Practice Your Family Emergency Plan in 20 Minutes

Use this activity only before an emergency

If an emergency may be happening now, stop this activity. Follow 911, emergency services, official alerts, the child’s current medical action plan, and instructions from your state, tribal, territorial, or local authorities. Do not continue a practice while an alarm, warning, possible gas odor, smoke, injury, missing child, suspected poisoning, severe weather threat, or other real concern is unresolved.

This is a calm planning conversation, not a surprise drill or danger simulation. It does not teach rescue, first aid, firefighting, utility shutoff, equipment modification, or hazard-specific protective action. Adults remain responsible for safety. Children may participate in ways that fit their development, communication, disability access, experience, and comfort.

What a useful 20 minutes can accomplish

The goal is not to prove that everyone remembers a script or that the household is “ready.” It is to check whether the current plan can be found, understood, and handed off, then identify one correction an adult will complete.

By the end, the household should know:

who receives and verifies official alerts
how people check in and reunite when apart
which adult owns each child, dependent person, essential care task, and animal
which health, access, communication, transport, housing, or institutional dependency needs attention
who will correct the most important gap, by when, and how the correction will be tested

CDC encourages families to discuss, prepare, and practice emergency plans with children. It also notes that disasters are stressful and recommends age-appropriate communication and trusted adult support. Practice can make a plan more familiar, but one smooth conversation does not predict what will happen in a real emergency.

Decide whether today is a good day to practice

Choose a time when adults can pay attention and no urgent need is competing with the activity. A child should not be surprised by alarms, darkness, costumes, separation, loud sounds, countdowns, false news, pretend injuries, or an adult suddenly disappearing.

Delay or adapt the activity if someone is ill, exhausted, recently affected by a frightening event, actively distressed, or unable to access the proposed format. A child who does not want to speak can point, draw, use pictures, demonstrate an assistive communication method, answer privately, observe, or leave. Participation is not a test of courage, obedience, memory, or maturity.

If a child has a disability, special healthcare need, behavioral support plan, trauma history, or strong response to alarms or uncertainty, ask the relevant caregiver or professional how to make practice useful and tolerable. CDC guidance advises involving the child’s healthcare provider and local emergency services in plans for specialized equipment, medicines, electricity, transport, and shelter support.

What to bring

the current household emergency plan, if one exists
a paper worksheet or private note for gaps and owners
current school, child-care, work, care-facility, healthcare, and authorized-pickup information
any communication board, visual sequence, interpreter, captioning, large-print copy, or other access support needed for participation
20 relatively uninterrupted minutes

Do not enter real names, phone numbers, addresses, medical records, account credentials, passwords, Social Security numbers, custody details, or protected locations into the Saralivo website. Keep the household’s actual plan in an appropriately protected place accessible to the people authorized to use it.

Before the timer: assign the facilitator and observer

One adult facilitates. Another adult can observe access, comprehension, and safety when available. In a one-adult household, the facilitator can keep a brief note instead. Assign a separate adult owner for any child or dependent person who needs continuous supervision during the activity. The conversation must not distract from bathing, cooking, water supervision, driving, medicine, animals, or another task where attention must remain active.

The facilitator should know the current plan well enough to avoid inventing answers. The observer’s job is not to score people. Watch for inaccessible wording, outdated information, uncertain handoffs, signs of distress, and steps that depend on an unavailable person or device.

Minute 0-2: Set a calm agreement

Use language like:

We are checking our plan, not testing one another. Nothing dangerous will happen as part of this activity. Nobody will be surprised, frightened, timed individually, or blamed. Adults remain responsible. Anyone may ask a question, use another way to communicate, pause, or leave.

Explain why the family is practicing in concrete terms. For a young child, that may be: “We want everyone to know which trusted adult helps if our usual day changes.” An older child may help review contacts or point out that a plan is unrealistic. Do not make broad promises such as “Nothing bad will happen” or “This plan will keep us completely safe.” A more honest message is that adults prepare so the next safe action can be clearer.

Show how the household will pause. This might be a spoken word, hand signal, communication-device choice, picture card, or simply moving to a familiar adult. If anyone pauses, stop and decide whether to explain, adapt, or finish another day.

Minute 2-5: Find and understand the plan

Ask participants to locate the version of the plan they are expected to use. They do not need access to protected attachments outside their role.

Check:

Can the right adults find the plan if a phone is unavailable or locked?
Is the version date visible?
Are print, language, reading level, contrast, audio, tactile, or communication supports adequate?
Does each participant know which part applies to them?
Are older copies clearly retired?

Do not require a child to memorize an address, phone number, diagnosis, or legal detail when a safe accessible aid is more reliable. A wallet card, identification item, picture sequence, or offline contact may help, but first consider what happens if it is lost or seen by an unauthorized person.

Record one finding: “The large-print copy is outdated,” “Only one phone has the plan,” or “The child recognizes the pickup adults but not the backup.”

Minute 5-8: Check alerts without creating a false alert

Ask the adult alert owner to name the household’s official sources and backup. Review settings or enrollment pages only if doing so will not trigger a live test, disable a working alert, expose personal information, or distract from supervision.

Check:

compatible phones and local alert subscriptions
school, child-care, work, healthcare, building, and care-setting notification routes
a trusted radio, NOAA Weather Radio, or other official backup where appropriate and receivable
charging and offline access plans
audible, vibrating, visual, captioned, translated, plain-language, or supported-communication needs
the adult who verifies a message before the household acts

Do not send a fake warning, call 911, activate a building alarm, publish a pretend evacuation message, or ask a child to distinguish realistic misinformation as part of this activity. During a real event, the current alert and official follow-up information control.

Record one gap: “Ask the school how backup notices work” or “Verify that the nighttime alert is perceivable.”

Minute 8-12: Trace contact, responsibility, and reunion

Use a clearly fictional, low-detail prompt:

Everyone is safe at a familiar supervised place, but ordinary calls are not connecting. No official instruction says to travel. What information and trusted adult does each person use next?

Walk through, without actually traveling:

the primary and backup adult responsible for each child or dependent person
the short check-in method and out-of-area contact
the nearby and out-of-neighborhood meeting locations, used only if safe and consistent with official instructions
current authorized-pickup people and verification requirements
the school, child-care, transportation, work, or care-setting reunification procedure
the failure branch if the primary adult, vehicle, route, device, or destination is unavailable

For separated, shared, foster, kinship, or court-involved care, adults should verify the current authority and safeguarding arrangements outside the group activity. Do not ask a child to choose between caregivers, reveal a protected address, carry conflict messages, or resolve contradictory plans. Ask the relevant institution or qualified professional how a safe handoff is documented.

CDC guidance for children away from home advises families to learn school and child-care notification, relocation, and pickup procedures and to keep contact information current. During an actual incident, families should follow the facility and authorities rather than traveling toward the site without direction.

Record one gap: “The second pickup adult is no longer authorized” or “Our backup meeting place is inaccessible.”

Minute 12-16: Check one dependency chain

Do not attempt to discuss every diagnosis or private need. Choose the dependency that could become consequential fastest if the ordinary system stopped. An adult may conduct this part privately.

Possible chains include:

medicine, clinic treatment, refrigeration, feeding, oxygen, or other time-sensitive care
electricity-dependent equipment and the current professional backup plan
accessible transportation, mobility equipment, transfer support, or a specialized restraint
hearing, vision, language, cognition, sensory, behavioral, or communication access
infant feeding, pregnancy, home care, or another dependent adult’s needs
service animals, pets, or other animals and their adult handler, transport, supplies, and destination
renter, high-rise, temporary-housing, no-car, limited-storage, or shared-care constraints

Trace four links:

What is essential?
Which adult owns it and who is the backup?
Which current clinician, pharmacist, supplier, institution, utility, local agency, or other qualified source controls the arrangement?
What will the adult do if the first person, power source, route, or service is unavailable?

Do not calculate medicine or supply quantities, unplug or test medical equipment, connect backup power, practice a transfer beyond the person’s established safe method, handle a frightened animal, or assume a shelter or transport service can meet the need. Record the professional or agency question instead.

Record one gap: “Confirm the equipment outage plan with the supplier and clinician” or “Ask emergency management how accessible evacuation transport is requested.”

Minute 16-18: Do a safe fire-plan check, not a generic fire simulation

A family communication review does not replace a home fire escape plan. The US Fire Administration recommends a mapped escape plan, clear exits, two ways out where possible, an outside meeting place, and practice with everyone in the home. Building type, disability, alarm access, child ability, security devices, and local fire-service guidance can change how practice should occur.

For this 20-minute activity, keep the check observational:

Is the current home or building plan available?
Can everyone perceive the smoke alarm through the supports chosen for them?
Are exits and the outside meeting place identified?
Which adult assists each child, dependent person, and service animal?
Has the household or building obtained qualified guidance for mobility, sensory, cognitive, high-rise, security, or equipment needs?

Do not create smoke, block an exit, blindfold anyone, turn off lights, use an elevator as a fire route, open a high window, climb, carry someone by an unpracticed method, disable an alarm, or tell a child to reenter or rescue another person. A separate fire drill should follow current fire-service, building, product, clinical, and accessibility guidance. If the alarm sounds unexpectedly, treat it as real and follow the live plan.

Minute 18-19: Choose one correction with an owner and proof

Review the recorded findings. Select the gap with the highest combination of consequence, likelihood of failure, and dependence on advance coordination. Cost, time, access, and household capacity matter, but avoid choosing an easy shopping task when an essential care or pickup failure remains unresolved.

Write one correction in this form:

By [date], [adult owner] will [specific action] with [relevant person or authority]. [Backup adult] will follow up if needed. We will verify completion by [observable evidence].

Examples:

“By Friday, Lee will ask the school office to confirm both authorized pickup adults and the current reunion-notice route. Sam will follow up. We will verify the names in the school’s current record.”
“By August 20, Jordan will ask the clinician and equipment supplier for the child’s current outage plan. Casey will keep the follow-up. We will verify that the plan is documented and accessible to authorized caregivers.”
“This week, Morgan will ask local emergency management how accessible transport is requested. Alex will record the backup contact. We will verify the number and process with the agency.”

A purchase receipt, unanswered message, unchecked box, or statement that someone “knows what to do” is not closed-loop proof.

Minute 19-20: Close and restore normal routine

Ask in an accessible way:

What became clearer?
What still feels confusing or uncomfortable?
Is there anything you want to tell an adult privately?
Which ordinary activity would help us feel settled now?

Thank participants for finding weaknesses. A discovered gap is useful information, not failure. Restore a familiar routine, return communication supports and essential items to their normal locations, and confirm that no device setting, door, alarm, medication, animal barrier, or supervision arrangement was changed during the review.

If the conversation produces ongoing distress, repeated fear, sleep disruption, functional change, or a safety concern, pause further practice and discuss the observation with the child’s pediatric or mental-health professional as appropriate. Immediate danger uses 911 or the relevant live crisis or safeguarding route.

After the activity: complete the correction and retest it

The adult owner should update the plan only after verifying the new information. Mark the version date, distribute the revised minimum-necessary information to authorized people, and retire conflicting copies. Then conduct a small retest focused on the corrected link, without repeating the entire activity.

Examples include asking the backup adult to locate the revised plan, confirming that the institution reflects the authorized-pickup change, or checking that the accessible copy matches the current version. Do not treat an email sent, form submitted, or item purchased as completion until the intended arrangement is confirmed.

Repeat the practice after a move, school or job change, new caregiver, diagnosis, medicine or equipment change, transportation or housing change, new animal, separation or legal-authority change, a real emergency, or a meaningful local-risk update. A household may also choose a sustainable periodic review. The interval is an editorial practice choice unless a clinician, institution, product, program, landlord, court, or authority sets one.

Return to Make a Family Emergency Plan Everyone Can Use when the activity reveals a planning gap. Use What Should Our Household Prepare Next? when several unresolved needs compete for attention.

What not to conclude from this activity

Completing 20 minutes does not certify preparedness, a child’s independence, an adult’s capability, a building’s safety, a shelter’s accessibility, equipment continuity, or a household’s ability to execute the same steps under real conditions. The useful result is narrower: the plan was examined, one dependency was traced, and a named adult has a verifiable correction to complete.

Sources

Sources were rechecked on August 8, 2026. The fictional scenario, minute structure, closed-loop correction format, and no-surprise participation rules are Saralivo teaching methods.