While it is very unlikely that a major emergency will occur at school, District 58 encourages families to be prepared. Here are some tips to help:
Get prepared:
- Keep your child’s information up-to-date. This ensures that the District can contact you during an emergency. This also lets your school know who has permission to pick up your child.
- Follow the rules. All exterior District 58 school doors are locked during the school day. Prior to gaining access to the school, all visitors must ring the doorbell and be visually and verbally identified via the entry camera. Visitors are asked to verify their name and purpose for visiting the school. Once approved and buzzed in, guests must sign in at the front desk and pick up a visitor’s badge before continuing to their destination. Thank you for your cooperation!
- Talk to your child. Use age-appropriate language to describe the importance of safety drills in preparing for the highly unlikely event of an emergency. Stress the importance of remaining calm and listening to the teacher or trusted staff member in charge during a drill or an actual emergency.
- Create a family plan. School safety drills complement home safety drills. If you haven’t already, create a family preparedness plan. The Village of Downers Grove offers good resources on family preparedness.
If an emergency takes place:
- Keep informed. Depending on the crisis, District 58 will send emails, texts and voice messages district-wide informing parents of updates. If a situation merits early dismissal, please be aware in case you need to arrange a pickup for your child.
- Avoid calling or driving to school. If there is a crisis, the school will likely be in “lockdown” mode and you will not have immediate access to your child. Clogging the phone lines may hinder other important emergency response calls from getting through. In addition, heavy vehicle traffic near school can delay access for emergency vehicles.