Back To School Safety

Back to School Do’s and Don’ts!
It’s that time of year where every parent’s brain switch­es to Back to School mode. It seems like there is so much to do, and so lit­tle time! New back­packs, hair­cuts, and smart­phones are on your mind. But is safe­ty and secu­ri­ty on your radar? Here are a few “do’s and don’ts” to refresh everyone’s mem­o­ry for the next few weeks.
1. DO give your­self plen­ty of extra time, at least for the first few days of the new school year. There will be many new pedes­tri­ans, cyclists and dri­vers on the roads, cross­walks and side­walks. Kids can be unpre­dictable, espe­cial­ly when every­thing is new and excit­ing. DO SLOWDOWN and avoid dis­trac­tions, keep your eyes on the road.
2. DO remem­ber that the fines and laws for pass­ing school bus­es has changed. Dri­vers can be charged if they pass a stopped school bus with its upper red lights flash­ing: First offence: $400 to $2,000 and six demer­it points. Each fol­low­ing offence: $1,000 to $4,000, six demer­it points and pos­si­ble jail time (up to six months)
3. If you are drop­ping off kids at the school, pack some patience and ample time. DON’T dou­ble park and block oth­ers field of vision. DON’T block cross­walks and DON’T load or unload chil­dren across the street from the school, avoid hav­ing your kids walk between cars and bus­es. DO walk to school or Car­pool to reduce the num­ber of vehi­cles at the school.
4. Don’t Break Safe­ty Rules Because You’re Late. Whip­ping your car around, get­ting your child to dash out of the car to reach the class­room before the school bell rings, or encour­ag­ing a “drop-and-dash” drop-off is the recipe for dis­as­ter in terms of child safe­ty. You would rather your child receive a tardy notice than to be in an acci­dent. Also, don’t use your cell phone in a school zone. It is a major dis­trac­tion.
5. School bus­es will be back in cir­cu­la­tion, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber the rules around bus­es. DON’T pass a school bus when the lights are flash­ing. In any case, always pro­ceed with cau­tion around school bus­es.
6. Every year we hear of kids get­ting on the wrong school bus or get­ting lost on the first days of school. DO have your kids mem­o­rize home phone #’s and address­es. DO write your cell phone # on the inside of back­packs and kid’s jack­ets. Let your kids know where they can find this infor­ma­tion and let them know it’s okay to share it with teach­ers, bus dri­vers, etc., if they are lost or con­fused.
7. DO con­sid­er Smart Locks for a door on your home, so your kids are reliant on keys. Many Smart Locks can be set to lock auto­mat­i­cal­ly, and some can send noti­fi­ca­tions when used. DON’T hide keys or leave back doors unlocked.
8. DO set your alarm sys­tem with a unique user code for your kids. This will help avoid false alarms, and can pro­vide you with noti­fi­ca­tions when your kids leave and arrive home.
9. DO con­sid­er installing cam­eras inside your home and at your front door. Most cam­era sys­tems can be set to send alerts to your smart phone and allow for livestream­ing. It’s a great way to check in and see if the kids have arrived home safe­ly. Many cam­eras also con­tain micro­phones for audio record­ing and lis­ten­ing as an added fea­ture.

And here is a handy school year school year cal­en­dar for 2019–2012.