Before:

Design drills that incorporate discussion-based and standard response practices, promoting skill-building with clearly defined action steps, including staff-led discussions, storybook reading and student-teacher tabletop exercises to teach emergency procedures.
Adapt drills for individuals with functional and access needs.
Consider the frequency of drills to minimize unnecessary stress and disruption.

During:

Use clear communication throughout the drill to reduce anxiety.
Ensure that wellness supports, including access to school-based mental health staff, are available for students and staff.

After:

Provide time for students and staff to discuss and process the experience.
Check in with vulnerable students and staff to address emotional or psychological distress.
Conduct an after-action assessment to evaluate results, lessons learned and successes achieved.

Meanwhile, the researchers recommend preventing harm by not:

Conducting simulation exercises with students or requiring all staff to participate.
Including high-intensity, hyper-realistic or high-sensorial components (firing blanks, asking personnel to act like an intruder, etc.).
Deceiving or misleading students and staff to believe a real active shooter event is occurring.

The current landscape

In 2024, schools saw the second-highest number of shooting incidents, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. It fell only 19 incidents short of the all-time high of 349 incidents recorded in 2023.

A new playbook for conducting active shooter drills

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