In the event of a school emergency, please understand that each school in the Boise School District has an Emergency Response Plan that has been carefully developed and addresses a multitude of emergency situations.   All of these plans have been developed through a coordinated effort with Ada County Emergency Management.  If there is an emergency at your child’s school, your cooperation is necessary to help us respond effectively to such situations.  

In the event of an emergency, please help us by following our Emergency Response Procedures.

District Parents/Guardians:  Stay Informed with Emergency Text Messages 

Boise School District uses ParentSquare to deliver emergency text messages directly to parents/guardians and staff. This includes important notifications such as school closures, safety alerts, and other urgent updates.

To ensure you receive these alerts, please make sure your school has your current mobile phone number in our student information system. If your number is up to date, you will automatically receive emergency text messages through ParentSquare. If you do have a mobile phone number in ParentSquare, you will receive an email or App/Push notification depending on whether you’ve downloaded the ParentSquare App or not. See below on how to download the ParentSquare App.

Non-parents/guardians (for example, extended family, community partners, or interested residents) can also receive emergency text alerts by joining the District’s Guest Emergency Text Alert Group.

Learn more and sign-up here for the Guest Emergency Text Alert Group.

Important Information

• You may opt out of receiving text messages at any time by following the instructions included with each message.
•  Message frequency varies. Standard message and data rates may apply.

•  ParentSquare complies with federal student privacy requirements. Your information is safe and will not be sold or shared.

For the best mobile experience, download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Inclement Weather Procedures

Education is important and every missed day of school represents lost learning opportunities. However, the Boise School District’s primary concern is for the safety of all students, including students riding busses and walking or biking to school. If students cannot safely travel to school or if schools are not able to operate safely because of citywide dangerous weather conditions, school may be cancelled.

We will not cancel school on days with normal wintery conditions. Light snowfall, cold mornings or areas of ice are not sufficiently dangerous to force the closure of schools. With proper precautions including appropriate clothing, road deicing, and careful driving, students can travel to and from school safely.

The Boise School District covers over 450 square miles of Ada County. We recognize that conditions vary throughout the District, even from street to street, in some cases. Conditions may be extremely dangerous in one area, while perfectly safe everywhere else. If parents believe it is too dangerous for their children to travel to school they have the option to keep their children home. If school is cancelled, it will be cancelled for the entire District, including Boise Online School.

The most frequent dangerous weather conditions facing Boise schools are:

SNOW: Snow levels within the City of Boise are typically light or moderate. However, there is always the potential for a heavy snowfall to make traveling by vehicle or on foot dangerous. Historically, most snowfall only results in slow traffic and minor accidents throughout the City. Normal snowfalls would not result in school closures.

COLD: Frigid temperatures are more serious than snow when making school closure decisions. On bitterly cold days our concern is for students walking to school. Extremely cold weather also impairs our ability to get busses running, which causes delays in pickup routes, delays which are much more dangerous to riders because of the low temperatures.

ICE: Ice is our most dangerous winter weather condition. Freezing rain and/or refreezing of melted snow make our roads, streets and sidewalks extremely treacherous for pedestrians, and vehicles. Icy conditions may force us to close, even if it appears that no other dangerous conditions exist.

How is the decision made to close or not to close school?  Representatives from transportation agencies, the weather bureau, the highway district, city and county law enforcement agencies, and school administrators, including the Superintendent, check the roads and monitor information throughout the night and early morning hours. We confer by telephone early in the morning to reach a decision.

If school will be closed, we will communicate in a number of ways to spread the word. In addition to notifying local radio and television news stations, we will send text & email messages to parents/guardians, send an emergency alert via the District’s mobile app, post closure information at www.boiseschools.org, on each school’s website, and on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram accounts. Parents/guardians can sign-up to receive emergency text messages by texting “Y” or “YES” to the number 67587. Non-parents (e.g., other family members, staff, news media, etc.) can also receive emergency text alerts via the Boise School District's mobile app (available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store)