Emergency Response Team The CIEE Study Abroad emergency response team consists of the following individuals:

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1 CIEE Study Centers Health, Safety and Emergency Protocol Handout Updated: 10 July 2017 Emergency Response Team The CIEE Study Abroad emergency response team consists of the following individuals: Name Title Area of Responsibility Colin McElroy Director Health, Safety, & Security Blake Kehler Manager Health, Safety, & Security Bill Bull Vice President Risk Management Caroline Maas Vice President Program Management Maritheresa Frain Executive Vice President Study Abroad Alexandra Wood Vice President s Academic Affairs Matt Redman Vice President High School / Teach Anthony Johnson President AIC Additionally, depending upon the region of the event the corresponding Regional Director of Operations will be included. Risk Assessment All decisions regarding program operations are made with reference to data from a number of sources. In addition to the consular information sheets and advisory messages posted by the U.S. Department of State ( consultation with our security intelligence provider and our resident directors and program directors use information gathered locally and through conversations with other providers in the city or country. In making individual decisions concerning participation, we suggest that participants and their parents carefully review the State Department Travel Advisories web page. CIEE also conducts annual risk assessments using incident data collected from participant reports and also utilizing the annual Crime and Safety Reports published by the Department of State. This risk assessment informs the orientation strategy that is specific to each study center as it works to inform participants of risks associated with their new home. Orientation and Training for Participants Every CIEE Study Center program begins with a comprehensive orientation to the country, city, university, and the program, which includes, among other information, an explanation of any local risks that the Resident Director (RD) has identified and tips for enhancing personal safety. In addition, each RD distributes local emergency contact information to each participant. At

2 orientation the RD reminds all participants to sign up for the State Department s SMART Traveler program which provides them with updates from the Consular Office as they occur. On-Site Care and Insurance Each RD maintains lists of recommended health and mental health providers. CIEE includes a mandatory political/natural disaster/health insurance policy for every participant in the program fee. CIEE has an emergency notification system that simultaneously broadcasts messages via text, phone and for use when there is a necessity to contact all participants quickly. CIEE has established protocols to be used in the event of a health emergency, serious accident, political crisis, natural disaster, crime, sexual assault, or death of a participant. Monitoring Resident Directors and members of the Risk Management team subscribe to multiple emergency alerting systems and also to the U.S. State Department s service and thus automatically receive any Travel Warnings and Advisories as soon as they are issued. Additionally, CIEE receives multiple reports daily from multiple sources and is on the Academic Advisory Committee of the Overseas Security Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department. Local Contingency Plans Each CIEE Study Center has contingency plans which will be activated in case there is a known local condition that requires (a) extra caution, (b) removal of the program to a different site in the same city or country or a nearby country, or (c) suspension of a program and evacuation of participants. For security reasons these local contingency plans are not available to anyone except CIEE staff. In the Event of a Local Emergency The Resident Director contacts participants to ascertain participants well-being, and to provide information, instructions, and advice. The Resident Director contacts the local U.S. embassy, consulate, or Interest Section, and also confers with other study abroad providers and/or U.S. enterprises in the area. Depending on the situation, the RD may or may not gather the participants together in a group. Participants are advised to contact their parents, guardians, or emergency contacts as soon as possible. CIEE will send out an alert but will initially be focused on ensuring the safety and well-being of the students The Resident Director reports to the Regional Director of Operations (RDO) per the CIEE Incident Reporting Protocols. Those protocols dictate timing of alerts which range from immediate to within 72 hours. The Regional Director of Operations or the Director of Health, Safety, & Security will ensure that sending institutions are informed of events per protocols which include immediate notifications of severe incidents. If the student is unable to communicate with their family, CIEE will reach out on their behalf. 2

3 In the Event that the U.S. Office of CIEE is Unable to Open or Communicate Members of the Emergency Response Team have access to critical data regarding participants, insurance information, worldwide staff contact information, contact information for CIEE Academic Consortium Member Institutions, and other safety and crisis resources at all times. The emergency notification system is cloud based and can be launched from any location in the world that has an internet connection. Department of State Travel Warnings and other High-Risk locations CIEE considers the implementation of a US Department of State travel warning in any country to be a serious concern and all options are evaluated with respect to student safety, including program termination. While CIEE does run a few programs in countries with active travel warnings, the risks have been thoroughly evaluated and proper mitigation measures implemented to ensure a safe experience for all students. When there is an active travel warning, CIEE on-site staff/students adhere to all advice listed in the warning and no CIEE programming will take place in a listed high-risk area. Further, students are advised of all areas of a country listed in the travel warning and are instructed to not independently travel to those areas. Any students announcing their intention to CIEE on-site staff that they will be travelling to a high-risk location will have their home institution notified, so that they and CIEE can work together to mitigate risks for the student. Advice for Participants and their Families CIEE strongly recommends that unless specific situations dictate otherwise, participants should designate their parents/guardians as emergency contact persons. Participants and their emergency contacts should keep in touch with each other throughout the participants time out of the U.S. Participants should make sure their parents and/or emergency contacts have their accurate and up-to-date local contact information at all times, especially when on independent travel status outside of the student center. Participants should immediately notify their emergency contacts in the event of any emergency, accident, serious health problem, or other serious mishap. Participants are asked to notify the RD in the event of any health condition that lasts longer than a day. CIEE advises participants and their families that communication between CIEE and participants sending schools is considered internal communication in the sense of the Family Rights and Privacy Act, and that therefore CIEE has the right and the duty to communicate all relevant information concerning participants health and safety, academic progress, behavior, etc. to appropriate officers at the sending school on a need-to-know basis. The Terms of Participation of the CIEE Study Center specifically authorize CIEE to communicate any relevant information to participants emergency contacts. Participants and their families need to be aware of the fact that the U.S. Department of State Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management will generally not release 3

4 information about specific individuals to CIEE or to other third parties. The U.S. State Department website includes the following statement: Families in the United States whose U.S. Citizen relatives abroad are directly affected by a crisis can communicate with the Department of State through our Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management (202) " Below are excerpts taken from CIEE s Health, Safety, & Security SOP Manual. Emergency Management At CIEE, safety is a primary concern of every staff member involved in the operation of study abroad programs. While no program, in the United States or overseas, can guarantee the safety of participants, the risks can be significantly diminished if resident staff, Portland program staff, students, parents, and advisors at the host and home institutions all work together. CIEE s approach to emergency management parallels a Risk Management model of identifying risks, accessing vulnerabilities, promulgating mitigation strategies/prioritizing risk reduction strategies based upon the mitigations as well as continuously monitoring local and regional conditions in order to provide guidance for all participants through the duration of their stay. CIEE conducts annual training of its staff in Health, Safety and Security and employs specific protocols for managing incidents involving our participants. i) CIEE 24/7 CIEE Portland office hours are from 9am to 5pm EST and utilizes an internal answering service for after-hours emergency access. Callers are instructed to follow the prompts for emergency service and are connected with a trained member of the Portland Customer Service team. This service is designed for the emergency contact person of currently enrolled students. On site Resident Directors directly provide 24/7 emergency access numbers and contact systems with students. ii) On-site Safety and Contingency Planning Each site has an Emergency Action Plan and Response (EAPR) that is reviewed on a yearly basis to ensure that we are working to mitigate all site specific risks. 4

5 CIEE Portland staff follow a Communications Protocol once a serious incident is made known by the Resident Director or alerted via any of the multiple emergency monitoring services. This scenario-based protocol is designed to ensure that the necessary stakeholders are informed as quickly as possible, once the primary work of ascertaining the safety and security of the participants on site. We take the term emergency management from FEMA the Federal Emergency Management Agency, although some people point out that emergencies cannot really be managed completely. FEMA organizes emergency management with relation to four major endeavors: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Our overall strategy is derived from the ISO Risk Management of the International Organization of Standards and graphically is represented here. Incident Management Policy Purpose CIEE recognizes the need to record and report incidents that occur to participants during their study abroad experience. The primary role of staff is to provide support and care to all participants; capturing the data of why that support was needed has value both internally and externally. This policy exists to ensure that CIEE applies timely and efficient reporting protocols to participants involved in health, safety, or security incidents. Put simply, an incident is defined as any event or act that impacts the well-being of a participant or interferes with the ongoing operations of the CIEE program. General Procedures After assisting and supporting the participant(s), all incidents must be documented and an incident report submitted electronically via Salesforce to the Regional Director of Operations (RDO) and the Director of Health, Safety, & Security (DHSS) within a maximum of 72 hours of being informed of the event. Category 1 incidents (detailed below) must be reported to the RDO immediately upon stabilizing the participant(s) or within 24 hours. The DHSS serves as the back up to the RDO with the VPRM backing up the DHSS. Guidelines for Responding to Specific Incident Types: CIEE has several categories of incident reporting that require different responses. The incidents of Category 1 necessitate immediate reporting to the RDO and/or the DHSS. Events within this category include: 5

6 Incident Category 1: Major incidents with physical harm/implications to an individual or group of individuals: A. Death/Dying: Did a participant die or is likely near death? B. Kidnapping: Was the participant abducted or illegally held? C. Forcible sex offenses (Rape and Other): Including forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling are defined as the carnal knowledge of another person forcibly and against their will. Rapes by force and attempts to assaults or rape, regardless of the age of the victim, are included. (Definition of rape: "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.") D. Crimes involving Violence (Robbery or Assault with no Robbery): i.e. robbery- was something of value taken under confrontational circumstances? This includes taking or attempting to take something along with force, threat, fear, display of weapon, or injury. Did the participant use substantial force to disengage the offender or was the participant injured? E. Vehicle Accident: Was the participant or group of participants involved in a moving vehicle accident of any kind? F. Hospitalization: If the participant is ill/injured as to require overnight hospitalization. G. Arrest/Detention/Deportation: Has the participant been incarcerated/detained or deported by local authorities? H. Non-forcible sex offenses: In the Study Abroad world this most likely is sexual relations with a minor (statutory rape). I. Missing: As defined as unable to locate after 24 hours of actively trying to find the participant. J. Serious Emotional Distress (Suicide Risk): Serious mental health issue where student poses a threat to themselves and/or others. K. Illicit/Dangerous Drug Use: Student has been confirmed to be using, or suspected of using, dangerous and/or illegal drugs (or unsafe levels of prescription drugs) which could lead to serious physical health, mental health, and/or legal consequences. L. Acts of Terrorism- Direct Impact M. Fire Incident Category 2: Other incidents with property loss, potential harm or damage to participant(s): These are not to be minimized, but fall in a different reporting and response mechanism. About half the time, these incidents will be minor enough to not warrant contacting sending institutions or parents. However, some incidents will be considered serious enough and similar to Category 1 incidents listed above; the RDO will need to contact the sending institution or Parent. A. Theft (non-violent): Was property taken from the participant without the use of force or any physical contact? This includes pick pocketing or thefts from residences not involving illegal entry. 6

7 B. Burglary (non-violent): Was there an illegal entry (or attempted illegal entry) into the participant s residence or hotel room? This includes reaching through a window. C. Vandalism: Was there damage to the participant s property committed by another person without illegal entry into the participant s residence or property being stolen? D. Physician Visit: CIEE shall keep a record of a participant s visit to a medical care provider if made aware of such a visit by the participant E. Alcohol/Tobacco issue: Broadly defined as illegal or unsafe use of Alcohol / Tobacco. Most cases involving a tobacco issue would be limited to HSSA participants (i.e. illegal for minors). Cases involving an unsafe or illegal use of alcohol could apply to any participant in different countries/cultures. F. Injury (minor): A minor injury not requiring a physician s visit. G. Illness (minor): A minor illness not requiring a physician s visit. H. Emotional Distress: A mental health issue that is serious enough to report as it is impacting the participant s ability to function in the program, but not serious enough that the participant poses a danger to himself/herself or to others. I. Accommodation Health & Welfare issue: Issue where a homestay, apartment, dorm, or other living facility poses a health & welfare risk for the participant (e.g. homestay family not feeding participant; homestay/dorm cleanliness issue; infrastructure safety issue; fire safety issue; etc ) J. Threat: Was the participant put in a reasonable fear of harm due to threatening words or conduct, but without a weapon or physical attack? This includes stalking, as determined by the participant. (If imminent, this should be treated as Category 1) K. Harassment of any kind (gender, race, religion, sexual orientation etc.): This may or may not be a Category 1 incident. If it is continuous and/or causing significant distress please treat as a Category 1 incident and call immediately. L. Behavioral: A participant s personal behavior (non-academic related) has become a risk to themselves, other students, the program, and/or staff. M. Safety Risk Issue: A member of the staff or a student has identified a general safety risk that needs to be remedied. N. Security System Breach / Failure: Generally defined as any failure of our safety and security protocols for a study center (e.g. an unauthorized person bypasses our security barriers / gate and gains access to the facility). Incident Category 3: Other Security Events involving Program: These are incidents that may or may not have an immediate physical impact on participants, or their belongings, but occur in the community, or situations that may exist in communities that cause fear or threat to the participant(s) and/or the continued operations of the Program. These are macro level events that have impacted or may directly impact continued operations: A. Acts of Terrorism Indirect Impact B. Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, floods, etc C. Strikes: Those strikes that prohibit movement or interrupt the learning environment. 7

8 D. Environmental/Technological Disasters: Transportation accidents, fires, chemical spills, nuclear power plants etc. E. Political events/protests: In some parts of the CIEE world, local political expression has the potential to disrupt daily operations and must be closely monitored. F. Epidemics: outbreaks of SARS/MERS, pandemics, Cholera etc. G. Perceptual Emergencies: If there is an event that occurs in the Region that could well hit the U.S. media (CNN factor) and elevates anxiety in participant s families or sending institutions, make a proactive report of stability in your Study Center. H. Other: Anything of significance that impacts the capacity of schools to operate or CIEE staff to be able to support the programs; this one is the catchall for those events that shut down operations in the city or university and must be monitored. Contact Us: Our main toll-free number for use during office hours is STUDY ( ) is answered 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. During business hours, when the recording starts, press the zero key and you should reach an employee. If for some reason the toll-free number is not working, dial to reach an operator. After 5pm ET, follow the prompts for our Emergency support system. Disclaimer: This describes the efforts made by CIEE to help participants enhance their safety and to help them respond to emergency situations. Nothing in this plan is a guarantee that any specific action will be taken in any given situation, nor is anything in this document a contract or part of a contract between CIEE and any other party, nor is any statement in this document intended to sell a service to a prospective customer, nor to attempt to persuade any party to avail themselves of any program or service provided by CIEE. Health, safety, and recovery from emergency situations are the sole responsibilities of each individual participant. CIEE takes its duty of care responsibility seriously and will act and inform the participants of all known issues but every individual must be take responsibility for their own actions and responses. 8