Episode
Disaster Recovery Planning for K-12: From Downtime to Learning Continuity
- Podcast
- The CoSN Podcast
- Published
- Mar 5, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 471
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Summary
In Part Two of our Disaster Preparedness series, we move from strategic alignment to operational execution. After exploring how districts define recovery priorities in advance of a crisis, this episode takes a deep dive into the CoSN Disaster Recovery Plan Template —a structured, leadership-driven framework developed by the CoSN Cybersecurity Advisory to formalize and validate recovery planning. We examine what truly happens when critical systems go down—whether it’s a Student Information System outage, authentication failure, cloud disruption, or infrastructure breakdown—and why even seemingly “small” technical incidents can quickly escalate into instructional and operational disruptions without a clearly documented, tested recovery plan. You’ll learn: Why disaster recovery must be documented, accessible, and validated How system location (on-prem, cloud, hybrid) changes your recovery strategy The importance of a leadership-approved recovery order How identifying dependencies and connections eliminates guesswork during restoration Why RTO and RPO are organizational decisions—not just technical settings How to prevent single points of failure with primary, backup, and vendor contacts What a strong communication and escalation strategy looks like during an outage Why testing cadence and executive sign-off are essential for real readiness This conversation moves beyond theory and into the operational reality of K-12 environments, showing how a comprehensive disaster recovery plan: ✔ Protects instructional time ✔ Aligns departments around shared priorities ✔ Speeds system restoration ✔ Reduces crisis-driven decision-making ✔ Strengthens district resilience Whether your district is building its first plan or validating an existing one, the CoSN template provides a clear ro…