Reunification - Extreme Natural Disaster Emergency Contact
Family Reunification Following: Cascadia Subduction Zone Megathrust Earthquake or Other Extreme Natural Disaster
Parent/Guardians are expected to pick students up from school as soon possible after an extreme
natural disaster like a Cascadia Subduction Zone Megathrust Earthquake or any other event that would likely render your child’s school unsafe to inhabit. If a parent/guardian can’t immediately get to the school site, school officials can release your child to go home with another adult as long as they have been identified by you as an emergency contact. You can also officially provide permission for your child to walk home during a non-scheduled school closure by checking the appropriate box on the Student Verification Report.
If communication systems remain functional, LOSD will inform families if their child’s school is
experiencing a non-scheduled closure and or a controlled release is necessary through all of the normal lines of communications still working. However, if all lines of communication go down, families should assume that a controlled release of students will take place at the school and are expected to get students from school as soon as possible.
In an attempt to prepare families to be safely reunified with their children after an extreme natural
disaster (such as a Cascadia Subduction Zone, Megathrust Earthquake), we ask that you give serious
consideration to designating at least one Emergency Contact that lives within walking distance of the
school where your child/children attend(s).
This specially designated emergency contact, would be your child’s last, best hope for getting picked-up after a disaster, if you or others listed as emergency contacts are stuck outside the city and unable to get to the school. After choosing a person that fits the criteria, you would need to communicate that
following an event like the one described above, normal communication systems may experience
temporary shut-downs, in which case they should make their way to the school, with ID, by whatever
means is available to them (likely by walking), as soon as they are able.
Please Identify at least 1 Cascadia Subduction Zone or “CSZ” emergency contact
Factors to consider when choosing your child’s “CSZ” emergency contact:
- A “CSZ” emergency contact lives within walking distance from the school your child is enrolled
- (could be up to 4 or 5 miles, but ideally much closer).
- A “CSZ” emergency contact – could be a contact that has already been identified on a student’s
- list of emergency contacts as long as they meet basic criteria (proximity, understand role, etc.)
- A “CSZ” emergency contact could be an older, age appropriate sibling.