Building the evidence base for school reunification.
We are the only organization in the world conducting applied research on every aspect of returning students safely to their families after an emergency — and turning that research into doctrine, training, and tools the field can use.
Reunification is one of the most consequential moments in a school emergency, and one of the least studied.
Our work is a call for empirical foundation in the standards that govern reunification — not advocacy for a predetermined answer. Each study pairs doctrinal analysis with original data from the practitioners and families these standards are built to serve, and publishes its reasoning openly before drawing conclusions.
Three studies, one mission
Each study tackles a distinct, unanswered question about how reunification should be organized, named, and accounted for. Explore the papers, articles, and findings behind each.
ICS Placement of Student Reunification
Where does student reunification belong inside the Incident Command System, and should that placement change for different kinds of emergencies? This study examines how the function is organized, led, and titled — and surveys practitioners across seven disciplines on the question.
NFPA 3000 Emergency Terminology
Did renaming the “Reunification Center” to the “Notification Center” in NFPA 3000 serve families — or harm them? We examine the evidence, and ask parents directly what these words mean to them.
Where Reunification Breaks DownAn After-Action Analysis
When a school evacuation goes wrong, where does it actually fail? This study reads the official after-action reviews of real incidents to map the recurring breakdowns — across student accountability, triage, and family check-in.
Every white paper, in one place
Policy briefs, technical submissions, and standards comments from across all three studies — collected and updated as each is released.
How we approach the work
The same principles run through every study, and they are what make the findings credible to the standards bodies and agencies we hope to reach.
Evidence before recommendation
We publish our doctrinal reasoning first, then test it against original data. No alternative is recommended without the empirical foundation to support it.
Grounded in real events
More than 100 school reunification events — trainings, exercises, and real activations — inform every question we ask. The research answers problems the field actually faces.
Across every discipline
School administration, safety, emergency management, law enforcement, fire, and EMS each see reunification differently. We study the function across all of them, not from one vantage point.
Independent and open
Our findings stand on their own. We disclose our methods, share what we learn openly, and protect the independence that makes the research worth trusting.
Collaborate on the research
Whether you are a researcher, a clinician, a standards committee member, or a funder who wants this work to move faster — we want to hear from you.