Safety Tips for the 2024-2025 School Year

The safety of students is a top priority for parents and educational institutions. Students may not always have the skills to protect themselves, so it's crucial for adults to provide guidance and protection. By making students aware of potential dangers, we can help them respond effectively to unsafe situations.

As we prepare for the 2024-2025 school year, it's important to remain vigilant about safety. Schools must balance the educational, social, and emotional needs of their students while ensuring the health and safety of everyone on campus. Here are some general safety tips to help you and your student get ready for the new school year.

Preparing For Cold & Flu Season

Returning to school comes with a new set of challenges for parents and caregivers. Schools must balance the educational, social, and emotional needs of their students while maintaining health and safety. Here are some steps to help prevent the spread of general sickness in schools:

1. Encourage Vaccinations: Promote vaccinations for common illnesses such as the flu to reduce the spread of sickness within the school community.
2. Regular Cleaning: Implement a rigorous cleaning schedule for classrooms, restrooms, and common areas to minimize germs.
3. Hand Hygiene: Provide hand sanitizing stations throughout the school and encourage frequent handwashing.
4. Sick Policy: Establish clear guidelines for when students and staff should stay home if they are feeling unwell.

Listen To Your Child's Concerns

As a parent, you play an incredibly important role as a trusted source of information and a confidante. It's important your child feels comfortable expressing any concerns or anxiety they may have about returning to school. Be available and prepared to initiate the conversation if the topic doesn't come up naturally. Listen intently, empathize often, and help your child cope with their feelings reassuringly.

Transportation Safety

Whether children walk, ride their bicycle or take the bus to school, it is extremely important that they take proper safety precautions. Here are some tips to make sure your child safely travels to school:

Walkers

• Review your family's walking safety rules and practice walking to school with your child.
• Walk on the sidewalk, if one is available; when on the street with no sidewalk, walk facing the traffic.
• Before you cross the street, stop and look left, right, and left again to see if cars are coming.
• Make eye contact with drivers before crossing and always cross streets at crosswalks or intersections.

Bike Riders

• Teach your child the rules of the road and practice riding the bike route to school with your child.
• Ride on the right side of the road, with traffic, and in a single file
• Come to a complete stop before crossing the street; walk bikes across the street
• Stay alert and avoid distracted riding
• Make sure your child always wears a properly fitted helmet and bright clothing.

Bus Riders

• Teach your children “school bus safety rules” and practice with them.
• Go to the bus stop with your child to teach them the proper way to get on and off the bus.
• Teach your children to stand 6 feet (or three giant steps) away from the curb
• If your child must cross the street in front of the bus, teach them to walk on the side of the road until they are 10 feet ahead of the bus; your child and the bus driver should always be able to see each other.

Here Are 10 Additional Useful Safety Tips:

1. Parents and their children should plan a route to and from school together – whatever the child's age. Discuss avoiding hazardous shortcuts that might take them out of public view.
2. Kids in groups are generally safer than alone. Encourage children to walk with friends to and from school.
3. Establish clear rules for play after school and review them regularly.
4. Children should report suspicious behaviors or threats by other students to a teacher or counselor.
5. Help children learn how to manage anger effectively. Encourage the school to provide conflict resolution training for students.
6. Respect others and their belongings – refuse to bully others or steal personal property.
7. Look for warning signs of a troubled child. Parents should listen to and talk with their children regularly to find out what is happening at school, both in and out of the classroom.
8. Ask administrators about safety efforts. Do they control access to the school by visitors? Are all visitors required to check in and wear appropriate badges/IDs at all times?
9. Request free school safety assessments to identify potential problems and upgrades needed to improve school safety measures.
10.  Parents should get to know their child’s friends and the friends’ parents.

hhttps://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/returning-safely-to-school-

https://www.safekids.org/blog/things-you-need-know-you-head-back-schoolcovid-19/art-20490441

https://www.nhtsa.gov/school-bus-safety/keeping-children-safe

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html

https://www.omegalaw.com/news-blogs/2021/october/back-to-school-safety-tips-for-every-parent/