Development of Airport Incident Command System (ICS) Training

According to FEMA the National Incident Management System (NIMS) "is a comprehensive, national approach to incident management that is applicable at all jurisdictional levels and across functional disciplines." The implementation of NIMS by all local, state, territorial, and tribal agencies is required as a condition to receive Federal Preparedness grants and the expansion of use across the whole community, to include the private sector, reflects the importance of NIMS as an essential foundation to the National Preparedness System.
The operational element of NIMS is the Incident Command System (ICS), which requires training for awareness of and proficiency in the various roles and responsibilities found within ICS. While DHS/FEMA provide course materials and some on-line training across the various levels of ICS, including some discipline-specific training (i.e. healthcare, education, and public works) airports represent a unique niche of training for ICS which is presently unmet aside from generic training opportunities.
Across the discipline-specific courses available, the foundational course materials are the same. The differences rest in examples, context, and in-class activities being customized for the target audiences. Particularly at the lower levels (ICS-100 and ICS-200), this discipline-specific context helps learners to better understand the material and how it relates to their environment. Recent discussions and interactions with airport emergency management personnel have revealed a need for airport-specific ICS training. Given the broad tasking of FEMA's Emergency Management Institute, along with limited resources and matters related to the recent change of administration, this need is not likely to be met in the foreseeable future.

Develop airport-specific Incident Command System training courses at the ICS-100 and ICS-200 levels that meets NIMS training standards as established by the National Incident Management System Training Program.

The research would be comprised of five core activities which follow the standard in the training industry, the
ADDIE model. ADDIE stands for Assess, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. 1) ASSESS. Conduct a
needs assessment across the airport community. This would include surveys, reviews of documents such as AEPs
and After
-Action Reports, and interviews with airport personnel. 2) DESIGN. Once needs are identified, they need
to developed into course training objectives and cross
-walked with the NIMS ICS require
d training objectives. 3)
DEVELOP. Once objectives are finalized that will meet FEMA's requirements as well as those of airport
stakeholders, instructional design will take place. The course is best developed to include a functional exercise where
participants can apply what they have learned. 4) IMPLEMENT. Pilot the training in a TBD number of airports
across the country. 5) EVALUATE. Feedback from instructors and participants will inform modifications to the
course, which will then be finalized.

By steps as outlined above:
ASSESS: $15,000
DESIGN: $5,000
DEVELOP: $40,000
IMPLEMENT (five pilot deliveries): $30,000
EVALUATE: $10,000
Project Management: $10,000
Total: $110,000

Examination of After Action Reports from airport incidents and events to identify common lessons learned.
Examination of AEPs to identify gaps and contemporary planning needs to provide recommendations to the FAA for
updating the standard