PHOENIX — State auditors say not a single one of the schools they reviewed had fully implemented their emergency operations plans, a failure that “could affect their ability to protect students in emergencies.’’
The new report presented Tuesday to Arizona legislators also found that only four of the 47 schools checked at random could demonstrate they had conducted all required lockdown-type drills.
“Failure to perform required lockdown drills increases the risk that students or staff do not know how to act in emergency situations and may increase risk to students and staff during emergencies,’’ wrote Auditor General Lindsey Perry. And that was not the only problem her staff found.
“About half of the schools did not conduct and document all required evacuation drills, which could affect whether students and staff can safely exit classrooms and buildings in an emergency,’’ Perry wrote, of drills that are supposed to happen monthly.
Other problems the state auditors found include:
- Few schools posted all required safety reference materials in every classroom and assembly area, which Perry said increases the risk that students and staff may lack critical guidance in emergency situations;
- None of the schools posted safety reference materials in their buses, a lack Perry said could preclude them from helping to better respond to emergency situations;
- A failure of most school districts to annually review their emergency operations procedures, which Perry said could
- result in staff relying on outdated procedures and producing “an inefficient or ineffective emergency response.’’
Perry also pointed out that Arizona, unlike most other states her staffers reviewed, lacks a mechanism to ensure that all schools have emergency operations plans that meet minimum standards.
“Arizona’s lack of a process for monitoring schools’ compliance with EOP standards likely contributed to the deficiencies we identified,’’ Scott Swagerty told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee on Tuesday. He is director of the Auditor General’s Division of School Audits.
That monitoring would make it easier for the Arizona Department of Education and the state Division of Emergency Management to identify schools that have not developed emergency plans and provided “targeted support’’ for those who need help meeting the standards, Swagerty said.
The audit does not say which 47 schools, including traditional and charter schools, were examined, citing “potential safety concerns and the sensitive nature ... of the findings and recommendations.’’ That information will be available only in limited use, confidential reports.
Swagerty told lawmakers his office chose from a variety of types, sizes and locations of schools.
He acknowledged this doesn’t necessarily mean the same conditions exist in the same ratio at the more than 2,600 school sites across the state. But the report does point up shortcomings that likely exist on a broader scale.
Auditors said the issue of planning is crucial. They cited the number of school shootings — 219 since Education Week began tracking data in 2017, including 37 this year with 16 killed and 52 injured.
“Although Arizona districts and charters have not yet experienced school shooting tragedies on the level seen elsewhere in the country, there have been numerous incidents of weapons and other threats to schools and students,’’ the new report says.
It cites a January incident at a Douglas school where the emergency operations plan was activated because of a man with a knife near campus.
More recently, in April a Phoenix elementary school student was found with a gun on a school bus, and the following month a gun was found in a Mesa high school student’s backpack. A Phoenix high schooler was arrested in August for bringing a gun to a school campus, and in September a school in San Luis was locked out as police investigated reports of shots being fired.
The failure of schools to conduct the legally required four lockdown and shelter-in-place drills each year is significant, auditors said.
Those drills involve actions such as locking classroom doors, closing windows, shutting window coverings and moving to a specified location in the room while remaining quiet and still, the report says.
“Without practicing the behaviors and skills expected during lockdowns, schools increase the risk that students may not follow procedures due to panic or stress,’’ the audit says. There’s also the danger that staff may not be aware of students who have “adverse reactions’’ during drills, potentially increasing safety risks during real emergencies.
State Sen. Justine Wadsack related her own real-world experience and why she thinks this planning is crucial.
The Tucson Republican, who sits on the audit committee, noted she has a 21-year-old non-verbal child with limited cognitive abilities who is in a a wheelchair in school. Wadsack said there are no paraprofessionals sitting with her.
“So when a classroom ends up just emptying out, there’s nobody assigned to her to make sure that they grab that wheelchair and wheel her out,’’ she told colleagues.
“If you have a child that cannot walk themself out of a room, they cannot wheel their wheelchair out of a room, they’re nonverbal, they don’t know what’s happening, the room would burn down around her and not move,’’ Wadsack continued. “She would literally sit there and let the room burn around her.’’
Then there’s the question of access to the emergency plans. The report says they should be readily available and posted where visible and accessible to students.
According to the audit, some schools instead had binders or booklets. But there were situations where staffers had to search for the materials, and a few cases where they could not find them when asked.
Some of the problems mentioned in the audit appear to be more technical.
For example, it says state law specifically requires district and charter schools to develop their emergency operation plans in conjunction with law enforcement and other emergency response agencies. But the report says most of the plans lack signatures showing that was done.
State Rep. Kevin Payne, R-Peoria, said there’s an overarching issue: the minimum standards schools are expected to meet when coming up with and implementing emergency plans.
“It seems to me they’re kind of the backbone of this whole thing,’’ he said. But he called them “woefully inadequate.’’
The audit report does not use those words. It does say there should be a “comprehensive review’’ of the standards in place in other states to determine if things are missing from what’s required in Arizona.
Among the issues are cyber breaches, disaster recovery and continuity of operations to ensure schools can remain open during and after an emergency.
“Some other states also have requirements relating to prevention, such as procedures for addressing behavioral threats and potentially suicidal students,’’ the audit states.
