2 For Parents Your Child’s Safety (NAPSA)—Aschool emergency often requires parents and schools to work as a team—particularly when it comes to communication. Schools have long made use of tools such as phone trees, auto dialers, and e-mail to help better communicate with parents. A new A school emergency often requires parents and schools to work as a team. service called AlertNow allows schools to notify thousandsof parents, faculty, staff, or other contacts in minutes, while school administrators and emergency personnel focus on managing the crisis or emergency situation. To activate the AlertNow rapid notification system, a school administrator provides an emergency support operator with the name of the group that needs to be contacted, along with the exact message that needs to be sent e.g. early school closing due to in- clement weather or school evacua- tion due to a hostage situation. The message given to the operator is then voice-recorded and immedi- ately sent to the selected contact group via any messagingor telephone device (phone, pager, fax, PDA,wireless phone, etc.). Schools do not need to install or manage anything to utilize the service. Highly trained support center operators are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to manage and monitor emergencysituations. Other resources available to schools and parents include a free online report entitled, “13 Things Every Parent Should Know During a School Crisis,” a whitepaper on ‘Crime and Safety in American Schools,’ and free safety seminars to school districts interested in establishing a Critical Incident Response Plan and Emergency Communications Plan. To learn more, visit the Web site at www.alertnowusa.com
