Student Safety

AUSD Emergency Procedures

All AUSD schools have uniform emergency procedures for intruders on campus, unsafe situations in the surrounding community, chemical spills, or environmental and natural disasters. All procedures were created in collaboration with local law enforcement and are based on nationwide best practices. Procedures are kept confidential to the community to protect students and staff. A summary of the procedures is listed below.

Lockdown (Active Threat)	Alert over PA system, Activate Share 911, call 911, announce emergency. Secure all students and staff in a safe location. Determine the safest next steps: A.L.I.C.E..
Earthquake	Drop, cover under a desk, and hold on. Wait for the shaking to stop. Exit the building to the emergency gathering location on campus.
Shelter-In-Place (Chemical Spill, Environmental Disaster)	Alert over PA system, Activate Share 911, call 911, announce emergency on the school announcement system. Secure all students and staff in a safe location. Cover windows, filters, vents; turn off HVAC system. Await further directions from emergency management/law enforcement.
Fire	Alarm activates Check for smoke or flame If smoke or flame is visible or is smelled, evacuate to the designed emergency meeting location outside of the building. If no flame or smoke is seen or smelled, await direction from teacher/administrator.

Practicing Emergency Procedures

AUSD schools practice all emergency procedures with their staff and students several times during every school year. Elementary school sites practice lockdown and shelter-in-place procedures 3 times per year and 4 times per year at the secondary level. Our lockdown training includes ALICE protocols. More information can be found here. Schools practice fire drill procedures 1 time per month at the elementary level, 4 times per year at the middle school level, and 2 times per year at the high school level. On Friday, Oct. 20, all AUSD schools will participate in an earthquake drill and practice safe procedures to implement during an earthquake. If you would like to observe your child’s school during an emergency drill, you may do so by contacting the building principal. All AUSD schools have a comprehensive emergency plan that assigns staff to key roles such as search and recovery, monitoring students, first aid, communications, etc.

Campus Supervisors

Notification System - Share 911

AUSD has implemented a district-wide notification system that allows all staff to be able to immediately alert law enforcement of any unsafe situation such as an intruder on campus. Notification is simultaneously delivered via text message and email to all employees at the reporting school site and to the APD Dispatchers. This allows law enforcement officers to quickly respond to the campus. This system also allows staff to quickly communicate to the entire school to secure the campus and the students with little time lost.

Emergency Supplies

Every school campus in AUSD has a 3-day emergency supply for their student body and staff that is stored in an emergency container located outside of the school building. This supply includes emergency food, water, first aid supplies, flash lights and emergency medications for any student who has an approved medication form on file and has provided the additional emergency medication to the school. If the school is able to safely access the medications stored within the school building those will be utilized as well.

Reunification Plans

Should there be a situation where we have to conduct a reunification of students with their families, the following process will be followed. Students will be removed from their school site and transported to an alternate location for the purposes of providing a safe and organized reunification when events have occurred that make the school campus an unsafe location such as a natural disaster or critical incident.

Families will be notified that student reunification with their family will occur and will be provided the location, time, and any additional necessary information through postings on the AUSD website, school website, AUSD Twitter feed, Alameda Patch, Local Radio stations, and ParentSquare. AUSD will provide information through all of the above following methods that are available. In the event of a natural disaster, internet and phone lines may be down and families should tune into local radio stations for emergency information.
Upon arriving at the designated reunification site, parents/guardians should bring their photo identification so that their identity can be confirmed before the student is released to them.

Ways That Parents Can Help

Program your child’s school telephone number into your cell phone.
Save the AUSD website into your favorites on your web browser so that you can easily access it: https://www.alamedaunified.org/.

Practice the earthquake procedures of drop, cover, and hold on as a family at home.
Discuss ALICE procedures with your students

Make sure that you have designated emergency contacts in AERIES , other than yourself, that spend most of their time in Alameda or nearby. This person can be a relative or family friend that you would trust to pick up your child during a reunification situation.
If your child takes medication that they cannot be without during an emergency, talk to your healthcare professional about getting medication placed into your child’s school emergency storage container.
Reinforce with your child that they are to follow any directions given to them by AUSD staff during an emergency.
Organize emergency supplies for your home. A complete list is available at www.fema.gov.