Recovery and Resiliency after a Disaster in Educational Settings

Abstract

Educational institutions are microcosms of our society. On a typical day across our country, approximately 20% of our population is in some type of educational setting. Often times, schools are the largest gathering place in a community, which leads to an increased likelihood that emergencies or crisis situations will occur in schools. Increasingly, there is awareness that disasters in schools are more than just a school responsibility. A school disaster impacts a community, and a community disaster impacts the school. The entire community—education, emergency management, and first responders—are involved in responding to a disaster. Resiliency, the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune of disasters, describes the collective goal of the all-hazards approach that is employed during a crisis incident.