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California Department of Education
Official Letter
California Department of Education
Official Letter
August 31, 2021

Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

New School Emergency Reporting System

As California finds itself in the middle of yet another unpredictable wildfire season, the California Department of Education (CDE) has worked internally to launch a new School Emergency Reporting System (SERS) to allow CDE and local educational agencies (LEA) to communicate and quickly share critical information with each other in the event of a natural disaster or other urgent incidents such as wildfires, earthquakes, drought, levee breaks, civil unrest,and more.

How This Helps Your Schools
  • The SERS system is designed to provide real-time reporting between a schoolsite and CDE.
  • The system will facilitate the identification of needs and the rapid response of resource distribution and support for schools when there is an incident. These resources are a direct result of an ongoing partnership and coordination between the CDE and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES).
What’s Next

We are counting on your support to make SERS fully-operational.

  • In order to use SERS and log in, the CDE Emergency Services Team will send a unique access code by email to each Superintendent on Wednesday, September 1, 2021, from emergencyservices@cde.ca.gov entitled “School Emergency Reporting System Access Code.”

It is the responsibility of the LEAs to designate a contact within their administration who may use the provided access code to log into SERS.

  • All LEAs are encouraged to attend a short training session. Multiple opportunities will be available. Dates and registration links can be located on the CDE’s School Disaster and Emergency Management web page at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ep/.

There has never been a more important time to be connected. Please don’t wait until an emergency strikes. By working together, we are stronger and we can do more for all our students.

Thank you for your cooperation and attention to this important matter. If you have any questions about this system or our response efforts, please contact Joe Anderson, CDE Emergency Services Team, at joanderson@cde.ca.gov.

Your participation will enable CDE to support all of our schools even in the most challenging of times.

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond

State Superintendent of Public Instruction
TT:ja

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, August 31, 2021

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