Standard Response Protocol

The Worcester Public Schools’ Standard Response Protocol follows the I Love You Guys Foundation school safety framework, which uses easy-to-understand language to assist school staff and families in an emergency.

By standardizing vocabulary and using common language, students, staff, and families can understand the response and status of the event.

Familiarizing oneself with the Standard Response Protocol terminology, along with practicing regular safety drills, will help provide a uniform, planned, and practiced response to any incident.

Standard Response Protocol:

purple door with a cross bar over it

Hold: Stay in your classroom and keep the hallways clear, but instruction can continue.

Stretched out hands over blue

Secure: Exterior doors to the school are locked, and outdoor activities are halted, but classroom instruction can continue.

lock over red background

Lockdown: Students and staff are ordered to lock their classroom or office doors and to stay out of sight.

people holding hands over a green background

Evacuate: People are moved from one location to a different location either inside or outside the building.

person underneath a roof in orange background

Shelter: There is a significant threat. Students/staff are ordered to lock doors, hide, and barricade rooms if necessary.

Safety Drills

As part of the Standard Response Protocol, all WPS schools are required to conduct age-appropriate “hold” drills, “secure” drills, and “lockdown” drills twice per year.

For our youngest students, lockdown drills are as simple as learning how to do “rabbit yoga poses” or playing “hide ‘n peek” as part of the I Love You Guys framework. (See “PK-2 V2 Curriculum Workbook.)

Additionally, schools regularly conduct fire drills, medical drills, and bus drills.