Disaster preparedness in schools is critical for the health and well-being of students and staff. To enhance disaster preparedness, awareness of disaster prevention should be raised among teachers. The aim of the current study was to assess disaster prevention awareness among teachers and to clarify the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness. Teachers from special needs schools, for which disaster preparedness is particularly important, were selected. Study questionnaires were sent to 1310 schools for children with special health care needs across 47 Japanese prefectures. Five-hundred-and-thirty-one complete responses were obtained. The disaster preparedness in the schools was insufficient. Teachers were concerned about child management, life saving, life maintenance, evacuation shelter management, and school management. There was a positive correlation between disaster prevention awareness and concern about disaster (r = 0.217, p-value = 0.000). The disaster awareness scale items “A sense of crisis about disaster” and “Anxiety” were positively correlated with concern about disaster, whereas “Imagining the disaster situation” was negatively correlated with concern about disaster. The current study analyzed the relationship between disaster prevention awareness and concern regarding disaster preparedness, which is relevant for the practice and indicates the importance of imagination strengthening.

Many Japanese special needs schools have adopted the School Management Council (SMC), involving residents and other stakeholders in school management. However, its influence on disaster preparedness remains unclear. We used a cross-sectional design to clarify the relationship between SMC adoption and disaster preparedness among 537 special needs schools across Japan. Data were collected using a self-administered survey conducted between November and December 2020. Chi-square tests were carried out for each item addressing adoption and preparedness. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the overall relationship between the SMC and shelter and equipment readiness, revealing significant associations for two items: having decided the division of roles in case of disaster with the municipality’s disaster prevention department (shelter preparedness) and the presence of a stockpile warehouse on the school premises (equipment preparedness). The SMC may support three key aspects of disaster preparedness: compensating for the lack of shelter experience among school staff, strengthening support for disaster victims through local community–municipal authority collaboration, and enhancing preparedness for unforeseen events. The SMC could thus be an effective strategy for strengthening disaster preparedness in special needs schools.