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CUSD has taken steps to ensure your child's safety while in school. Each school has developed a crisis response plan. Emergency preparedness is basically preparing the steps you will take in the event of an emergency, such as contact information, communications, and evacuation plans.
CUSD broadcasts emergency messages, when necessary, using a number of media. General emergency messages, early and late school openings and closings can be found on the school district’s public web home page (link). Emergency messages may be sent to all phone contacts via the CUSD Connect Ed phone messaging system. Emergency messages are also sent by e‑mail to all subscribers to CUSD e-mail (link here). Emergency messages are transmitted to local media, and parents are encouraged to listen to radio or television.
All Capistrano Unified School District facilities have an emergency preparedness plan. The specifics of each plan differ for each location. The response to each situation will differ based on the specifics of that situation. The flexibility of the plan is key to the success of the response. In general, each plan involves the designation of a crisis management team; development of 1) lockdown, 2) shelter-in-place, and 3) evacuation procedures; preparation of a portable critical response kit that contains key information and supplies; designation of one or more appropriate evacuation sites; provisions for training personnel and updating the plan; checklists for dealing with specific types of incidents; and resources for help before, during and after an event. All CUSD school plans have been reviewed within the last twelve months, and school crisis teams have received training.
An emergency may prevent the safe evacuation of a school building and require steps to isolate students and faculty from danger by instituting a school lockdown. In an interior lockdown situation, all students are kept in classrooms or other designated locations that are away from the danger. Faculty members are responsible for accounting for students and ensuring that no one leaves the safe area. School personnel will also secure building entrances, ensuring that no unauthorized individuals leave or enter the building. Exterior lockdown procedures may also be used to ensure the safety of students when an incident occurs in the community. Parents are permitted access to the building and to their children if and when it is safe for them to do so.
The specific actions taken by CUSD in any emergency situation-both district-wide and at individual schools-will depend on the specifics of the situation. Any action taken would depend on several factors, including the level of threat and the advice of local, state, and federal agencies. The safety of students and staff members will be the primary concern in any decision.
Shelter-in-place is a short-term solution to a short-term problem. If an accident or attack that created contaminated air occurred in the nearby area, everyone would be brought indoors, including those in modulars. Building personnel would close all windows and doors and shut down the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC). This would create a neutral pressure in the building, meaning the contaminated air would not be drawn into the building.
Shelter-in-place is a short-term measure (measured in minutes or hours, not days) designed to use a facility and its indoor atmosphere to temporarily separate people from a hazardous outdoor environment. The alternative would be to evacuate into a hazardous situation, thereby causing harm to all involved.
CUSD’s primary responsibility is to keep children safe and secure. CUSD does not intend to keep children from their parents if a crisis occurs during school hours or school activities. It is the school system's intent to make sure that children are safe inside their schools until such a time that the threat has been reduced. Parents will be able to reunite with their children by following signage at the school or will be informed of a parent-student reunification center location via the school system emergency messaging system and local media – if it is not the school site.
If public safety officials require that a school building be evacuated, students and staff members will be safely transported by bus to a designated parent-student reunification center. Parents will be informed of the reunification location via the District’s emergency messaging system and local media. At the reunification center, students will be released to their parents upon presentation of proper identification.
The school system is taking action to make sure that schools and offices have the appropriate resources available including food and water and medical for a short-term event. In the event of a large-scale catastrophic event, CUSD would rely on federal and state authorities for assistance.
The CUSD shelter-in-place plan is to be used only in the event of a chemical, biohazard, or radiological event. In any one of these situations--which are usually localized (i.e., do not cover a wide area)--persons typically need to remain indoors only a few hours before the hazard literally blows away. After the danger has passed, children and staff members will be free to go to their homes.
There may be other events that would cause people to be housed for longer periods of time in public buildings such as schools--a bomb attack, for instance, which has destroyed homes. In such an event, other community agencies, including the Red Cross, would be responsible for providing food and water. This response would be a shelter, not a shelter-in-place.
In all critical events of this magnitude, the school division becomes part of a larger emergency response team. The county manager and the county crisis response team lead this larger team, whose members have been meeting for over a year and planning the various parts of the response. CUSD has been charged with providing transportation and shelter for the community. Other groups are charged with providing food and water.
School bus drivers will be in radio contact with the Office of Transportation for instructions in the event that a crisis occurs while students are in transport. Bus drivers will be informed to use common sense and not travel toward the crisis location. Parents will be informed of the parent-student reunification center location via the school system emergency messaging system and local media.
Parents are allowed to pick up their children unless public safety officials have declared a shelter-in-place response, or if there is some other reason why access to the facility is restricted. During any emergency, school personnel will maintain as safe and normal environment for children within the school as is possible. School is not automatically canceled in emergency situations. Remember, school may be the safest place for children to be.
Children will not be released to individuals who are not authorized on the student's information card or who do not have written parent authorization.
The information form is completed by parents and guardians at the start of each school year. Parents and guardians are encouraged to update the Student Information Card (PDF document) as needed throughout the school year.
Friends and neighbors may sign a child or children out with written permission from a parent or parents. Both (or all) parents have to give permission in writing for the sign out and pickup. Schools prefer to have written permission on the day that a child's pickup will change, but schools will also keep written permission on file. School offices will keep the permission notes--usually they will attach them to the student information card(s) of those involved. Schools will also ask for identification when the child is released to the one(s) mentioned in the permission note. It is advisable to give a signed note to the teacher as well.
If your child takes medication regularly, you, the parent, should make sure that the school has an appropriate amount of additional medication on hand. Talk with your child's school nurse for more information.
Students are allowed to have cell phones at school. Students are not allowed to have them turned on during the school day. In the event of an emergency, students will be allowed to use their phones to communicate with parents when specified by the principal. It is important to recognize that in an emergency situation; however, cell phone circuits may become overloaded, interfering with Public Safety officials’ ability to communicate. Student's use of cell phones during an emergency will be appropriately limited.
Parents are asked not to call the school in emergency situations so phone lines can remain accessible for handling the specific situation. Parents will be kept informed via the CUSD emergency messaging system.
Inform your children that if a crisis occurs while they
are in school, their teachers will provide them with appropriate
instructions.
Parents are also encouraged to prepare a family disaster plan and practice it so that everyone will remember what to do if a disaster does occur. Everyone in the household, including children, should play a part in the family's response and recovery efforts. Teach your children how to recognize danger signals. Make sure your children know what smoke detectors, fire alarms, and local community warning systems (horns, sirens) sound like.
In the event of a terrorist attack or other crisis, teachers will be informed as to the appropriate actions to take. Receiving live media coverage in the classroom about an attack or crisis will be left up to the teacher's discretion. Appropriate measures will be taken depending on the age of the students.
The impact of any critical situation on field trips--both divisionwide and at individual schools--will depend on the specifics of the situation. If the situation warrants, all field trips will be canceled. Cancellations could also include travel to academies, community programs, and other events. There may be circumstances that could require the cancellation of field trips to certain areas. All school buses are equipped with radio communications with the transportation office. If a field trip is under way and must be recalled, buses would be directed to return to the school or a designated safe area. Any such decision will be announced using the CUSD emergency messaging system. Parents are reminded that CUSD retains the right to cancel any field trip for safety reasons and is not responsible for any financial obligations parents may have.
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