At each campus, the residential and overnight shifts perform fire drills each quarter in the dorm buildings, and the academic shift conducts fire drills each month in all areas used as classrooms. At least 50% of all fire drills are unscheduled. All fire drills are documented on the appropriate agency forms and are reviewed by campus administrators as they are conducted and by the EOC Committee every other month.

Each Hillcrest campus conducts two evacuation drills each year separated by no less than four months and no more than eight months. All evacuation drills are documented on the appropriate agency forms and are reviewed by the Senior Vice President, Director of Quality Assurance, and the Program Director or his/her designee. All evacuation drills are critiqued through a multidisciplinary process to identify deficiencies and opportunities for improvement based upon all monitoring activities and observations during the exercises. The effectiveness of corrected deficiencies and/or of improvements made in response to critiques are evaluated during the next drill.

The overall objective for evacuation drills is to keep students and staff safe under emergency/disaster conditions. Hillcrest must balance:
• the ability to evacuate our facilities in an efficient and timely manner, with
• either having, or being able to acquire, necessary supplies, materials and equipment related to the safety and well-being of our students and staff while in a relocation site.

Hillcrest will also achieve this balance in a manner consistent with Massachusetts DEEC requirements and Joint Commission standards.