A safe school environment is crucial to the healthy academic and social development of students, and the safety of a school environment affects a range of factors, from staff retention to parent satisfaction. Perhaps most important, student perceptions of safety affect their academic achievement. When students feel safe, they are better able to focus on learning, which in turn leads to increased academic achievement. Therefore, stakeholders in school emergency preparedness should strive to determine whether their students and staff are comfortable in their school environment, both physically and emotionally, and whether students' families are comfortable with the school environment in which their children learn. This fact sheet takes a look at the issue of school safety today. A six-step planning process for developing, reviewing, or revising a high-quality school Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is presented, along with a list of key resources.