The Standard Response Protocol (SRP)

A teacher discusses a school safety plan with students.

The Standard Response Protocol focuses on responding to a crisis and ensuring all students and faculty take shelter and evacuate when it’s safe to do so. 

More than 78,000 schools, districts, agencies, and municipalities across the United States and 11 other countries have adopted the standard response protocol, according to the foundation’s website. 

How the Standard Response Protocol Works

The standard response protocol SRP is built on five specific actions every student, teacher, and first responder should know following training. They may be directed to use any one of these or a combination as a situation evolves and should continue to listen for further instruction. 

Each standard response protocol action pairs a term with a directive:

Hold - "In your room or area. Clear the halls." Staff enforce this procedure when there is any type of emergency outside the classroom, whether it’s a medical issue or a spill of hazardous materials. Hallways need to be cleared for law enforcement and first responders. Students should stay in the room, and activity continues normally unless the situation changes.

Secure - "Get inside. Lock outside doors." Staff should give this direction when there is a threat outside the school building. Exterior doors and outside doors are locked.

Lockdown - "Locks, lights, out of sight." Staff use this protocol when there is a threat near or inside the building. Students lock doors, turn off lights, and move so they cannot be seen. No one enters or exits. This is the protocol most people associate with active shooter drills and lockdown drills.

Evacuate - "To a location." This protocol is used when it’s unsafe to remain in the building, such as during a fire or another hazard. Staff will move students to a designated shelter outside that first responders recognize. In most cases, they will leave their belongings inside.

Shelter - "For [hazard] using [safety strategy]." This is for environmental hazards that require specific instructions. Severe weather, for example, asks students to drop, cover, and hold. Each shelter directive names the hazard and the safety strategy together so students understand both what is happening and what to do. Teachers should take attendance to ensure everyone is present. 

The Standard Response Protocol (SRP) provides training materials, including classroom training presentations and curriculum workbooks for different educational levels.

Why Common Language Matters

One of SRP's most significant contributions is its coordination with first responders. When law enforcement, school staff, and students all use the same five actions and the same five specific actions vocabulary, the incident command system works as designed. Responding officers arriving at a school in Lockdown know immediately what they will find, reducing confusion, protecting students, and helping first responders do their jobs more effectively.

Standardized training, including regular lockdown drills and practiced response exercises, builds a response that makes the protocol reliable under stress.

Another program by the foundation, the Standard Reunification Method, focuses on reconnecting students with their families following the chaos of an incident. 

Guidelines include ensuring there is a central chain of command at the school, that classrooms are evacuated to a secure gathering place, and that everyone is transported to a separate site where staff checks in every parent before they pick up their child.

ALICE Training: ALERT, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate

ALICE focuses on identifying a safety and hazard strategy, which may include staying where you are or evacuating to a nearby exit, depending on the threat.

While the Standard Response Protocol outlines specific steps for different types of emergencies that include violent incidents, ALICE training focuses more specifically on active shooter events.

It is the original civilian active shooter response, developed by law enforcement officer Greg Crane, whose wife was a school principal.

ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.

Like the standard response protocol, these five components are not a checklist, but a series of options for students and staff to remember and consider depending on the circumstances.

Here’s how to consider each element:

Alert - Be aware of a person or situation that may be dangerous, and be ready to receive alerts or listen for announcements.

Lockdown - Stay where you are, and stay out of sight. This is especially important if someone identifies an active shooter in the building. Teachers should lock classroom doors and turn off lights.

Inform - Share timely updates with people in danger, such as the location of an intruder, to help them make decisions that will keep them safe.

Counter - Only if absolutely necessary, create noise or movement to distract the intruder. The ALICE framework notes this is not the same as fighting them.

Evacuate - If instructed, move away from the threat to designated areas identified in drills.

This video illustrates how to apply the ALICE framework.


The training framework notes that while everyone should follow an established plan and any further instruction during an incident, students and faculty don’t always have all the information about what to do next.

If there are no specific updates, ALICE helps them make the best decision as circumstances change.

The training has been in place for more than 20 years, and thousands of schools, workplaces, and other organizations have used it to help people feel more calm and confident during an emergency.

Run, Hide, Fight

Police respond to the scene of an incident, illustrating there could be several individual scenarios students may encounter. These frameworks give them options.

Run, Hide, Fight is the federal government's national framework for civilian response, delivered through the FBI's Active Shooter Attack Prevention and Preparedness (ASAPP) program and co-developed with ALERRT.

The steps are similar:

Run when evacuation is possible. Leave belongings, and raise your hands when exiting. Follow all police instructions.

Hide when there is no safe escape route. Lock and barricade the door, silence phones, and make a plan to defend yourself. The guidelines advise against hiding under desks and looking for other places to go where you won’t be seen.

Fight only as a last resort, using nearby objects as weapons and working as a group to coordinate an attack on the shooter.

This video demonstrates run, hide, fight in a school setting.

CRASE: Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events

A group of college students talking, demonstrating that an incident could unfold in many different ways. CRASE teaches three specific actions for responding.

CRASE is the civilian-facing curriculum of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center at Texas State University, built in partnership with the FBI and available to schools, businesses, and community organizations at no cost.

CRASE teaches three specific actions — Avoid, Deny, Defend — that mirror Run, Hide, Fight but use language deliberately chosen for school settings.

Avoid means moving away from the threat quickly, identifying exits, and putting distance and barriers between yourself and the attacker.

Deny means denying the attacker access to your location by locking doors, turning off lights, silencing phones, and staying out of sight.

Defend is a last resort that involves placing barriers between yourself and the attacker to protect yourself.

This video demonstrates the CRASE framework.


ALERRT specifically chose "Avoid" over "Run" and "Defend" over "Fight" because the language is more accessible in educational settings.

The underlying emergency response actions are the same; the framing is calibrated for public safety in schools and communities.

ALERRT has trained more than 130,000 law enforcement officers in active shooter response.

In 2013, the FBI formally adopted it as the national standard for active shooter response training.

Choosing the Right Framework for Your School District

security directors

A typical response time for law enforcement may range from 3-4 minutes or several minutes longer, depending on your location. When every minute counts, having a plan while you wait for help to arrive is critical.

The Standard Response Protocol, ALICE, CRASE, and Run, Hide, Fight all share the same goal and primarily differ in vocabulary, sequencing, and emphasis.

The right choice for a school district depends on existing law enforcement partnerships, training infrastructure, the age of the students, and other factors specific to your building.

Here are a few tips for evaluating your options and implementing a training program:

  1. Start with a conversation with local law enforcement to determine what framework they may already have in place. This can make it easier to coordinate with first responders who are already familiar with one of these models.
  2. Consider how to adapt active shooter training for younger students in a way that is age-appropriate. Older students can work together to fight an attacker while younger students may need different instructions on how to defend themselves.
  3. No matter what framework you choose, have a plan for conducting regular drills to practice it.
  4. Remember that no framework replaces threat assessment. The FBI's research consistently finds that active shooters plan in advance and exhibit observable warning behaviors. Behavioral threat assessment teams, mental health support, and anonymous reporting systems address the threat before it materializes.

Training Is Just One Part of Any School Security Strategy

TSS_Industries_Education_2

While these response frameworks are critical to helping schools prepare for and respond to an active shooter scenario, these physical barriers are essential to delay someone from entering for as long as possible and protect people inside.

This is why many states require safety upgrades in addition to training, such as secure entryways with controlled access, bullet-resistant doors and windows, and lockable classroom doors.

Our team works with district leaders, safety directors, and architects to design and install systems that meet every school’s unique requirements and design.

That includes installing bulletproof doors and secure entryways, ballistic glass and window framing, and other custom barriers.

We recognize many schools have tight budgets and timelines, and we can help you prioritize the most important upgrades and implement them in phases.

We can also recommend products that add forced-entry protection to existing windows and doors without replacing existing frames or products that combine forced entry and ballistic protection.

To learn more about how to evaluate your school’s needs and plan safety updates, download How To Assess and Bulletproof Your School.

If you have questions about the physical security layer of your school's safety strategy, or if you'd like to assess your building's current vulnerabilities, schedule a consultation with our team.

FAQs

Is the Standard Response Protocol a school safety plan?

No. The Standard Response Protocol is a guideline for responding to an incident, not a comprehensive security framework. It is designed to work alongside an existing school safety plan, not replace it.

A complete school safety plan addresses far more than emergency response. It includes threat assessment procedures, mental health support systems, access control policies, communication protocols, physical security infrastructure, and post-incident recovery.

While the SRP gives everyone a common understanding of what to do in the moment, the school safety plan determines what systems and structures are in place before that moment arrives.

Can these frameworks work for all grade levels and all types of emergencies?

Each of the four frameworks is designed for an all hazards approach, meaning they address a range of emergency scenarios. The Standard Response Protocol, for example, uses the same five actions for a medical emergency, a dangerous animal near the building, criminal activity in the area, severe weather, and a threat inside the school building. The directives change, but the language stays consistent.

Adapting these frameworks by grade level does require planning. Most districts deliver age-differentiated instruction. Older students learn the full framework including counter and defense options, while younger students focus on Hold, Secure, and Evacuate. The SRP provides curriculum workbooks for different educational levels at no cost, and ALICE Training offers a separate curriculum for elementary-age students that omits the Counter component.

The important principle is that every staff member, every teacher, and every student in a school building understands what a given directive means and what to do when they hear it. Consistent training and regular lockdown drills build that automatic response regardless of the framework a district selects.

 

How do these active shooter training programs work alongside law enforcement?

Coordination with first responders is built into each of these frameworks. When law enforcement responds to an incident, they arrive with information about what directives have been issued, where students and staff are located, and which areas of the building are secured.

The Standard Response Protocol was developed in direct partnership with law enforcement and is modeled after the incident command system used by police and emergency services. When a school is in Lockdown, responding officers know doors are locked, lights are off, and students are out of sight. When a school is in Evacuate, officers know where students are moving and what the designated safe location is.

Districts should include local law enforcement in the process of selecting and implementing a framework. First responders who train on the same response protocol as school staff can act faster when an incident occurs. Many law enforcement agencies — including those that deliver CRASE training — will conduct drills with schools at no cost.

How does Total Security Solutions work with schools on physical security projects?

Before we recommend any product or system, our team works with district leaders, safety directors, facilities managers, and architects to understand the building's specific vulnerabilities, existing infrastructure, budget constraints, and any state requirements.

From there, we design a custom ballistic barrier system around your needs. This may include a secure vestibule at the main entry, bullet-resistant glazing, forced-entry-resistant doors, or a combination of all three. Every system is engineered in-house, fabricated in our facilities, and installed by our factory-trained crews so there is a single point of accountability.

We also understand that most schools operate on tight budgets and cannot always address every vulnerability at once. Our team can help districts prioritize upgrades based on threat and vulnerability assessments, sequence improvements across multiple fiscal years, and identify products — like SchoolDefender® glass — that add forced-entry protection to existing windows and door frames without requiring full replacement.

What physical security upgrades support active shooter response protocols most directly?

The most effective physical upgrades are those that give students, teachers, and school staff more time to execute a response protocol before a threat reaches them.

Classroom doors that lock from the inside are the most immediate and widely applicable improvement. When a Lockdown directive is issued, a door that can be secured instantly. 

Secure, controlled-access entryways are another important layer. A vestibule with ballistic-rated glazing and electronic access control prevents unauthorized entry during the school day and keeps a potential threat from reaching classrooms. When a Secure directive is issued indicating a threat outside the school building, a properly designed entryway reinforces the protocol with a physical barrier rather than relying entirely on human response.

For windows and doors, SchoolDefender® glass adds forced-entry resistance that is stronger than security window film. 

Districts should also consider active shooter window systems that combine forced-entry and ballistic protection in a single tested assembly, rated to both UL 752 and ASTM F3561 — the only systems-level test that accounts for what happens to a window after it has been shot.

Ready To Protect Your School?

At Total Security Solutions, we've completed more than 30,000 security installations nationwide, including hundreds of school and school district projects ranging from single-building upgrades to multi-site district-wide programs. We do everything in-house, from design, engineering, and fabrication to delivery and installation. Our team invests time in understanding your building's specific vulnerabilities, your operational and design requirements, and your budget before recommending anything. We can help you phase upgrades over time if you can't address every priority at once.

Schedule a consultation with us to start planning your school's security upgrades. 

 

Jump to a Topic:

Talk to an Expert

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our capabilities, products, or how we can work together, please contact us today to request a consultation.