Mission
Teach Forward exists to ensure that children with disabilities and diverse support needs are fully included in emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and reunification planning.
Through education, training, advocacy, and practical tools, we help schools, families, first responders, and communities build safety systems that work for everyone.
Vision
A future where no child is overlooked during an emergency because of disability, communication differences, mobility needs, medical complexity, or access barriers.
Core Belief
Safety is only effective when it is accessible.
When schools plan for the most vulnerable learners, safety improves for everyone.
Two ways to start
Book an Inclusive Safety Audit for your building, or send one question about a plan, drill, or student and get a straight answer from a practicing special education teacher and EMT.
Inclusive School Safety Framework™
The Inclusive School Safety Framework™ is the checklist behind an audit: it asks whether each part of your emergency system — written plans, drills, evacuation routes, communication, accounting for students, reunification, and staff roles — works for students with sensory, communication, mobility, and medical needs. Wherever the answer is no, that gap becomes a specific, assignable action item.
Inclusive Safety Audit
A structured review of one building's emergency plans, drills, and physical spaces against the Inclusive School Safety Framework™, walked through the seven FORWARD Framework™ steps. You finish with a written report: every barrier found, and a named, dated action item for each one.
- Find the Need: document review of emergency, evacuation, and reunification plans
- Observe Barriers: on-site walk-through of routes, shelter areas, and sensory/medical spaces
- Respond Inclusively: student-level supports for sensory, communication, mobility, and medical needs
- Work Collaboratively: staff and first-responder role clarity, ICS-aligned
- Adapt for Access: recommended plan, drill, and communication revisions
- Review and Practice: an accessible drill design your team can run without me
- Document and Improve: the written gap report and action-item tracker
- A written Inclusive Safety Audit report, per building
- A prioritized action list with an owner and a date on each item
- One accessible drill your team can repeat each year
- Documentation you can show a board, a parent, or a state reviewer
Audit pricing is scoped per building — size, number of plans, and how many drills you want observed all change the work. Tell me the building and I'll send a quote.
Request an audit quoteSee published district pricing ($49–$599)Inclusive Emergency Plan Starter Checklist
A free two-page spot-check built on the FORWARD Framework™. Open your current emergency plan, mark only what is true today, and every unchecked box becomes an action item with a name and a date attached to it. No cost, no obligation.
Get the free checklistFORWARD Framework™
FORWARD is the seven-step order the work follows, from finding disability-related safety needs before an emergency to documenting what changed afterward. Each letter is one step below.
- FFind the Need
Identify disability-related safety needs before an emergency occurs.
- OObserve Barriers
Examine physical, communication, sensory, and procedural barriers.
- RRespond Inclusively
Develop supports that address individual needs.
- WWork Collaboratively
Partner with families, educators, support staff, and emergency responders.
- AAdapt for Access
Modify plans, drills, communication systems, and environments.
- RReview and Practice
Conduct inclusive drills and continuous improvement reviews.
- DDocument and Improve
Track outcomes, update plans, and strengthen preparedness over time.
School & district safety services
A walk-through of plans, drills, and physical spaces to surface the barriers that only show up under pressure.
Drills students with sensory, communication, mobility, and medical needs can actually complete — and practice.
Procedures that keep nonverbal and medically complex students identified, supported, and reunited with family.
ICS-aligned training for school teams and first responders, delivered by an EMT who also teaches special education.