Emergencies Bulletin

• View information about Preparing for an Emergency
• Public Schools Emergency Communications System - Information about closures & delays
• Join the FWPS notices mailing list - be automatically notified by email about closures and delays

As with any emergency situation, the decision to cancel or delay school depends on many factors, the most important of which is student and staff safety. Unfortunately, the conditions that cause us to delay or cancel school aren’t always immediately obvious. We strive to make our decisions about school closings or delays as early as possible. Sometimes, the conditions change so quickly that a timely decision is not possible.

If you are concerned about the safety of your child, do not send him or her to school.

Snow Wind Earthquakes Power Outages

The next time disaster strikes, you may not have much time to act. PREPARE NOW! Families can, and do,cope with disaster by preparing in advance and working together as a team with their school. Knowing what to do is your best protection and your responsibility.

A crisis, be it a natural disaster such as a snow storm, earthquake or wind storm, is an event over which we have little to no control. To help parents and schools cope in emergency situations, guidelines have been developed in conjunction with local police, fire and city officials.

By presenting a brief overview of these plans, we hope to ease parents’ minds about the safety of their children. If parents are made aware of emergency plans, they are less likely to risk their own safety and impede the operation of our response plan to help students and staff.

In The Event of a Crisis, Emergency or Natural Disaster:

Schools

• No student will be dismissed from school unless a parent or designee comes for him/her.
• Students will be released only to parents or others who are noted on the student’s emergency information card. If a parent is forbidden by a court order or divorce decree from seeing his or her child, the custodial parent should make sure that this information is noted on the student’s emergency card. (With this in mind, is your child’s card up-to-date?)
• Schools are likely to be one of the safest places that children could be located during most crises, emergencies or natural disasters. Staff members will remain with the children until all have been reunited with their parents or approved persons.
• Every effort will be made to keep secondary students on campus as well. Due to unknown dangers on the roads and in neighborhoods, older siblings will not be allowed to pick up younger children.
• Should an emergency occur during the school day, students may or may not be sent home. Depending on the type of emergency, this decision will be made by the Superintendent’s Office with input from Federal Way Police and our local Fire Department.. Parents should listen to the local radio and television stations, or check the District’s website at www.fwps.org, before proceeding to school or home.

Transportation

• For children who are on the bus, the driver will make every effort to return them back to their home school or to the nearest school possible. In the event a bus is not able to return to a school, the students will remain on the bus, with the driver, until assistance can arrive. All buses are in radio contact with the Transportation Office and are equipped with Standard First Aid Kits. If a child bas been let off at his/her regular bus stop prior to the disaster, you should expect to find your child at home or wherever they would normally go after school.

Parents

• Please do not call the school, Transportation Department or District. We must have the lines open for emergency calls.We will NOT be able to check on individual children. Please listen to the local radio and television stations listed on the back of this Emergency Procedures Bulletin, or access the District’s website at www.fwps.org.
• The American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency recommend that each person be able to be self-reliant for three days.

Arrangements have been made with the radio and TV stations listed below to broadcast information regarding the operation of school during emergency conditions, including inclement weather. Information will be delivered to these stations by 5:30 AM . PLEASE DO NOT telephone the stations, schools or Transportation Department for information. However, you may check the District’s website at www.fwps.org.

“CLOSED” OR “SCHOOLS CLOSED”

This means that NO schools in the Federal Way Public School District will be in session for that day only. This also means there will be no “out-of-district” transportation. Students attending “out-of-district” classes will NOT receive transportation, even if the host-ing district is in session. All scheduled athletic and activity events are cancelled.

“2 HOURS LATE”

Classes will begin two hours later than normal. Bus pick-up schedules will also be two hours later than normal. Buses will start their routes on the two-hour late schedule, but road and traffic conditions may impede progress, so the buses could be running later. Classes will dismiss at the normal time. View the Transportation Department website for Emergency/Limited Bus Route Information.

When schools begin late, the following classes or programs WILL NOT OPERATE:

• NO A.M. Shuttles
• NO A.M. or P.M. Puget Sound Skills Center (formerly O.S.C.)
• NO A.M. Kindergarten NO A.M. Pre-School
• NO AM/PM Extended Learning Programs NO Activity buses
• NO AM/PM Headstart NO Elementary Breakfast
• NO AM/PM ECEAP Programs

“LIMITED BUS TRANSPORTATION”

'Limited Bus Transportation' means that part or all of some routes will not be covered because of an emergency situation. To see your school's emergency bus routes, go to http://www.fwps.org/info/bus/emergency/. Parents of students with special transportation needs will be informed by the students' drivers of alternative stop locations.

“NO TRANSPORTATION”

Schools are open, classes are in session, but NO BUSES will be operating. This includes “in-district,” “out-of-district” and “Special Needs” buses.