FWPS Transportation Department

What You Should Know About Weather-Related School Closures and Delays

In spite of Doppler radar and other advances in weather prediction, it is difficult to be sure about the weather and the road conditions we may encounter in the thirty-five square miles the District encompasses.

The District cannot underscore how seriously we take the safety of our students and staff. We routinely take a series of steps to assess the weather and road conditions during inclement weather before we start our school day. This literally starts the night before: As the district’s night security officer makes his rounds, he checks road conditions and monitors the weather. Our Transportation staff gets on the road by 3:30 a.m. to do further spot checks within the district. The decision to alter our school schedule is based on facts found during this time.

The decision to delay or cancel school must be made by 5:00 a.m. in order to have sufficient time to notify the media, our drivers and our students’ parents. At times rapidly changing weather conditions force us to re-evaluate our 5:00 a.m. decision.  The updated decision must be made by 7:00 a.m. again to allow sufficient time to notify the media, our drivers and our students’ parents.   Remember that, if we decide to cancel or delay school without good reason, parents are inconvenienced and students may or may not have supervision while school is not in session.

When the decision has been made to cancel or delay school, we attempt to make the  information available in as many ways as possible:

• If we have current telephone numbers for you, you’ll get a call in the morning from the district’s automated call-out system. Calls are scheduled for around 6 a.m. so that early start students and parents get the information before leaving for the day.
• We also post notices on the front page of the website, at http://www.fwps.org.
• The major television networks and news radio stations are notified of the changes in school schedules and broadcast those changes. If you do not see Federal Way School District listed, or if the station says “no report”, it means we are operating on a normal schedule.
• You can get e-mail notification at the same time the TV and radio stations do, by signing up for emergency notification at http://www.schoolreport.org.
• You may also call your school or 253-945-2000 to receive current emergency information.

You are well within your rights to decide to keep your child or children at home if you feel it’s not safe to make the trip to school.  You are in the best position to decide about your local conditions and your child’s judgment and driving capabilities.  While we go to extensive measures to determine if roads district-wide are safe for travel, it’s physically impossible for us to be on every street corner and side street at all times.   We rely on you to be the final judge when it comes to the safety of your child.