Emergency Management

In Eden Prairie Schools, we know students can't learn if they don't feel safe. We believe relationships are the foundation of school safety, and we're seen as a leader in the southwest metro for keeping students and staff safe in our school buildings. 

The response protocols are:

• Hold, which is used to keep hallways clear when an incident takes place inside the building. Everyone stays in their current locations and learning continues as normal.
• Secure, which is used to keep everyone inside due to activity outside the building. Once everyone comes inside, learning continues as normal.
• Lockdown, which is used only when there is an active threat and imminent danger toward people in the building and it is not safe to Evacuate. Doors are locked, lights are turned off and everyone stays out of sight.
• Evacuate, which is used to leave the building when it is no longer safe for anyone to be inside. Everyone walks toward the closest emergency exit and moves away from the building.
• Shelter, which is used when there is a severe weather or environment-related hazard. Everyone walks to a weather shelter location and takes a duck-and-cover position.

How we manage visitors

We maintain strict safety and security procedures at our schools that require all visitors (including outside agencies and law enforcement) to check in, state the purpose of their visit and scan a government-issued ID through our Raptor Visitor Management System. If any outside agency requests information or comes to a school property, staff are trained to follow district procedures and involve school and district leadership. This includes not allowing outside agencies (besides our School Resource Officers) to enter our buildings without a legitimate purpose. In the case of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other non-local law enforcement, this requires having a warrant signed by a judge.

For visits by non-local law enforcement, staff are directed to:

1. Stay calm and professional
   - Greet the officer/authority politely and request identification or credentials if they do not provide them upfront.
   - Ask the officer for the purpose of their visit and what information they are requesting.
2. Do not release information immediately
   - Explain that you need to follow district policy before providing any information.
   - Do not hand over documents, meet with law enforcement, or produce a requested person without proper authorization or guidance from the school administration.
   - Privacy laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Minnesota Data Practices Act limit the disclosure of student education records without parental consent unless required by law.
3. Involve the Principal
   - Notify the principal or designated school administrator immediately. They are trained to handle these situations.
   - Ask the officer if they have paperwork such as a subpoena, warrant, or court order for the documents.
   - Explain the document(s)/information will need to be reviewed and verified by district administration and legal counsel.
   - Await additional guidance. Remember that if law enforcement has no paperwork, they have no authority.
4. Document the interaction
   - Record the officer’s name, badge number, the agency they represent, and details of the request.
   - Note the date, time, and any documents requested or provided.

How we respond to critical incidents

When critical incidents affect our schools, we act immediately. Depending on the unique circumstances of each incident, that can involve gathering facts, collaborating with the police department and other important partners, creating messages that follow legal and ethical guidelines, and potentially distributing those messages to families through multiple channels. Because each situation is different, the approach taken to manage and communicate about it will be determined based on its individual circumstances. That means families may not be notified of every critical incident that happens in a school.

Below is additional information about each stage of this process:

• Gather the facts: School and district leadership work closely with the Eden Prairie Police Department and other partners when a critical incident affects a school. We do not make decisions based solely on rumor or conjecture. Each threat is swiftly and thoroughly investigated to determine its credibility. That process can take time, because it can involve search warrants, interviews, home visits, and more.
  • This can be a difficult time for families. You may have heard of a situation from your student, but as it is investigated, you likely will not receive much information from official sources like the school, district or police department. This is intentional, because communicating before we have all of the facts can delay or impede the investigation and unnecessarily escalate a situation. We rely on you to trust us, and have patience, during this time.
• Create messages that follow legal and ethical guidelines: State and federal law, as well as district policy, restrict what information is public about students and investigations. When it comes to students, very little information can be shared publicly — and districts must comply with data practices and investigatory requirements. That means we are often unable to share any information about a student who is involved in an incident, including whether they are a student at our school, whether they are attending on a certain day and any disciplinary action they will receive.
  • Even if that weren’t the case, though, there are instances in which we wouldn’t want to share all of the information. We exist to support children — and the fact of the matter is, children are learning and growing every day. Along the way, they make mistakes. Students will be held accountable, and they still deserve dignity even when their mistakes are big. Keeping them accountable for their actions — which we do, according to our handbook and district discipline policies — is different than sharing information about their mistakes publicly.
  • In a moment when you don’t have all the information you want to have, please know we are making decisions to keep our students and staff safe, hold people accountable for their actions, and when possible, help them to learn from their mistakes. To do this most effectively — and legally — we cannot share most of the details that could make some families feel more fully informed.
• Distribute messages to affected families: Once we gather facts and develop appropriate messages for each unique situation, we begin a second period of reviewing those messages for any inaccurate or misleading information, having them reviewed by partners and our legal advisors to be sure we comply with legal requirements, and determine who should receive a message. At times, it is only a small group of individuals directly impacted; other times, it may be the entire school community.
  • If a message needs to go to the entire school community or a large group of people, it must be loaded into our mass communication systems and sent. Whenever possible, we try to have translations in Spanish and Somali sent with our messages so that more families have access to the information. While you wait to receive a message, there are often dozens of school leaders, district administrators, law enforcement and legal professionals working as fast as they possibly can to get information to you. It matters to us that you are informed quickly, and we ask for grace and understanding as we make that happen.

Here are our requests for students and families:

• Trust us to keep your children safe. We all receive extensive training and practice emergency response so we are prepared to manage these situations. Our decisions are based on facts and deep situational understanding.
• Have conversations with your children about social media and their digital citizenship, and actively monitor their online activity.
• Continue to keep us informed any time you learn of information that could affect student or school safety. We take all reports seriously, investigate them, and take appropriate action.
• Show grace and practice empathy. Being a school staff member can be one of the most rewarding and the most challenging careers — and our Eden Prairie Schools staff go far above and beyond for our students, families, and one another. In critical situations, we ask for our community to support our staff members just as they support our students each and every day.