APS Emergency Management Unit

ATLANTA WEATHER

APS EMU Focus

Atlanta Public Schools Emergency Management Unit will act primarily as the district-wide subject matter expert and coordinator of disaster efforts. The APS Emergency Management Unit staff focuses its primary efforts on preparedness. In doing so, it provides guidance, technical expertise and supports other departments, units and schools in developing and enhancing their own internal capabilities. Atlanta Public Schools Emergency Management Unit hopes to increase the overall disaster readiness of the entire district.

Employ an all-hazards approach for mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Effective planning, training and equipping of emergency personnel is beneficial in addressing a myriad of situations. Adopting an all-hazards approach in our planning, training, and exercising for emergency response and recovery will greatly enhance the Atlanta Public Schools overall readiness. No one hazard, threat or current issue should overshadow the general concept of preparing for all-hazards.
The following are priority areas for the Atlanta Public Schools emergency management and homeland security funding:
- Enhance overall Atlanta Public Schools community all-hazards disaster preparedness, mitigation and response
- Enhance our ability and capacity to gather and share information to produce disaster resilience by continuously leveraging and improving information technology
- Protect the Atlanta Public Schools physical infrastructure from natural and human-caused hazards and threats
- Continuously enhance the Atlanta Public Schools disaster preparedness capability and capacity
- Protect the Atlanta Public Schools' critical assets to ensure business and academic continuity
- Strive for multi-dimensional communications redundancy to ensure multiple modes of communications after an event
- Enhance response capabilities and capacities across the district.
Enhance capabilities through planning, training, and exercising. The program will continue with ongoing efforts to provide quality planning, training, and exercise assistance to those agencies and organizations responsible for prevention and emergency response and recovery. This will ensure that the Atlanta Public Schools readiness and prevention capabilities are among the best in the nation and demonstrates leadership in emergency management.
Utilize new technologies. As new technologies become available, they will be assessed and incorporated into the Atlanta Public Schools Emergency Management Unit strategy. The program will utilize existing technologies to make the emergency management initiatives more efficient and effective.
Address sustainability considerations in all endeavors. One issue that must be considered in all planning efforts is the sustainability of programs and strategies. The implementation of these strategies will help to ensure that they can be maintained or upgraded as necessary to reflect changes and concerns regarding standards and fiscal constraints.