We have an emergency phone chain. At the beginning of the year we send a note home to every family asking if they want to be on it, if they can make a lot of phone calls or just some or can't make any but want to get the info. We do not use this in case of late start or school cancellation for snow. We let everyone know that this is for school cancelling unexpectedly during the day. For school cancellation,(in am, before start of school) parents are to listen to the tv, radio or check their computer. Our local tv station has a website with capability to notify individuals for their school delays and closings via e-mail.
It's pretty much just a safety net so the kids aren't sent home to an empty house.
Our school does this as well in the beginning of the year. The school sends home a note explaining the fan out list and it's purpose. The parents have a choice as to being on it or not. For those that are they send the notes back in. There is a place on the form for parents to volunteer to be a contact person. The principal choses the contact person for each class. Once the lists are complete they are sent to one contact person and one alternate for each class. The only downside to these lists is that it gives a false sense of security, for example when we had the major black-out during the summer in Michigan (and all the other states) were learned that without power cell phones don't work and most people only have cordless phones! In essence these list are very good to have, thankfully we have not used ours yet in the three years that we have had them.
Is there a form that has to be signed by parents before this is done. Permission to be on the phone tree. This sounds like a great idea. I know that sometimes children loose papers etc., or a parent may forget to write something down on a calendar. A phone call reminder wouldn't hurt or even a email reminders. I would like to know how to get started. I think that this is another great tool for communication and parent participation. I can remember in some cases where I speak to other parents about past events and they are like I forgot about it or something.
We have an emergency phone tree and the way it is organized it this:
The first tier is Superintendent or Principal.
They call three people, who then call the "wardens". Each warden calls six families. We have 5 wardens who are fluent in English/Spanish and they only call the Spanish speakers. When enacted, everyone is called within 30 minutes. Each family listed has at least two contact numbers which can include home phone, cell, office, whatever.
The key to this system is making sure the "wardens" are reliable. I have worked with the school secretary in making this tree for the past three years and I handpick the wardens based on past experience. Because our system is used in emergency situations we can't have anyone dropping the ball...if they do, they're removed as wardens the following year. Keeping the number of phone calls made by the wardens to 6 makes this job manageable and non-time consuming.
We would like to start a classroom phone tree for our entire school. Has anyone every done one? If so can you give me some details. We have a large Hispanic and Hmong student ratio, so I would need at least three start points. The phone tree will be used to try to get more parent involvement expecially with our Hispanic/Hmong families who don't normally show up for anything. :eek:
