School Closure Website

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Tech Coordinators Chatboard

School Closure Website

by Adrian Rhodes

Oct 7, 2009

Hi guys and gals,

We have been working on a website I thought you might like to know about that could prove useful to you and your schools. Basically how it works is a parent/teacher searches for the school where their child or they themselves attend, instantly they will be able to see on the site whether the school has been announced as open or closed.

Doesn't sound like much I know but the good part is that they can register their email address (verification required to stop other people signing you up) and you will then get an instant email notification every time the status of your assigned school changes! You can also register your mobile phone number to receive the same notification through SMS!

Many of you may well be thinking “Why should we bother when we already inform the radio/LEA/update our own school website?” thus duplicating what is already done, but this site does it differently, it gets the information directly to those who want it instea...See MoreHi guys and gals,

We have been working on a website I thought you might like to know about that could prove useful to you and your schools. Basically how it works is a parent/teacher searches for the school where their child or they themselves attend, instantly they will be able to see on the site whether the school has been announced as open or closed.

Doesn't sound like much I know but the good part is that they can register their email address (verification required to stop other people signing you up) and you will then get an instant email notification every time the status of your assigned school changes! You can also register your mobile phone number to receive the same notification through SMS!

Many of you may well be thinking “Why should we bother when we already inform the radio/LEA/update our own school website?” thus duplicating what is already done, but this site does it differently, it gets the information directly to those who want it instead of them actually having to search for it. The idea is that not everyone would bother to listen to the radio or check the school websites that often unless there is a concern that the school MAY be closed, say for example 2mm of snow on the ground. In the cases of say gas leaks, power failures and many other unforeseen events many parents would still turn up to the school and be sent away because it isn't safe for the children to be there, in these cases how are the parents supposed to know? Would it not be handy to have an email sent straight to your inbox or a text message to your phone before you go through the trouble of fighting through rush hour traffic just to be turned away?

No-one checks for school closures on a daily basis, this site is just a quick and easy way for the school to notify all parents and staff members who subscribe to that school to let them know that the school is closed in an instant.

Anyone can change the status of a school through the website, once a status change has been initialized notifications are sent out to those who requested them stating that the schools status has changed but is UNVERIFIED. We will then contact the school to verify this information (we are currently working on a way of automating this), once the school has verified its status a further notification will be sent out stating this.

Some of you may be concerned about the potential for pupils shutting the school down if they ever find out about the website, that is why the notifications are labelled as UNVERIFIED until the school themselves confirm the closure, this site is still a work in progress and is continually been updated and this method may well be restructured in the near future.

This site is currently free for all to use whilst it is getting its footing, however the most likely thing will be that the people receiving text notifications will be charged a very small amount to cover the costs of this service. Schools may well find this preferable to software such as homecontact as the school themselves do not incur any cost.

Please give it a shot and let me know what you think, any and all suggestion welcome.

[link removed]

Comment

(3)

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Ron The district I work for and send my children to has a sign-up where they will shoot you an email when the district closes or if any school within it closes. Also, they have a big banner on the homepage that will tell you if there is a school closing.

Oct 25, 2009

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john doe I feel that a specific website that directly represents that particular school should be set-up and used only for the parents of that school. Having more than one will be confusing. When the students bring home school instructions for the parents, the website should be part of the information package.

Apr 26, 2010

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bicky@ucd On 4/26/10, john doe wrote: > I feel that a specific website that directly represents that > particular school should be set-up and used only for the > parents of that school. Having more than one will be > confusing. When the students bring home school instructions > for the parents, the website should be part of the > informatio...See More

May 26, 2010

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