CCSD93’s philosophy regarding safety communications is to keep the appropriate audience accurately informed at the appropriate time without intending to incite panic or undue concern. We want our parents to know what’s going on in their child’s classroom and school. As an elementary and middle school district, we know that some students might not have the skills to adequately articulate or understand an event they have observed, so we seek to provide accurate and clear messages to families with as much detail as we are able to share while respecting student privacy laws.

As an organization devoted to continuous improvement, we consistently seek to refine our processes. Using parent feedback, established best practices, and organizational experience, CCSD93 developed official School Safety Communication Decision Trees, which are depicted below. They serve to guide our administrators in their safety communication efforts and help our families know when and through what methods to expect communications after safety events occur. While they may appear complicated, the light blue decision points and dark blue resulting communications reflect that not every safety situation is the same.

It is extremely important to note the following:

• Many of the hypothetical decisions and communications depicted in these trees have never needed to be used at CCSD93, and we firmly believe that through our safety plans and protocols, we are providing the safest possible learning environments for students. Still, the reason to have safety plans as well as communications decision trees is to be best prepared for any and all possible scenarios.
• In all instances, administrators will contact the families of all students directly involved, whether or not a mass communication is sent to the parents of an individual classroom or school.
• Any safety communications that are emailed to the entire school community are also posted to the School News section of a school’s website. CCSD93 generally will not send information about individual safety concerns at another school to families who do not attend that school. However, interested parties can always view the information posted to another school’s website.