Safety Update: TLS Staff Practices Reunification

On Friday, January 27,the Tecumseh Local School District’s staff spent time on their inservice day to attend training on parent/guardian and student reunification. Reunification is a process that will be activated in the aftermath of a building or district catastrophic event in which students have to be evacuated from their schools and relocated to the district off-campus evacuation site that has been designated by the district for reunification with their families.

Ohio Revised Code 3313.536 requires that school administrators conduct at least one annual Emergency Management Test. This test was conducted by the Clark County Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the Clark County Sheriff’s Department and Bethel Township Fire Department. Staff were given the opportunity to role play the parts of students, parents/guardians and staff following the framework of our reunification processes. This allowed staff to not only experience the reunification process in different roles, but also gave each individual the opportunity to better understand each role in reunifying students with their parents.

By conducting this training, TLS staff were able to identify those areas in the process that needed to be revised and afforded the opportunity to adjust our plans to ensure a safe and orderly reunification process.

The Tecumseh Local Schools Reunification brochure can be found at http://www.tecumseh.k12.oh.us.

By Cecil Foley
Curriculum Coordinator