Families are encouraged to be prepared in the event an emergency occurs during school hours.
The next time disaster strikes, you may not have much time to act.
Families can, and do, cope with disaster by preparing in advance and
working together as a team with their school. Knowing what to do is your
Whether it's a natural disaster such as a snowstorm, earthquake, mud
flow, flood, or windstorm or a man-made disaster, a crisis is an event
over which we have very little control.
Before a crisis or natural disaster:
- Ensure that your
child’s enrollment card is up to date with correct and current
information about individuals (designees) who are allowed to pick up
In the event of a crisis or natural disaster:
- Please do not
call the school, transportation department, or district office. Phone
lines, if working, will be used for emergency communication.
- Students may or
may not be sent home during a crisis. The school district will keep
parents and the public informed through the Public Schools Emergency
Communications System on the following radio and TV broadcasts: KIRO
97.3 FM and KOMO 1000 AM, and KIRO TV Channel 7, KOMO TV Channel 4, and
KING TV Channel 5.
- No elementary
child will be dismissed from school unless a parent or approved designee
comes for him or her. All parents or approved designees who come for
their children must show picture identification before signing the
- Schools are
likely to be one of the safest places that children could be located
during most crises or natural disasters. Staff members will remain with
the children until all have been reunited with their parents or approved
- Elementary children may be moved to a different school site if the crisis is localized.
- Bus riders will
remain with their drivers. If a child has been let off his or her
regular bus stop prior to the disaster, you should expect to find your
child at home. For children who are still on the bus, the driver will
make his or her way back to the school as conditions permit.
- Buses will drive
by A.M. stops, if safe to do so, and pick up any children waiting there.
They will be transported to school as conditions permit.
- If it is too hazardous to move the bus, children will remain on the bus until help arrives.