifying opportunities and strengths of public schools preparedness for maintaining the welfare of school children. The findings of this integrative review will help future researchers focus on current gaps of public school preparedness for natural disasters to enhance the health and wellbeing of school age children.

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