School Kit

Everyone knows that emergencies aren't age selective.  Hopefully, you have been teaching your child or teen the layers of personal emergency preparedness--and helping them learn the skills they need, to face trouble with as much calm and success as possible.  If this seems a bit scary for you, then remember that FEMA, the Red Cross, and a lot of other professional emergency personnel out there already have a ton of information on how to teach children and teens what they need to know.  You can build on that. 

Now, your child or teen should already have their own EDC and Personal Emergency Kits already--and know how to use both correctly.  Obviously, you will have helped them make these things appropriate to their age, skills, level of responsibility, training, etc.--just as you made your kits. 

But don't stop at just those first two kits.  After all, just like you need the layers of emergency preparedness, so do they.  So keep working with them.  You can teach positive self-reliance and independence to your children, you just have to make a real consistent effort.

So, just as you have a Work Kit, your child or teen needs one, too--their version is called the School Kit.

School Kits take some extra thought--because they are specifically for a child or teen to use.  You must remember to:

*Follow all school rules (on top of local, state and federal ones).
*Keep the kit completely child or teen 'user friendly'.
*Watch the size and weight of the kit with particular care.
*Focus the kit on providing comfort while waiting for parental pick-up.
*Include emergency contacts and provide basic child/teen personal information.
*Recheck and restock the kit frequently.

Schools are very particular about what is brought onto their grounds.  Do not get your child or teen expelled or facing criminal charges because you put something in the School Kit that is forbidden.  Remember, you aren't packing your child or teen to take on SkyNet--you're just packing them to stay comfortable and safe at school until you can come get them.  It is also very important that you know the school's emergency procedures--lock downs are fairly normal for most emergencies and there are usually requirements as to when, where, and how you can get your child or teen.  These procedures are not designed to just annoy you.  They are designed to try and protect your child and keep the school's liability levels to something remotely manageable.  So behave yourself--you may be worried about your child or teen--but the school has hundreds of them to worry about.

The School Kit will only be effective for your child or teen if they can actually use it.  Themselves.  So make sure they are trained in how to use it.  This sounds obvious, but adults often overestimate things like child hand-eye coordination, strength, knowledge base, reading/comprehension abilities, etc.  Even something as simple as an item's packaging can mean your child can't get into it at all.  So sit your child or teen down and make sure they not only know what everything is, know how to use everything, but actually CAN use everything.  Don't count on an adult being able to help--all adults present will be very, very busy riding herd on an entire school of children or teens and they just might not have the time to give any individual attention beyond the most basic.

Keep the kit size and weight appropriate for your child or teen.  The kit needs to fit into the corner of a desk or locker--and be able to be stuffed into their backpack and carried if they have to move from one part of the school to another to wait for pick-up.

The School Kit, like your Work Kit, is intended to make an emergency at a specific location easier to handle--until you can go home.  However, as children or teens in school aren't allowed to just 'walk off' by school administrators as you can in an emergency from your workplace, they have to stay in place until you come to get them (or emergency personnel move them to a safer location).  So keep the School Kit focused specifically on comfort while waiting.  Remember that the electricity may be out or the building damaged--include light and warmth sources (think glow sticks, flashlights, emergency blankets, hand warmers, etc.--base your choices on their abilities), food and drink, stuff to do, and things to offer psychological easing (like a favored item, snacks, or laminated family photo, etc.)

Laminate a card containing emergency contact information and any basic personal information necessary to protect your child or teen.  Don't give information which could be used illegally (like social security numbers!), just basic information that school administration, emergency personnel or your child/teen could use to contact you or other trusted adults for pick-up--or which would help them receive correct medical care (allergies, current medications, medical conditions, blood type, etc.).  Put this card into the kit.  Make sure you have all the information and any emergency instructions also put into their school records, as well, or there could be confusion.

Remember that children and teens have a tendency to take stuff out of things and not put them back.  Work hard on teaching them not to do that with the School Kit--and why.  But be the responsible adult and plan around them, just in case.  Check the kit frequently--add back in anything that is missing and change out anything that needs it.  Be sure and change the kit as your child or teen grows, receives more training, develops more skills, etc.  Just remember rules when you do it, so neither of you get into trouble!

Now you have the foundation of a School Kit.

So now that you know where to start--start!  Do your research from professional emergency resources, think through the six areas and focus it on your child or teen, and then sit down with them and do some real talking together!

After all, you want them to be as self-reliant and independent as they can be, too.   And they need knowledge, skills and their own layers of emergency preparedness to help them do it.