School Safety Tips for the Newest Generation

It can be very nerve-wracking if your kids come home from school before you get back from work. It’s important to have a plan of action and the right tools at your disposal to help keep your kids safe and your mind at ease.

Creating a safe environment is essential to boosting kids’ confidence when home alone and their ability to handle problems or emergencies. Here are a few back-to-school tips for kids that come home before their guardians.

Children should know how to lock all doors once they’re inside and never to open them again until their parents are home—even for deliveries or mail. 

You could instruct kids to view and speak with visitors through the front door without opening it or even going near it. How is this possible? With a home security system that offers a smart doorbell camera. These cameras make it easy for kids to see who’s there without opening the door, and the live feed can also be sent to parents’ smartphones. 

The Frontpoint Doorbell Camera lets kids hear and speak to visitors through two-way audio. It has motion sensors that send alerts about activity around the door, even if no one rings the doorbell. That said, ensure your children know not to let anyone know they are home alone.

Many working parents require their children to call or text when they get home each day—but kids will be kids, and there will be days they forget. Fortunately, Frontpoint’s home security system offers a Smart Door Lock that sends parents a mobile notification informing them when their children punch in their code.

The other great thing about the Smart Door Lock is that you don’t need to worry about your children losing a key. The lock is completely keyless, so all they need to do is remember their code or unlock it using a smartphone. You can also check the Frontpoint app to ensure they locked up once they got inside.

Frontpoint’s home security systems allow you to customize your notifications, so you get alerts that are important to you. Get notified if your kids forget to arm your system or lock the door. Then, using the Frontpoint app, you can remotely do these things for them, which is way quicker than calling them on the phone to remind them.

You can also choose to install alarm sensors that notify them if kids access potentially dangerous areas in the house like gun, liquor, or medicine cabinets. 

Having an emergency phone list on display in prominent places like the refrigerator and by any phone is vital when kids are home alone. But it’s equally important to help kids memorize their home address, home phone number, a parent’s mobile number, and the number of a trusted neighbor. They should also know how to use 911 in an emergency.

Help ensure a safe afternoon by addressing some important ground rules ahead of time. Discuss whether kids can use the oven or pool when home alone, rules for having friends over or leaving the house, and even screen time. Even microwave ovens can be a source of severe burns. Parents may want to prohibit their use or explain how to operate them properly when no adults are present. 

For parents who decide to let kids cook, ensure your smoke and heat sensors are working and ideally hooked up to a home security system for monitoring.

Knowing where unsupervised children are and what they’re doing is a massive challenge for working parents. If you’d like to keep a closer eye on your children, set up high-quality security cameras in various places where they might be hanging out. 

Frontpoint’s Premium Indoor Camera lets you see, speak, and hear what’s happening inside the house in real time on your smartphone or another device. Parents can observe when their kids arrive home and check in periodically from the office or on their commute—even communicating via two-way audio features on indoor cameras. The Premium Indoor also has a unique call-out feature so kids can simply press a button on the device and contact their parents immediately through the Frontpoint app. 

Following these back-to-school safety tips will help keep your kids safe and build self-confidence and independence. By adding the protections of a home security system, parents can gain greater peace of mind that their children are safe and secure when they can’t be there.