School lockdown drills pose particular challenges (and risks) for students with disabilities

Lockdown drills are increasingly common in classrooms across the United States, with 95.7 percent of public schools reporting that they practiced a lockdown drill with their students during the 2017–2018 school year. Lockdown drills are used to prepare students, teachers, administrators, and other school staff for the unlikely event of an active shooter on, or near, the school campus. Participation in such drills may challenge the operation and well-being of any classroom, but it poses special challenges for students with disabilities.

I previously worked as a special education teacher for preschool students. In my school district, unannounced lockdown drills required teachers to lock their classroom doors, cover windows, turn off lights, and silently hide with their students. My class—18 preschool students, a paraprofessional, and myself—squeezed into the dark bathroom. This would be a difficult situation for typically developing preschool students, and all my students had documented disabilities under IDEA. During these drills, the paraprofessional and I would try to calm kids’ fears of the dark, of the disruption of our classroom routines—and of the banging on the classroom door by police officers, who would simulate a would-be classroom intruder attempting to get students to make noise while hiding.

Students with disabilities are largely unaccounted for in school lockdown plans. These plans generally outline what each classroom teacher is meant to do in such an event, but do not account for students who have difficulty following directions, maintaining silence, or coping with anxiety. Federal guidance instructs schools to account for how lockdown plans affect students with disabilities and to train staff in assisting students with disabilities during lockdowns, but there is no clear training guidance or means for ensuring compliance.