Reunification: a plan for school, childcare and work

In a crisis many people try to reach their relatives at the same time. Phone networks are overloaded, roads are jammed, and worried parents drive to schools where there is already chaos. A reunification plan takes this pressure off, because it is settled beforehand who picks up whom, where to go if you cannot reach each other, and that you trust the institutions' emergency rules.

This plan adds a special question to the general family emergency plan: what happens if the event occurs during the day and everyone is in different places? The answer depends heavily on school, childcare and workplace – so you ask them specifically.

Ask the school and childcare: how are parents informed? Where do they evacuate to? When do children stay in the building? Who may pick them up? Register at least two other trusted people in writing as authorised to collect. Tell your child who might come in an emergency so they are not surprised if the neighbour turns up instead of mum.

Also find out your employer's emergency rules and work out together which parent is likely to reach the children faster – including on foot, in case trains and roads fail. Commuters ideally know a walking route home or a place to stay on the way.

Set two meeting points, one near home and one outside the neighbourhood, and write them down on paper for everyone. Teenagers need a clear answer to the question: “Where do I go if I cannot reach anyone?” Everyone checks in with a contact person outside the region – ideally with a short text message rather than a call: where I am, how I am, what my plan is.

If the school or authorities order everyone to stay inside – for example because there may be hazardous substances in the air outside – do not pick up your child. The building is then the safer place, and on the way there you would put yourself in danger. Parents arriving also disrupt the school's procedures. Wait for the information that pick-up is allowed.

Do not drive through flooded roads or closed areas to reach the family. Even shallow, flowing water can sweep a car away, and you cannot see whether the road underneath is still intact. Better to wait and exchange messages via the contact person.

Children carry a card with the parents' names, phone numbers, the contact person and the meeting point. The home address should not be visible from outside, for instance by keeping the card in an inner pocket of the backpack. That way the child has the most important information without showing it to strangers.

Practise with the card: can your child read the numbers? Do they know whom they may show it to – a teacher, a police officer, a helper in a high-visibility vest? Small children often remember a number more easily if you say it like a rhyme.

Ready.gov explicitly advises knowing the emergency plans of school, childcare and workplace, setting several meeting points and an out-of-area contact, and using text messages rather than calls. Text messages need less network capacity and often still get through when calls do not.

The plan must be updated when a child changes school, someone starts a new job or the family moves. Who may collect which children is decided by the institutions; the family plan cannot replace those rules.