For schools, preparation for the new year includes safety plans.

They cover every kind of situation from severe weather to potential violence.

Minnesota’s School Safety Center also has some advice for parents to help their children prepare.

• Be familiar with your school’s plan for evacuation, relocation and getting reunited again.
• Talk with your child about the various drills they practice at school, and how they will be used in a real emergency.
• Does your child have any special needs? An example would be a student with asthma. During an emergency, would your son or daughter have access to their inhaler?

Other helpful ideas for families to think about are from a press release from the Minnesota School Safety Center below.

• Prepare a document with the phone numbers of parents, grandparents and a close neighbor and place it in your child’s backpack.
• Select a relative or friend that lives out of town. If phone lines are down and cell phone service is overloaded all family members can use a landline to call the contact and report their status and location.
• Make a kit that will help the family get by. You may need to survive on your own after an emergency or natural disaster. This means having enough food, water and other supplies to cover each family member for three days. Do not forget your pets! Know what items to bring in case of an evacuation from home.
• Choose a safe meeting space during an emergency. Examples include a local church, store, library or other public location where the family would meet if they could not go home.