The contingency plan is to apply somewhere else. At least one safety school should be EA or rolling admissions so the student has a chance to apply elsewhere. My kids all had safety schools where admission was highly likely but not guaranteed. Luckily for my oldest his safety was his #1 choice. My middle son had the complication of auditions so there weren’t any true safeties. My youngest will be chasing merit money with his safeties so he needs to apply to a few safeties so that he can compare offers. At least 2 safeties have EA so he will know early if he didn’t get in to those schools. His safeties are not generally considered safeties but nobody from our school with his stats has ever been denied at these two so while he doesn’t have 100% chance of admission the percentage is high enough.