The safety of our children in PG County Public Schools is paramount, and every effort should be made to ensure our children's safety. However, because parents are not notified until the evening when their child is absent from school, our children are being put at unnecessary risk. Regardless of a child's age, parents should be contacted immediately if their child does not arrive at school. Other schools, such as those in Fairfax, VA, have changed their policy, acknowledging that notifying parents in the evening is an unsafe practice. Many children have been endangered because their parents weren't notified immediately of their absence from school, such as the special needs child in DC who was left on a bus for over 5 hours, or Kyron Horman, the Oregon boy who never arrived at school and has been missing since. These terrifying stories may have had different outcomes had parents been notified immediately of their child's absence from school. A representative from the County Executive's office agrees that the current policy, which doesn't specify the time of day when parents are notified of a child's absence, is an unsafe policy that has been overlooked by school officials. According to the representative, in order to make the policy more specific and compel schools to call parents in the morning, Dr. Maxwell, the Chief Executive Officer, and the school board need to know that many parents want the policy to be revised. This is how you can help! By signing this petition you are indicating that you believe the current policy regarding the time of day when parents are notified of a child's absence is unsafe and that you agree parents should be contacted by 10 am if their child doesn't arrive at school.