Back-To-School Safety: Part 1

School-Yes it’s that time of year again; back to school sea­son. So it’s Back-to-School Safe­ty time.

Time to dust off those lunch­box­es and get out those back­packs because it’s time to send the kids back to school. As the sum­mer winds down, back-to-school shop­ping will be in full force, with par­ents buy­ing every­thing from school sup­plies to new clothes for the school year. A lot of prepa­ra­tion goes into return­ing to school, and par­ents must ensure their kids are ful­ly pre­pared to take on the first day of school and the rest of the year. Here are some ways to ensure this school year is fun and safe for your kids.

1. Ensure your chil­dren know their home address, phone num­ber, a par­en­t’s work num­ber, an emer­gency con­tact num­ber and how to call 911. In an emer­gency, you want to ensure you can con­tact your chil­dren and vice ver­sa.
2. Nev­er let young chil­dren walk to and from school alone. Please drop them off your­self, have an adult or old­er sib­ling accom­pa­ny them or get a trust­ed babysit­ter to take them to school.
3. If your chil­dren are walk­ing to school, plan a safe walk­ing route. Chil­dren should know the way by walk­ing. Walk with them sev­er­al times so they don’t get lost. When plan­ning a route, avoid vacant lots, emp­ty and seclud­ed parks and places with few peo­ple. Avoid ways with­out pri­ma­ry traf­fic and choose direct and vis­i­ble ones from the main streets.
4. Remind your chil­dren the impor­tance of not talk­ing to strangers. Please dis­cuss with your chil­dren what con­sti­tutes a stranger. Inform them nev­er to speak to one dur­ing school hours (before and after).  Fur­ther­more, pre­pare your child with what to do if a stranger does approach them, such as walk­ing away or inform­ing the clos­est adult.
5. Ensure the school is informed about chil­dren with aller­gies or any med­ical con­di­tions and their teach­ers. Also, ensure the child’s med­ica­tion is read­i­ly avail­able in an emer­gency.
6. Inform your child of the prop­er way to wear a back­pack. You don’t want it hang­ing too low, putting immense pres­sure and weight onto their shoul­ders. Adjust the straps as need­ed and ensure they’re not car­ry­ing too heavy of a load for their weight.
7. Have an emer­gency back­up plan. Some­times in life, unsus­pect­ed sur­pris­es call for our imme­di­ate atten­tion. Par­ents don’t usu­al­ly have the time or resources to arrange for last-minute plans when emer­gen­cies occur. To pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing, put an emer­gency back­up plan just in case an unsus­pect­ed sur­prise does occur. Have an emer­gency babysit­ter or a fam­i­ly mem­ber ready, and inform your chil­dren of who to go with and what to do in an emer­gency.

The school year should be fun for par­ents and chil­dren of all ages. The school year should be fun and mem­o­rable, whether start­ing kinder­garten, high school or head­ing into col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty.

Stay tuned for more on back-to-school safe­ty next week.