Health Tip: How Schools Keep Your Child Safer

Parents should learn a host of terms that schools use to indicate various states of emergency, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.

The academy defines these key terms:

Evacuation: Used to indicate movement of students and staff out of the school building.
Relocation: Used to indicate movement of students and staff to a pre-designated alternate site, when it is not timely or safe to return to the school building.
Shelter-in-place: Used during severe weather or other threats, indicating that students and staff will remain in the school building in pre-selected rooms.
Lockdown: Used when there is a perceived danger inside the building. The term indicates that children and staff will be kept in their classrooms or other secured areas until the lockdown is lifted.
Lockout: Used to indicate that the school building is locked to protect from a potential threat outside the building.

Source: HealthDay