K-12 schools, colleges, and training centers pose some of the most complex challenges for an emergency action plan. With students soon returning to classrooms, now is the time to make sure campus map design and school maps are up to date, accurate, functional, comprehensive, and posted in all the right locations.
The challenge of educational settings
The first (and most important) challenge facing schools and universities is that they have large populations in their care. Along with that significant responsibility, the emergency action plan and maps may need to account for multiple buildings. Even a single building usually will contain several offices and classrooms densely packed with students.
Campuses often feature a range of old and newer buildings, some of which may not have been designed with modern safety elements in mind. Renovations can change floorplans in ways that disrupt evacuations. And it’s vital to maintain for the accuracy of your evacuation maps in every building.
Younger students especially will rely on well-prepared teachers and others to find their way. But even older students, visitors, and staff will need guidance because every school year brings the arrival of a new population unfamiliar with the layout of buildings. Confusion during an emergency can result in large groups congregating in unsafe areas, such as a hallway intersection, which will delay evacuation and raise the risk of panic.
Adding to the complexity, schools need to plan evacuations and responses for a wide range of possible threats. Fire, weather, and violence are some examples, and each has a distinctively different response.
Education leaders are responsible for the safety of everyone — teachers, staff, visitors, and students of a wide range of ages — on their campuses and in their buildings. Staying safe in an emergency starts with preparation.
Five mission areas to address risk
SchoolSafety.gov, a collaborative, interagency website created by the federal government, has identified five interconnected “mission areas” to address the greatest risk in emergency events in school settings:
Prevention: Actions taken to avoid, deter, or stop an emergency. This includes assessing and addressing the safety, security, and maintenance of school facilities and grounds; educating students and school staff; and fostering a positive school climate.
Protection: The capability to secure schools against acts of violence and man-made or natural disasters. This requires ongoing actions, such as maintaining relevant supplies, enacting policies that create a safer campus, and training through exercises and drills.
Mitigation: Eliminating or reducing the loss of life and property damage by lessening the impact of an event or emergency. Schools can conduct assessments to reduce or eliminate potential hazards and identify areas for improvement.
Response: The capabilities necessary to stabilize an emergency once it has happened or is unpreventable. A response will be faster and more effective through pre-planning in an up-to-date emergency action plan and accurate, functional maps.
Recovery: Restoring the learning environment. Schools also can take this time to review the effectiveness of their emergency action plans and to make updates based on lessons learned.
Preparing for a range of emergencies
Schools and colleges need to prepare for a variety of threats. And that requires maps that are customized for each situation.
For example:
- Fire evacuation maps highlight the best routes to safety, emphasizing simplicity so they are easy to follow in case of emergency. Used in conjunction with regular evacuation drills, fire evacuation maps aid students and faculty in making a safe and timely exit.
- Security maps are more detailed so campus staff and first-responders can use them in the preparation for and response to security threats. These are essential tools to assist with evacuation guidance, lockdown implementation, and to lead emergency personnel through a building.
- Severe weather maps are simplified schematics showing building features such as rooms, doors, exits, hallways, and stairwells. A difference from a fire evacuation is that severe weather may call for sheltering in place, so these maps depict those locations with emergency instructions in the event of tornadoes, hurricanes, storms, flooding, and other threats.
- Assembly and reunification maps may focus on the entire campus and surrounding area. These show safe, external locations, helping to facilitate accurate headcounts and reunification with loved ones.
Whatever the map, each must be designed and posted with consistency in every setting to avoid unfamiliarity and confusion in an emergency. They also must be placed in the right location and in the right orientation to make them effective. In schools, this means posting maps near the door in every classroom, but also in public-use spaces such as auditoriums, gyms, libraries, locker rooms, and conference rooms.
It’s also important the maps are easily accessible in an emergency. With the multiple maps needed by schools, tabbed safety maps and acrylic holders are an excellent organizational option to keep this crucial information right at your fingertips when you need it most.
Expert help to get ready for the school year
Keeping schools and campuses safe is a big job, and it all starts with planning and risk assessment. School maps and campus map design are essential to every emergency safety plan.
With multiple functions and considerations for school maps — including compliance with local codes and coordination with emergency responders — creating, reviewing, updating and posting these lifesaving documents can be daunting. Internal teams working on an emergency action plan may lack the skills and background to create easy-to-read maps or identify the best locations to post them.
That’s where Building Maps can help.
We have extensive experience creating safety and wayfinding maps for schools and colleges across the country. Every illustrator and project manager at Building Maps is trained in life safety code and fire code. They know how to identify primary and secondary egress routes to create accurate, up-to-date evacuation and safety maps.
Our maps are made to easily guide people toward safety, in compliance with local, state and national codes.
Contact us today by phone or email. Or use this simple form to tell us a little bit about your project to request a quick and free quote. We’re here to help start the school year with peace of mind.
