Hays County hosts reunification training for local law enforcement, school staff

Hays County law enforcement, school administrators and staff took part in reunification training last week, solidifying county protocols for emergency response in schools.

The Hays County Standard Response Protocol Task Force brought in the I Love U Guys Foundation to go through its Standard Reunification Method Reunification Exercise through a sponsorship from Austin Regional Intelligence Center. The two-day training took place at San Marcos High School throughout Monday, July 25, and Tuesday, July 26, with approximately 130 people in attendance, according to the Hays County Office of Emergency Services.

Reunification takes place when school staff and local emergency responders reunify parents and guardians with their students after an incident requires evacuation from facilities and schools. I Love U Guys Foundation Executive Director John-Michael Keyes said the Standard Reunification Method is based on five actions: hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate and shelter.

“It’s really an all-hazard, institutional response to stuff that happens in schools,” Keyes said. “Recovery starts when the crisis begins. You don’t have time [to plan the recovery] during the crisis.”

According to Keyes, the SRM is intended to form a foundation for crisis response while still allowing schools, districts and counties to set their own policies tailored specifically to their area.

The two-day training worked with those in Hays County who have a role in the reunification process to ensure a common understanding of the process, establish the use of common language and strengthen relationships between community partners.

“The goal for today was to train and practice in a large space well suited for the process we’ve established,” Keyes said. “As districts get familiar with this process, they can begin using it for non-traumatic events — power outages, weather, really anything that requires people to stand in a line. That familiarity makes the process even easier to manage in different schools and situations, including emergencies.”

The I Love U Guys Foundation was created by Ellen and John-Michael Keyes in 2006 after their daughter, Emily, was killed in a school shooting. Emily sent two text messages on that day, one to her mother Ellen, “I love u guys. K,” and one to her father, “I love you guys.” The foundation — which is led and supported by survivors, family members, first responders and community members with a vested interest in safety, preparedness and reunification in schools — trains people around the country in its Standard Response Protocol method.

Keyes said the I Love U Guys Foundation was conducting approximately 200 one-day reunification training sessions per year prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, the nonprofit organization conducted about 30 virtual trainings through the Texas School Safety Center. Now, in addition to its one-day trainings, the foundation expects to conduct eight two-day trainings per year. Fifty are currently on the books, according to Keyes.

The purpose of bringing the training to Hays County was to provide first responders and school administrators with the tools, confidence and knowledge of the reunification process to get students back with their parents and guardians, according to Hays County Office of Emergency Services Planner Laurie Taylor.

“This summer has been a little more stressful because of Uvalde,” Taylor said. “And so, we’re just trying to make sure our ducks are a little bit more in a row. Not that we’ve not been prepared, but [we need to] be able to present to the parents, to the public that we do have a plan.”

Hays County first established its reunification plan in 2013, following the first presentation of the SRM in 2012.

Since then, “We’ve revisited the plan as things have changed. The plan has been updated as the school districts have grown, county has grown,” Taylor said.

“This is the first physical training in Hays County in the last five years,” she continued. “The plan moving forward is to educate the educators. We need to spend time reinforcing what you should do and where you should go, and classrooms need to be set up with those things in mind.”

For more about emergency management in Hays County, visit hayscountytx.com/departments/office-of-emergency-services.