Welcome to the NEMLEC STARS Toolkit Companion Website!
The Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) is a consortium of police departments in Middlesex and Essex Counties, and two County Sheriff’s Departments. Member agencies operate by sharing resources and personnel, collectively providing services to each other that might not be available to one. NEMLEC coordinates this sharing of personnel and resources to provide its member agencies with the ability to provide supplemental services to the 1.7 million people in the 925 square miles they serve. For more information about NEMLEC, please visit the NEMLEC home page.
Since its inception in 1999, the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) School Threat Assessment and Response System (STARS) program has become a nationally recognized model, and has further expanded its response capabilities in the area of school-based mental health, including psychological triage and recovery.
The team continues to advance its founding purpose, which is to provide overall school safety awareness, school crisis planning, hazard identification, and training, by adhering to the core concepts of the Emergency Management Cycle: Prevent, Prepare, Respond, and Recover. These tenets are shared and established by a strong and dedicated multidisciplinary group of volunteers from public and private schools, colleges and universities, fire departments, hospitals, and police from local, state, and federal agencies.
The main purpose of the STARS Toolkit 2nd Edition, the School Emergency Operations Plan, and its companion website and resources, is to provide visitors with a comprehensive resource to aid them in their school crisis management planning and response.
We highly recommend that first-time visitors download and read the STARS Toolkit 2nd Edition at the outset, to better establish a foundational understanding of contemporary school safety planning and all the companion resources contained within this website.
The STARS Toolkit companion website is organized to follow the core concepts of the school emergency management planning cycle, so that visitors can quickly find what they need, when they need it.
Finally, we offer the School Emergency Operations Plan (SEOP) for school districts to utilize to update their current polices, or to build a policy from the ground up. It has been intentionally provide as a Word document, so that users can download and customize to the unique needs of their school district.
We hope you find the resources provided here useful to your school district, in your efforts to make your school communities safe and secure educational facilities for all your students, staff, and visitors!