Create a Culture of Emergency Preparedness at Your School

Via PTA Meetings, Newsletters or Directories throughout the year:
* Provide parents with First Aid, CPR, & CERT class schedules.
* Have Preparedness presentations at your PTA meetings.
* Provide Mass Student Release Information Work with your principal.
o Provide parents with clear information about your school's mass student release procedures. What will the signs say? How does the process work?
o Provide parents with instructions for their part in mass student release
o As a rule of thumb, parents should not expect to see their student for at least 1 hour after an event.

Find out what your building administrator predicts and provide this to parents.
* Give instruction on how parent's should select emergency contacts and pick up persons EG: Parents should list only people who live within a short driving distance of the school.
* Advise parents to let people know that they are on the list of folks able to pick up their child. Persons listed should be informed of release procedures.
* Ask parents to talk to their children about what to do if a disaster strikes while they are at school.
* Remind parents numerous times each year that they must sign-in and sign-out EVERY time they come into the school building. Staff search teams may be sent after people who have already left, or may not search for those who did not sign in.
* Parents need to add siblings when they sign-in.
* Provide simple preparedness info in every PTA newsletter.
* Provide updates of preparedness purchases with PTA funds.

More Ideas
* Sell Survival Kits and First Aid Kits at Back to School Night or Open House events. One local vendor will come to your school, man the booth and give a percentage of the profit to your PTA.
* Place preparedness brochures in first day packets or attached to directories.
* Place preparedness brochures in the school office.

For Staff and Administrators
* Provide your school administrator with CERT class schedules for staff.
* Provide a PTA representative for the building safety committee.
* Provide refreshments for building safety or emergency preparedness committee meetings.
* Provide an educated, positive and willing PTA leadership.
* Be willing to support staff training opportunities.

Contact Berta Phillips with your questions or comments.