Instant Alerts About School Emergencies and Absences

When I was a kid and something happened at school - snow day, late buses etc - the good old fashioned phone chain was initiated to inform parents. If your last name started with Z (like my child's will), you could be the last to know and perhaps trek through the snow to find the school doors locked. Today, there is a new technology available that enables school districts to notify thousands of parents about emergency situations, instantly.

Honeywell Instant Alert For Schools is a web based system that has been implemented by thousands of schools around the country to notify parents of emergency situations, truancy (yup, you can know right away if your teen skips), school updates, snow days and more. The Lake Superior School District is getting ready to utilize the system this evening to notify parents that schools are closed again due to the storm expected to hit later today.

The best part of the Honeywell tool is that, as a parent, you can register online to receive notifications via your technology of choice - a phone call, e-mail and/or text message - to be sure that you receive the notification in real time and don't arrive home later to a frantic message from a fellow parent on your answering machine.

With so many media stories about emergencies in our schools, this technology can give parents a little peace of mind. If your child's school has this system in place, sign up today. If not, encourage the school to consider implementing it.