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In the event that a situation arises when students must be dismissed during the course of the day and schools closed, the following plan will be put into effect:

1. When school is in session and has to be closed due to inclement weather, the superintendent will be authorized to close schools early. The decision to close will be made after checking with the weather bureau, town manager, chief of police, transportation supervisor and the superintendent of buildings and grounds.

2. After the decision to dismiss is made, the superintendent and members of the central office staff will notify the principal of each building, informing her/her of the early dismissal time.

4. Walkers on all levels - elementary through high school - will be dismissed by building principals at the publicly announced early dismissal time.

5. If the decision for early dismissal time is in the morning, an announcement regarding the cancellation of afternoon kindergarten will be made on the media.

6. A special effort will be made to provide this early dismissal information to parents of students who attend the South Kingstown schools but reside in other communities. It will be made clear to them that they should listen for media announcements regarding early dismissal from South Kingstown if severe storm warnings have been announced.

8. Buses will respond to the early dismissal time by following normal dismissal procedure. That is, buses will proceed to the junior and senior high school and transport these students to their homes. After completion of the secondary school runs, buses will proceed to the elementary school and will complete all elementary bus runs in the usual order.

9. In the event that an employee has verified information that an adult or older sibling will not be at home to receive a child enrolled in grades pre-K to 4, that child will not be released until adequate provisions have been made for the care of the child. Such provisions could include release to the home of adults listed on the emergency notification card of the child or a central shelter within the school district.

10. The principals should make every effort to release staff members as early as possible after their obligations to the children have been completed. The building administrator must remain until an accounting is made of all children.

11. In the case of special education students receiving special education transportation services, every attempt will be made to notify parents by telephone of early dismissal. The same procedure will be employed for students in grades K and 1.

12. In the event of a serious storm warning that has had widespread announcement, parents who choose to should feel free to pick up their children as early as possible.

13. It is important for working parents to make arrangements for an alternate destination for their children in the event of an early dismissal. If other parents feel they might not be home when there is a serious storm threat, they also should discuss with their children an alternate plan or alternate destination in the event of an early dismissal. This is important! In the event of early dismissal, a serious problem could be created for the child who is dismissed from school and has no other destination after arriving at an empty or locked house. This step would also prove important if just one of our schools had to close for the day, and only students of that school had to be dismissed early.

Finally, although not part of the early dismissal plan, parents should feel free to use their own judgment as to whether their children should attend school on days when there is a possibility of a serious storm.

In the event that school has to be closed due to inclement weather or other emergencies, the following radio and television stations will be notified. Please listen to these stations during inclement weather for official information.