Emergency Planning and the LAUSD Los Angeles, California is not a stranger to emergency situations. The city has faced major natural disasters, as well as intense social unrest, all of which have affected education. As one of the largest districts in the state of California, the Los Angeles Unified School District has some serious challenges related to effective emergency planning and execution of emergency strategies when they are needed. As budget issues continue to reduce resources required for effective emergency preparedness, the district has some serious issues to face before other major emergency surfaces in order to ensure that the students and staff within the education system remain safe and can continue their part in the education system after the emergency has subsided.

The district covers a huge portion of the city, with hundreds of thousands of children attending LAUSD schools. As a central headquarters for emergency operations, the district has the Emergency Operations Center. Located in Downtown, the EOC is home to the EOC director, EOC coordinator, and the local District liaisons, which are responsible for coordinating all communications between the EOC and each individual school within the district. It is a very well organized structure; however the sheer size of the district can put a strain on how well it operates, as there are simply too many...

Unfortunately, LAUSD is a massive entity serving hundreds of thousands of children. As such, it suffers from what Sinclair (2004) would call "resource constraints." Within the district, there is often a lack of personnel and needed materials to be the most effective in following up with emergency strategies. Not only are emergency personnel limited, but often the physical resources required for effective execution of emergency strategies are as well. The EOC director and coordinator are responsible for knowing what limited resources are available to each school and then generating a plan on how to most effectively use them in emergency situations, including working with local hospitals to serve as triage teams, evacuation resources, and clean up crews for any potential aftermath that may occur in order to resume educational facilities as normal. The U.S. Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools describes how important it is for each school to have a map that "that include[s] information about classrooms, hallways, and stairwells, the location of utility shut-offs, and potential staging sites. Emergency responders need copies of this information in advance." Many schools within the LAUSD district do have this and have provided it to the designated emergency respond teams that are responsible for…