The core of the Hour-Zero™ program is the Plan. The Plan provides the what, why, how and who of emergency management for school districts.

Each plan is specifically customized to meet the individualized needs of a school district and addresses the issues identified within their risk assessment.

The Plan speaks to all the emergency response planning requirements for a school district ranging from board-level policy development to organizational legislative compliance to step-by-step processes for front-line staff to community collaboration.

Incident Command System

Incident Command System (ICS) is the foundation of Hour-Zero™ plan. Hour-Zero™ has adapted ICS to meet the unique requirements of school districts and maps the roles and responsibilities of ICS to the school district’s organization chart. In doing so, the Plan addresses all the functional needs of a school district, assigns departments specific tasks and maximizes use of resources.

All procedures within the Plan are established to work in conjunction with the normal decision-making hierarchy of a school district, utilize the Incident Command System, and are based industry best practices.

As part of the Hour-Zero™ program school districts receive a roll-out plan for the project. The roll-out plan includes a complete schedule of activities including things such as introducing the project to your school community, school board awareness sessions, community consultation processes, staff training plans, feedback loops, etc.

The Plan is extremely thorough and is organized into well defined sections including:

Quick Reference Guide

Section 1: Overview – Purpose, Scope, Authority, Chain of Command, Roles and Responsibilities, Activation/Deactivation, Compliance, Concept of Operations, Standard Procedures, Communications Network, Incident Classifications, and Assisting and Cooperating Agencies

Section2: District-Level Staff Roles and Responsibilities - ICS Structure

Section 3: Emergency Operations Centre

Section 4: Community Partners and External Stakeholder Information

Section 5: Protocols

Section 6: Communications

Section 7: Facilities

Section 8: Transportation

Section 9: Human Resources

Section 10: Instructional Services

Section 11: Technology Services

Section 12: School Plans -The school plan provides each school with a customized plan that dovetails with the District plan and outlines the roles, responsibilities, and procedures for the school.

Each section is supplemented by annexes containing resources and further operational details to assist individuals responsible for performing the tasks.

Materials such as: process charts, staging area layouts, pre-formatted forms, checklists, guidelines, contact lists, command post kits and supply lists are customized using data from the school district and schools.

The Plan is structured to expand or collapse to meet the needs of each district and school, regardless of size or resources. Even the smallest school is able to competently respond to a major incident using Hour-Zero™.

The Communications Section covers purpose, scope, intended audience, objectives, strategies, documentation, communications team roles and responsibilities, crisis plan activation, communications processes, communications methods and relationships, and incident closure.

The section:

• Provides policies and procedures for the coordination of communications within the school district.
• Provides guidelines and procedures for communicating with external stakeholders such as parents, the media, general public and government agencies.
• Develops procedures for rapid identification of potentially harmful or escalating situations, and the methods for responding to these situations quickly and effectively.
• Establishes guidelines for dealing with a variety of crisis situations, and ensures school district officials and communicators are familiar with procedures and their roles.
• Creates the Crisis Notification Network.
• Contains the following supplementary annexes:
  • Over 300 pre-formatted templates, coinciding with each of the Plan’s incident protocols and pre-crisis issues, which provide for immediate and ongoing communication to all stakeholder groups. The electronic templates are self-guiding, utilizing fill-in the blank forms and pull down menus. Templates include communications tools such as: newsletter articles, news releases, news conference agendas, letters to parents, webpage postings, staff memos, etc. The templates provide an extensive library of powerful communications pieces that are ready to use at a moment’s notice.
  • Job assignment sheets.
  • Media tracking forms.
  • Communications response checklists and forms.
  • Media Relations guidelines dealing with key messages, preparing spokespeople, media tools, news conferences, media briefings, on-site staging, press kits, online newsrooms, monitoring and legal rights.
  • Message mapping strategies.
  • How to establish a communications staging area, including the physical layouts and supply lists.
  • Contact lists and site maps.
  • How to make use of current technologies.