Disaster Planning

Students participate in earthquake drills each year.
We prepare to protect your child in case of fires, earthquakes, windstorms or other emergencies. We regularly conduct drills and inspect our schools for potential hazards.

If disaster strikes, our first priority will be your child’s safety. We have plans for responding at each of our schools and at the district level. We will work closely with emergency responders and Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management.

We will try to contact you in as many ways as we can, as soon as we are able. Always tell your school if you or your emergency contacts change phone numbers or email addresses. Keeping that information up to date will help us contact you in any emergency. 

We welcome your questions about how we will keep your child safe. Please talk with your school principal or explore our site to learn more.

Drills

State law requires that all schools have safety-related drills each month that school is in session, including drills for fire evacuations, lockdowns and sheltering in place. Our schools also have earthquake drills. 

Preparing Your Family

Talk with your children about what will happen in an emergency situation. Reassure them that everyone around them will work to keep them safe. Discuss the importance of following instructions from teachers, other school staff and emergency responders. Also, make sure your child knows who will be allowed to pick them up following a disaster.

Picking Up Your Child After an Emergency

We know that it will be important to you to be with your child as soon as possible. We will only release students to people designated as emergency contacts. Keep your emergency contact information, including phone numbers, current with your school.

Depending on the type of emergency, and when it’s safe, we may release students in one of two ways:

  • Through a parent unification team
  • Normal release

We will call your emergency notification numbers to inform you of the release type and schedule.

Most often, school will be the safest place for your child during the school day. If it is not safe to release them normally, we will keep students on school grounds until you can reunite. If the school campus has become unsafe, we will take students to a safer location. We will send out information about where and when it is safe to pick up your child.

Please be aware of our safety needs before you pick your child up. Immediately after a natural disaster, we need to keep parking lots and roads to the school as open as possible for emergency responders. Student checkout and parent unification takes time. Please be patient.

More Resources

  • Kitsap Department of Emergency Management: resources for creating family emergency plans and preparing for disasters
  • American Red Cross: resources for making emergency preparedness kits and talking with your children about disasters
  • Ready.gov: tips from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)