Like terror Deja vu. (Update: education news from schools, businesses, research and government agencies).

When it comes to safety, everything old is new again. In the 1950s and '60s it was "duck-and-cover," today it's "shelter-in-place." In an effort to protect students in the event of a terrorist or chemical attack, the shelter-in-place plan is predicated on the notion that after an attack, people are often safest if they remain inside. Such plans have increasingly been put in place by school districts near nuclear plants, armories and chemical factories.

In a recent survey of district safety officers by the National Association of School Resource Officers, 79 percent of respondents stated that their schools are not adequately prepared to respond to a terrorist attack. Also, more than half of those surveyed felt that their schools' crisis plans were not adequate.

If it's up to the government, those numbers will change. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education plans to recommend this spring that districts across the country have a crisis plan in place.

There is one high-profile district taking the lead. If the Washington area were the target of a chemical attack, students and faculty in Fairfax County (Va.) would be sheltered in locked-down school buildings, inaccessible to parents, while teachers helped undress and shower any contaminated individuals.

"We have the federal government telling us that terrorist attacks are not a matter of if, but of when," says James McLain, security coordinator for Fairfax schools.

Recalling the drills that sought to prepare students for nuclear war decades ago, McLain recalls climbing under desks in elementary school. "We really are going back to a preparedness level that we used to be at," he says.

Specifically, if an attack were to happen, staff members would shut all vents and seal doors and windows with duct tape and wet towels to keep out contaminated air. Students on school grounds, would be showered and then would change into a second set of emergency clothes.

Similarly, in Indiana, the state Department of Education is giving district guidelines to follow in the event of an attack. Its Office of Student Services recently released what it calls a terrorism supplement to its June 1999 report, Checklist for a Safe and Secure School Environment. In the supplement, state officials give districts information on radiological, biological and chemical weapon agents and encourages schools to update their emergency procedures.

Some administrators say changing their emergency plans may not make a noticeable impact.

"We didn't buy any duct tape," says Larry Martin, principal of Madison-Grant High School in Fairmount, Ind.

"We have plans for a nuclear attack. But in all honesty, if we do have a nuclear attack, I don't know how much our plans will help."

www.schoolsecurity.org, ideanet.doe.state.in.us