Santa Cruz City Schools

How we will communicate in case of an emergency:

In case of any natural or manmade disaster while your child is at school, the School and District will communicate with you in a variety of ways. While the school is following established protocols shared county-wide by incident responders, we will be keeping families updated with any developments in the situation through:

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• Text Messages

• Email

• Voice Messages

• School and District Websites

• School and District Social Media Channels

• We will also work with Local Radio & TV Stations to ensure that relevant and accurate information is being shared with the wider community.

 

*During any developing situation, we encourage families to limit calls or texts to anyone on-site, and to limit social media posting to help keep communication channels clear and to limit misinformation.

Please do not come to school during a developing incident

During a natural emergency or other incident, any attempts to access the school can impact student safety by impeding incident responders and adding further confusion to a difficult situation. We ask parents to please be patient until student release or pick-up information is shared by staff.

 
Natural disasters such as a tsunami or earthquake or fire
We have evacuation plans in place in the event we need to evacuate a school site. We work with our other schools, other districts in our county, our city and county officials as well as law enforcement to ensure a safe relocation of students and staff. We will communicate with parents where to pick up their children.

Our procedures for releasing students
For students over the age of 14, we will check their Emergency Card. If the parent has checked the box saying we can release them in case of an emergency, we will release them to go home. If the parent has not checked the box saying we can release their child, we will keep the students on campus or at the evacuation site until someone listed on their Emergency Card arrives. We will check a photo ID in order to match the student with a person on their Emergency Card.

For students under the age of 14 we will keep the students on campus or at the evacuation site until someone listed on their Emergency Card arrives. We will check a photo ID in order to match the student with a person on their Emergency Card.

Incident Response Procedures

Every campus in Santa Cruz City Schools follows a set of procedures shared by all county education and incident response agencies. Staff undergoes training throughout the year, and school-wide drills are regularly practiced to ensure readiness. We maintain close relationships with first responders across the county to ensure a coordinated and rapid response to any issue.