Readiness for Emergency Management in Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center

Under contract with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Safe and Healthy Students, EMT Associates, Inc. and its subcontracting partner, ICF International, managed and operated the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center from September 2007 to December 2012. The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (currently the Office of Safe and Healthy students) created the REMS TA Center in response to emerging episodes of violence in schools during the late 1990s. The REMS TA Center facilitated training and technical assistance resources across a wide range of formats: a high-traffic website, online courses, and tailored one-on-one technical assistance and training events for audiences nationwide, all with the purpose of providing expert, relevant assistance on all aspects of emergency management to schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education.

Under this contract, EMT provided technical assistance and training services nationally to over 400 local education agencies (LEAs) and institutions of higher education who were recipients of federal grant funds (CFDA 84.184E) for improving their emergency preparedness. EMT developed or provided the following services for OSDFS grantees and the field at large: 33 publications including 3 Newsletters; 15 Lessons Learned and 3 Helpful Hints, 7 Success Stories, along with 5 Guides on various topics and 4 Performance Reports; 12 Training presentations on Advanced Topics in Emergency Management; and, the development and/or facilitation of 19 online training and webinar courses to convey information to a national audience. The REMS TA Center provided 15 National training events to over 2,000 participants from 400 schools and institutions of higher education who were recipients of federal grant funds for improving their emergency preparedness; contracted with over 200 experts in the field, responded to almost 1,500 telephone and electronic TA requests, and had over 3 million website hits. In addition, EMT facilitated 77 onsite trainings by request, 3 expert panels, and 7 working sessions. EMT worked with the U.S. Department of Education throughout the life of the contract on broadening the scope of work to provide greater TA and training opportunities to the field. This included such enhancements as a revamped website, the creation and population of an online searchable database of tools and resources, and the creation of a condensed, onsite training program on base-level emergency management for schools.

For additional information, please contact EMT at (916) 983-6680 or email us at info@emt.org.