Unplanned Early Dismissals

Our School Health & Emergency Preparedness Committee (SHEP), in conjunction with the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department, has developed a protocol for dismissing students when an unplanned event requires the school to dismiss early.

Unplanned Early Dismissals may be caused by inclement weather, lack of heat/water/electricity, or any other emergency situation. Your child will have the same dismissal plan for all of these situations and all students will be dismissed by bus, unless otherwise specified. Please note that this does not apply to scheduled early dismissals, such as those specified in the school calendar (ie: parent/teacher conference, professional development days, etc.).

• Bus passes will not be honored in the event of an Unplanned Early Dismissal.
• All after-school programs operating in the affected building will be cancelled in the event of an Unplanned Early
  Dismissal.
• The After-School Care Program operating at J.F.K. will not be available in the event of an Unplanned Early
  Dismissal affecting J.F.K..
  • C.V. Starr students will not be permitted to wait for the After-School Care Program to begin at J.F.K. in
    the event of an Unplanned Early Dismissal affecting C.V. Starr.
• There will be no parent pick-up in the event of an Unplanned Early Dismissal, except in the event of a dismissal
  due to impending inclement weather.

These prohibitions are necessary in order to allow the District staff and/or First Responders to respond effectively to the unplanned situation.

The default protocol for an Unplanned Early Dismissal will be to transport children to their home bus stop . If yourequire an alternate location, you must complete an Alternate Transportation Form and submit it to the Transportation Department, located at 40 Farm To Market Road, Brewster, NY 10509. The Unplanned Early Dismissal location must be the same for your child, regardless of the day of the week.

Please discuss your plan with your child and review it with him/her often so your family is informed and prepared in the event of an Unplanned Early Dismissal. In certain cases, students may not be able to retrieve personal belongings (ie: house keys, jackets, cell phones, book bags, etc.) during an Unplanned Early Dismissal. Please develop contingency plans with your child to mitigate the impact of this possibility.

As always, our first priority in an emergency situation is to protect our students from harm and we believe this protocol assists us in accomplishing that. We appreciate your cooperation in advance and hope these situations are few and far between.