Emergency Preparedness in Today’s Society


If you have school aged children, it is very important that you are able to contact them in the event of an emergency. It is also true that the school be able to contact you should there be an emergency situation there. This has become more and more evident in the recent past and most parents are finding that they need to be in contact with their school system constantly. In the past, there have been phone chains that were used to notify parents of ongoing emergencies and until now, that was the best way to have this notification done. However, now there are many software programs on the market that can send out mass notifications to all parents instantly.

What Constitutes An Emergency

Schools have policies in place that define emergencies and when parents are to be notified. This could include weather emergencies or other unforeseen disasters. School shootings have been so prominent in the news lately, that it has become the top reason for mass notifications. In either case, they will have software available for download with school news sent directly to your phone. It is imperative that all parents have this software installed. In many cases, this will be the only means of communication with the school.

How You Can Receive Notifications

In the case of school closings for any reason, you will want to know as soon as possible so that you can make arrangements to either pick your children up yourself or have someone do it for you. If you are having someone other than your immediate family, you should let the school know about this as they may not release your child into their custody. The software your school uses will have an app that you can install on your Smartphone. It takes just a small amount of time to install. Once you have downloaded it, you can register it with your school to receive notices from them. Some schools use their notifications systems for other things as well as emergencies.

Updating Information On The Notification System

If you have make any changes to your phone number, you should let the school know immediately as they will have to update their records and the software they are using. You may also be able to do this yourself depending on what is being used. If there are any changes in custody of your child, you will want to include this in the system also since there could be multiple phone numbers listed for each child. Keeping your records up to date is very important.

The software programs are updated regularly, and you should be aware when this happens and always have the latest version installed. This is the only way that the notification system will work properly. If you school changes their service plan, you will want to make those changes on your Smartphone also so that you do not miss any important information from the school. More parents are depending on these systems every day.