Only 57.2 percent of schools across the country have a written plan designed to prevent disaster, a new study has found, leading the study’s authors to conclude that a large number of schools across the country are unprepared and have emergency response plans that fall short of what’s expected.

According to an article by Jennifer Woody on the Today’s THV website, the study by UAMS and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute talked to more than 3,600 school superintendents across the country. The survey did find, however, that 86 percent of school districts have a mass casualty response plan in place.

Dr. James Graham, who authored the study, told Woody that the estimated 53 million children in the U.S. who are in schools each weekday aren't as safe as they could be. “Natural disasters, school violence, and even a terrorist event, can happen anywhere,” he told her.

“Almost a third of the schools had not conducted an evacuation drill,” he added. “For example, about a quarter of the schools did not include provisions for handicapped children, evacuating children in wheelchairs or mobility problems.”

Woody says the study also found that urban schools are better prepared than rural ones. The study is available in a recent edition of the journal, Pediatrics.