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Tips & Tricks

Crisis Communications: Lessons from the 2025 Safety Summit

August 25, 2025

When a crisis hits, communication can either foster trust, or damage it. At this year’s School Safety Summit, I led a session with other area communicators, “Communicating Through Crisis,” that offered practical strategies to prepare, respond, and recover with clarity and confidence.

Here are key takeaways from the session to help you plan ahead:

Start Before the Sirens

The best crisis communications don’t begin during a crisis. They start with relationships, planning, and clear internal workflows. Build your plan now, not during an emergency.

  • Draft holding statements
  • Identify your spokespeople
  • Create a communications flowchart
  • Keep message templates updated

Communication is a Trust-Building Activity

Communications should follow the disaster cycle: preparedness, response, and recovery. “No comment” is not an option. Speak to the process. Speak to your values. In each phase, clarity and timeliness are essential. Even when you can’t say much, say something.

  • Acknowledge the issue
  • Explain what you can
  • Speak to process and values
  • Share when you can provide an update

Safety = Communication

The Safety Summit’s sessions highlighted that communication isn’t just a support function—it’s a crucial safety tool. Like drills or reunification plans, it should be practiced, documented, and reviewed. Want to improve your school or district’s safety plan?

  • Identify your crisis team
  • Review your emergency operations plan
  • Update your toolkit with draft messaging on a variety of potential or likely scenarios

Effective communication supports community recovery and fosters trust well before the next challenge.

TOP TAKEAWAYS

  • Prepare talking points for frontline staff
  • Establish early contact with emergency responders to coordinate messaging and ensure that the right information, gets to the right people, at the right time, so they can make the right decisions
  • Prioritize internal communication before releasing external updates. Internal staff are perhaps your most important ambassadors.
  • Maintain communication throughout recovery, not only during the incident. If you want to maintain trust and credibility in the future, communications is an ongoing activity, not “one-and done.”

Whether it’s your first crisis or your fiftieth, the Safety Summit reinforced this truth: You don’t have to face it alone. Your team, your partners, and your plan are your most valuable tools.

About the TEAM Member

Monique Dugaw Executive Director

Monique Dugaw Executive Director

I started my career in TV news reporting and evolved my skills to go on to manage law enforcement and then disaster relief media relations and communications. My business, government and non-profit experience makes me a jack of all trades and a perfect fit for an innovative organization like ESD 112. As leader of the talented ESD team, I use my skills to support school districts of all sizes with complex challenges. I get to be a part of solutions for meaningful organizations, instead of just reporting problems. Supporting school teams and bringing people together to achieve common educational goals is the kind of meaningful work I love. I feel proud of the work I do and the incredible team I lead.