Safety FAQs - General

The district has monthly fire drills, and also practices standard responses to emergency situations.

Beginning the 2024-25 school year, CBSD began implementing the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), developed by the "I Love U Guys" Foundation. The foundation was founded in response to a tragic incident at Platte Canyon High School in 2006. A victim of the event sent a final text to her parents that read, "I love u guys." The victim’s family turned their grief into action by establishing the foundation to improve safety responses in schools. 

The SRP provides a framework for handling various emergency situations in schools. It emphasizes the importance of consistent, clear communication across all schools and with law enforcement, and provides common language for faculty, staff and students to understand and act on when responding to an unexpected event inside or outside school. 

The SRP's five key actions are: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate, and Shelter. More information on these actions is below. 

• Hold: Used to clear hallways and keep students in their classrooms due to non-emergent situations like medical issues or disturbances.
• Secure: Activated when there is a threat outside the building, ensuring all students and staff are inside with outside doors locked.
• Lockdown: Initiated when there is a threat inside the building. Room doors are locked, lights are turned off, and everyone moves out of sight.
• Evacuate: Used for situations like fire drills, hazmat leaks, or other emergencies requiring the building to be cleared.
• Shelter: Activated for natural disasters or other specific hazards, with instructions provided based on the situation.

While it is not possible to practice every situation that may occur, school emergency response teams simulate several different scenarios. The safety teams use these experiences to review their procedures and refine their responses to meet the unique circumstances of their building and student population.

We continually review and update our security enhancements, procedures, and processes. Our facilities are constructed so that all visitors must be “buzzed” into the building and check in with the main office. Our facilities are equipped with swipe card access for all staff along with exterior security cameras located around the perimeter of each building.

District staff are required to wear identification badges at all times while in the buildings. Visitors are required to sign in and receive a visitors’ badge.  The district has security personnel that cover all 23 of our schools at varying times and we have school resource officers from local law enforcement agencies at three of our schools.

Central Bucks School District has various means of communication available for the dissemination of important information. Depending on the specific circumstances of the emergency, any or all forms of communication may be used. 

Examples of communications media that may be used include:

• District Website:  www.cbsd.org
• Email: Email blasts may be sent to existing email addresses on file with the district. To add or change your email address, please update your information through the Parent Portal or contact your school’s main office.
• Text Messages: In order to receive a text message from the school district, your cell phone number must be on file with the district AND you must sign up to receive text messages using your cell phone. For more information on the sign-up procedures visit www.cbsd.org/alerts.
• Social Media: The district may use its official social media accounts to share information.
• Media Outlets: Local media outlets may be contacted by the school district to help disseminate information, including radio and television stations (and their websites).

The answer to this question will be completely determined by the nature of the emergency. The district will make every effort to ensure reunification is as typical and easy as possible. However, there may be circumstances when picking up your student may need to be done in an alternate format or at an alternate location. 

If there is an emergency at your child’s school, it is important that you do not go to the school until the emergency has concluded and the “all clear” has been given. Keep track of the situation by monitoring the district website, social media, your email, and text messages from the district. Also, note that local law enforcement and/or the fire department may be on the scene and in those situations, they will have incident command of all activity at the location.

For operational security reasons, we are not able to share every detail from our district’s emergency operations plan. However, if you have questions about procedures on how you will receive information, or how you will be reunified with your child during an emergency, lock down, evacuation, or shelter-in-place event, then please feel free to speak with your child’s school administrator. Additionally, parents may also inquire about school admittance procedures during school hours and the types of drills practiced during the school year. 

Please know that Central Bucks School District places a high priority on the safety of our students and staff. We strive to make our district a safe place to learn, play, and work. To that end, your support and cooperation is critical. Thank you for taking the time to better understand how CBSD is working to keep your children safe.