How Parents Can Make Sure They’re Notified About Palm Beach County School Emergencies

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Florida. During the recent school closures in the Palm Beach County School District, parents rushed to the school in an attempt to get more information.

However, school district police chief Sara Mooney said that this may not affect the speed of communication.

“I get it, I’m a parent, I get it, you want to know what’s going on, I’m worried, I’m scared,” Mooney said. “But the reality is that our guys will be focused on dealing with any potential threat, and then, after the fact, we will go out and get in touch.”

The topic of communication sparked a lengthy discussion at the Student Council meeting last Wednesday.

“You all know, since most of you are parents, when you’re worried about your child, a minute is an hour,” Communications and Engagement Director Claudia Shi said at a board meeting on Wednesday. “So we have a system where we update our parents at least every 20 minutes.”

In accordance with the school district’s communications policy, parents can expect to:

• “Timely” notification of families
• Striving for updates every 20 minutes
• Email, text or call notification

Parents must complete a registration form at the beginning of the school year in order for parents to receive notifications.

Questions about alerts are on page 2 of these forms, which are available in eight languages.

Parents should keep this information up to date.

Palm Beach District School District 1 board member Barbara McQuinn noted in a recent discussion that attending school in these situations is not against school policy.

However, Mooney has a message for parents who do.

“If you plan to come anyway, just be prepared to not be allowed on stage. And if you start creating problems outside of the scene, it will just take resources away from what the people inside are trying to do.” Mooney said. “We will pass the information on to parents. There’s no problem sharing what happened or how it happened, but we just don’t know right away.”