Contingency Planning

New York Children Get Disaster Education

September 20, 2007

The New York City Office of Emergency Management (NYC OEM) has developed two New York for Kids Preparedness Guides. The guides were developed in coordination with Scholastic and each provides relevant information for students regarding different disaster scenarios and actions that kids can take to prepare themselves and their families for the unexpected. One guide is geared toward elementary school students and the other targets middle/high school-age students.

The information is designed to introduce students to and inform them about emergency preparedness, sparking the discussion between students and their parents. Special attention has been paid to ensure the information is age appropriate and to ensure the guides inform students rather than scare or alarm them.

The Kids Preparedness Guides will be distributed to students this fall and are estimated to reach more than 1.1 million school-aged children in NYC. In addition to distributing the guides, NYC public school teachers have been encouraged to include a discussion of preparedness in their lessons during the month of September. Additionally, NYC OEM is working closely with NYC Department of Youth and Community Development to identify opportunities to incorporate the Kids Preparedness Guides and the preparedness message into existing after-school programs. The New York City's Office of Emergency Management's New York for Kids Preparedness Guides is scheduled to debut this October.

- DHS