Active shooter drills have become a standard practice in many U.S. schools, yet their potential impact on students and educators has received limited attention. Following a listening session series and consensus study by the National Academies, the impact across schools and districts has become apparent.

The study’s resulting report, Active Shooter Drills: Mitigating Risks to Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health, explores how active shooter drills are conducted and how to reduce potential harm while supporting school safety. It provides suggestions for implementing practices that promote prevention and preparedness while fostering learning environments where students and staff feel safe, capable, and supported.

School psychologist Stacy Anderson emphasized the importance of the report’s recommendations in her work with the Arizona Association of School Psychologists, University of Arizona, Arizona Department of Education Comprehensive School Safety Advisory Council, and the Paradise Valley Unified School District. Across all of these roles, Anderson describes the report as a vital tool for translating high-evidence research into actionable and compassionate school safety strategies. She is using the report as a foundational blueprint to guide best practices, foster proactive planning, and minimize mitigating mental, emotional, and behavioral health harms.

“The National Academies report is a practical, daily reference that allows the ability to design emergency drills that prioritize the psychological safety and overall well-being of students and staff.” — Stacy Anderson

The report outlines actionable recommendations for state and local policymakers, school leaders, researchers, and federal agencies, including banning harmful practices, supporting staff training, ensuring equitable inclusion, and increasing access to mental health resources. The report also calls for national guidance and sustained research to strengthen the evidence base and help schools foster safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments so that schools not only prepare students and staff for emergencies but also protect their mental, emotional, and behavioral well-being.

The report’s findings on school climate, security measures, and mental health support needs have been particularly useful in shaping statewide recommendations within the Arizona Association of School Psychologists and the Arizona Department of Education’s Comprehensive School Safety Advisory Council, according to Anderson. 

Anderson describes the report’s best practices for protecting the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of student and staff as an indispensable operational guide for working with local school districts and School Emergency Response Teams (SERTs). In partnership with district leadership, Anderson and colleagues were able to revise active shooter drill presentations prior to rollout, allowing for evaluation of psychological outcomes, identification of student and staff vulnerabilities, and establishment of phased implementation plans. The report’s findings on best practices for mitigating mental health harm, ensuring developmentally appropriate implementation, and updating Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs) to include individualized support plans for students with specialized needs have also been used in SERT meetings.

This further led to collaboration with a speech-language pathologist to develop a student-friendly social story explaining emergency rally points. The tool helps students and neurodiverse students generalize safety concepts across environments and remains a requested resource across multiple campuses.

At the University of Arizona, Anderson integrates the report into a graduate course on crisis prevention, intervention, and response for school and community violence. The report’s findings are embedded alongside the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines and the National Association of School Psychologists PREPaRE curricula, which serves as a comprehensive training curriculum that equips school personnel to establish and serve on school safety and crisis response teams. Using the report, graduate students are taught how to intervene along pathways to violence and build effective multidisciplinary school safety teams.

While drills aim to enhance preparedness, they often vary dramatically in intensity and design, from simple safety walk-throughs to unannounced, high-simulation events, the report finds. Such inconsistencies can heighten anxiety, distress, and confusion, especially among vulnerable student populations. The report underscores that developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed practices are essential, and drills involving realistic simulations or deception should be avoided entirely.

The report’s findings and recommendations provide an essential evidence-based road map for the task force to promote meaningful action and safeguard school communities.

Learn more and access the full report at nationalacademies.org/active-shooter-drills.