A lot has changed from the days of fire drills and tornado drills. Now schools are preparing for anything.
"As much as we think about what needs to be done at a school, that could affect it, there are a lot more things that are outside of our expertise," Director of Operations at Davenport Schools Scott Martin says.
"It would be surprising to sit down and think about it, things like hazardous materials you're not generally aware of all the time," Bi-State Regional Commission Senior Planner Laura Berkley says.
Davenport schools already have a safety team to prepare for emergencies, but today took it a step further.
Officials discussed possible nuclear risks at the Cordova plant, and chemical spills from industrial sites, businesses, or trucks passing by.
"You think there may be a vehicle accident or a truck accident on the road, you don't think about what they're carrying and how that could affect it if it happened near a school," Martin says.
"This is more preventative, so if something could be taken care of to limit property damage before an event occurred, that's what this plan will identify," Berkley says.
Officials are working together to identify risks and work out what procedures or policy changes they can do to protect students.
Once the plan is in place, it can be used to apply for federal funding to help get safety measures in place like safe rooms.
"It helps us think through the process, every process, every possible disaster so we can start to implement those things in our own plans," Martin says.
The process also shows where there might be weaknesses in the district's emergency planning.
"We do need to review and see what else we can do, if there's anything we can do better," Martin says.
"You can never have enough education on anything," Berkley says.
