Emergency Preparedness

With the help of Palo Alto Operations of Emergency Services (OES), we have been planning for both onsite and offsite evacuation points.  Student reunification processes have been established along with onsite check-in and release protocols for large scale disasters. Stay tuned for more information to be released by your school principal.

PAUSD trains staff on how to respond to emergencies using the Incident Command System (ICS). ICS is a standardized approach to the command, control, and coordination of emergency response for managing incidents of any kind or complexity (i.e., it expands or contracts as needed).  It allows staff and local first responders to meld rapidly into a common management structure with common terminology, avoids any duplication of efforts and provides a unified, centrally authorized emergency organization.

In-line with State law, PAUSD implements multi-hazard practice drills including fire drills, earthquake drills, and active shooter drills. As required, we have fire drills once a month for elementary, once a quarter for middle school and twice a year for high school.  Earthquake drills are done once a quarter for elementary and once a semester for both middle school and high school.  Active shooter drills are done once a year.  Going above what is required, our sites also conduct full scale disaster drills where the Incident Command System (ICS) is practiced.

For those interested in a more “hands on” approach to school safety, PAUSD will soon be looking for volunteers interested in a new community-oriented safety program.  Unlike PAUSD’s pre COVID School Safety Committee, we are now looking at a more site-specific approach for stronger support in each of our school communities.  Much like the original Safety Committee concept, PAUSD Safety teams are to include district and site admin, certificated and classified staff, parents and secondary students.  The new approach will include training, bi-weekly site meetings, monthly districtwide meetings, and team leads to offer support at each site.  Stay tuned for more information to be released by your school principal.