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District updates school-safety plans to standardize emergency protocols and add immigration-notification procedures

Washington Unified School District Board of Education · March 3, 2026

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Summary

Dr. Jay Burns presented updates to Washington Unified’s comprehensive school safety plans, including standardized response protocols (hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, shelter), emergency procedures, and new language governing immigration-enforcement notification vetted with legal counsel.

Dr. Jay Burns presented the district’s 2026–27 comprehensive school safety plans (CSSP), emphasizing a revised cadence for review, staff training, and a set of standardized response protocols.

"We have a hold, we have a secure, we have a lockdown, and we have an evacuate, and we have a shelter," Burns said, noting that staff must train regularly to make the terminology and actions rote.

The plan includes updated assessment elements (suspension and chronic-absence data), adaptations for pupils with disabilities, emergency procedures for severe weather and cardiac arrest, and standardized drills. A new addition — procedures for immigration-enforcement notification — was highlighted: staff described verification steps, staff alerting responsibilities, required notifications to parents/guardians and relevant staff, and privacy protections aligned with FERPA and district policy. Burns said the district has been consulting legal counsel, the police department and the city fire marshal to vet procedures.

Trustees asked how school-site plans are shared with parents; Burns said the district provides a simplified overview at PTOs and site meetings and offers parents the ability to review the full plan by appointment (the district does not publish full plans online for safety reasons). The board also discussed periodic tabletop exercises and annual staff training to maintain readiness.

What’s next: The district will continue annual reviews of site-level plans, run tabletop scenarios with site safety teams and incorporate feedback from the student-services and safety-consultant partners.