Wildfire smoke and air quality messages to parents
Smoke is the hazard districts communicate worst, because it is the only one where the building is usually the safest place a child can be and the instinct is still to close. Thirteen variants, an action threshold for every AQI band, and the wording that keeps families indoors rather than in a car line.
| AQI (PM2.5) | Category | Recess and PE | Athletics practice | Outdoor contests | Building action | Message? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–50 | Good | Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal ventilation | No |
| 51–100 | Moderate | Normal | Normal, watch known asthmatics | Normal | Close outdoor intakes if smoke is visible | Only if asked |
| 101–150 | Unhealthy for sensitive groups | Cap at 30 min; indoor option for any student | Shorten, cut intensity, extra breaks | Proceed with free substitution | Recirculate; MERV-13 where the system takes it | Yes — informational |
| 151–200 | Unhealthy | Indoors | Indoors or cancelled | Postpone | Recirculate; portable HEPA in gyms and cafeterias | Yes — action required |
| 201–300 | Very unhealthy | Indoors, doors kept shut | Cancelled | Cancelled | Close buildings that cannot filter; relocate classes | Yes — closure decision |
| 301+ | Hazardous | No outdoor exposure at all | Cancelled | Cancelled | Close unless filtration is verified building by building | Yes — closure |
Bands are the US EPA AQI for PM2.5, which is the pollutant that matters in smoke. Two cautions before you build a policy on this. First, the AQI you see on a consumer map is often a NowCast average, not the current hour, so it lags a fast-moving plume by up to three hours — during an active event, read the hourly value. Second, low-cost sensors read high against the nearest regulatory monitor, sometimes by 30 to 40 points. Decide in advance which single source you will quote in messages, name it in the message, and do not switch sources mid-event.
The thirteen variants
1. Informational, AQI in the sensitive-groups band
Air quality in [area] is currently [AQI], which the EPA rates unhealthy for sensitive groups. [District] schools are OPEN on the normal schedule. Outdoor recess and PE are shortened to 30 minutes, and any student may choose to stay indoors — no note needed. Students with asthma should have their inhaler at school. We are checking [named source] hourly and will message again only if activity changes. — [Name], Superintendent
2. Outdoor activity suspended, school open
Air quality in [area] has reached [AQI], rated Unhealthy. [District] schools are OPEN and students are safer indoors than at home in most cases, because our buildings recirculate filtered air. All outdoor recess, PE and athletics practice are moved indoors or cancelled today. Doors and windows are staying shut. Please send your child to school as normal. — [Name], Superintendent
3. The one families need most: why we are open in smoke
We understand the question. [District] schools are open because a school building with the ventilation running in recirculation is one of the cleaner indoor spaces in [area] right now, and because a child at home may be in a house with open windows or an evaporative cooler drawing smoke inside. All outdoor activity is cancelled. If you would still rather keep your child home today, that absence is excused — call [number] and say "air quality". No documentation needed.
4. Closure at very unhealthy or hazardous
All [District] schools are CLOSED today, [day date]. Air quality is [AQI], rated [Very Unhealthy / Hazardous]. Our buildings at [named schools] cannot filter to a level we are confident in at this reading. Please keep children indoors with windows closed and limit driving. All activities and evening building use are cancelled. Next update by 4pm today about tomorrow. — [Name], Superintendent
5. Partial closure — buildings without adequate filtration
[School A] and [School B] are CLOSED today because their ventilation systems cannot recirculate at the level today's air quality requires. All other [District] schools are OPEN with outdoor activity cancelled. [School A] and [School B] families: today is excused for all students, and meal pick-up is at [location] from [time].
6. Athletics and outdoor events only
[District] schools are open on the normal schedule. Because air quality is [AQI], all outdoor athletics practices and tonight's [contest] are [cancelled / moved indoors / postponed to [date]]. Indoor practices continue. A decision about [tomorrow's event] comes by [time] tomorrow.
7. Mid-day deterioration
Air quality has worsened since this morning and is now [AQI]. Students are indoors for the rest of the day, including dismissal, where they will be held inside until their bus or car arrives rather than waiting outside. Dismissal is at the normal time. After-school programmes run indoors; outdoor athletics are cancelled.
8. Multi-day event, daily update with no change
Air quality remains at [AQI] today, [date]. No change from yesterday: schools are open, all outdoor activity is cancelled, buildings are recirculating. We are sending this daily during the event so you do not have to check. Next update tomorrow by [time]. — [Name], Superintendent
9. Improvement and return to normal
Air quality has improved to [AQI], in the Moderate range. Outdoor recess, PE and athletics resume today. Students with asthma or other respiratory conditions may still choose to stay indoors. Thank you for the patience over the last [n] days.
10. Evacuation zone adjacent, school not in it
[District] is aware of the evacuation notice for [area]. No [District] school is in an evacuation zone. Schools are open. If your family is under an evacuation order, your child's absence is excused for as long as you need — call [number] when you are able and we will keep the enrolment open. [Contact] can help with transport, meals and school supplies.
11. Early dismissal because of an approaching plume
[District] schools are dismissing at [time] today because smoke is forecast to reach [area] by [time] and we would rather move students before the air is at its worst than during it. Buses run on the earlier schedule. Please have an adult able to meet your child. If nobody can, call [number] and we will supervise your child indoors.
12. Note for families of students with asthma
If your child has asthma, a heart condition, or another respiratory diagnosis: our health office has [child's] action plan on file and will follow it. Please make sure a current rescue inhaler is at school. If your child's plan has changed, or if you would like your child kept indoors at all air quality levels regardless of district policy, reply to this message or call [number].
13. When the AQI number and the smell disagree
We know it smells strongly of smoke this morning. The monitor at [location] is currently reading [AQI], which is in the [band] range. We make decisions on the monitor reading rather than on how it smells, because odour tracks the type of material burning rather than the particulate level. We check hourly and will message if the reading crosses [threshold].
SMS and voice versions
SMS. The AQI number belongs in the text because it is the one thing families will otherwise go and look up, and the source they find will disagree with yours.
[District]: Air quality [AQI], Unhealthy. Schools OPEN, students safer indoors. All outdoor recess, PE and athletics cancelled today. Absence excused if you prefer. — 158 characters, so this one splits into two segments. Trim to:
[District]: AQI [nnn], Unhealthy. Schools OPEN. All outdoor recess, PE and athletics cancelled. Prefer to keep your child home? Excused, call [num]. — 145 characters.
[District]: ALL SCHOOLS CLOSED today, air quality [nnn] (Hazardous). Keep children indoors, windows shut. All activities cancelled. Update by 4pm. — 142 characters.
[District]: Air quality improved to [nnn]. Outdoor recess, PE and athletics resume today. Normal schedule. Thank you for your patience. — 128 characters.
60-second voice script. Roughly 145 words at a natural reading pace. On smoke, the voice call earns its cost only for a closure or a same-day activity change — a daily no-change update should be text and email.
"This is a message from [District Name] Public Schools. Air quality in [area] today is [number] on the Environmental Protection Agency scale, which is rated unhealthy. All [District] schools are open on the normal schedule. Our buildings are running on recirculated, filtered air, and for most children that is cleaner than the air at home. All outdoor recess, physical education and athletics practice are cancelled today, and students will be kept indoors at dismissal until their bus or car arrives. If your child has asthma or another respiratory condition, please make sure their inhaler is at school. If you would prefer to keep your child home today, that absence is excused and no note is needed. Call [number]. Thank you. This message is from [District Name] Public Schools."
Spanish version, and the sentence about not knowing
US-district register, not Castilian. "Distrito escolar", "calidad del aire", "recreo", "la ausencia será justificada".
Escuelas abiertas, actividades al aire libre canceladas: La calidad del aire en [área] es de [AQI], nivel "no saludable". Las escuelas del [Distrito Escolar] están ABIERTAS y el horario es normal. Los edificios funcionan con aire filtrado y recirculado, que para la mayoría de los niños es más limpio que el aire de la casa. Se cancelan el recreo, la educación física y las prácticas deportivas al aire libre. Si su hijo tiene asma, asegúrese de que su inhalador esté en la escuela. Si prefiere mantener a su hijo en casa hoy, la ausencia será justificada; llame al [número]. — [Nombre], Superintendente
Cierre: Todas las escuelas del [Distrito Escolar] están CERRADAS hoy, [fecha], por la mala calidad del aire ([AQI], nivel peligroso). Por favor mantenga a los niños adentro con las ventanas cerradas. Se cancelan todas las actividades y el uso de los edificios por la noche. Enviaremos otra actualización antes de las 4 de la tarde.
What to say when you cannot say when this ends. Smoke events are the worst case for this, because a plume can sit over a valley for eleven days and the forecast beyond about 36 hours is close to useless. Do not guess. Say what governs: "We cannot forecast this. What we can tell you is the number we act on. If the reading at [monitor] is above 200 at 6am, we close. If it is between 150 and 200, we open with all outdoor activity cancelled. Below 150 we open normally. We will send that morning's number and decision by 6:15am every day this continues, including on the days nothing changes." Publishing the rule instead of the forecast converts an open-ended anxiety into something a family can plan around, and it stops every subsequent message being read as a negotiation.
Closing versus sheltering indoors, and the filtration question
The default assumption in most districts is that bad air means closing. In most smoke events it is the wrong call, and the reasoning is worth putting in front of your board before the season rather than during an event.
A school building with a functioning air handler set to recirculate, a reasonable filter, and doors kept shut typically holds indoor PM2.5 well below outdoor levels. A house with an open window, a window unit, or an evaporative cooler — common across the interior West, and disproportionately common in lower-income housing — does not. Closing school sends a meaningful number of children into worse air than they would have breathed at school, removes the meal they were going to get, and creates a supervision problem for families who cannot take the day off.
That argument only holds if the building actually filters. The honest version of this policy requires you to know, building by building:
- Whether each air handler can run in full recirculation without tripping a minimum-outside-air interlock, and who can flip it.
- The highest MERV rating each unit can carry without dropping below design airflow. Retrofitting MERV-13 into a system built for MERV-8 can starve it.
- Which spaces have no mechanical ventilation at all — older gyms, portables, and cafeteria annexes are the usual offenders — and how many portable HEPA units it would take to cover them.
- Whether your buildings have operable windows that staff will open out of habit when a room gets warm. This defeats everything else on the list and it is a training problem, not an engineering one.
Do that survey in the spring and you have a defensible per-building threshold. Skip it and every smoke decision becomes an argument, because you are asserting that the building is safe without being able to say why.
The template that assumes something we cannot do. Variant 5 above — closing two named schools while the rest of the district stays open — requires you to message the families of those two buildings and nobody else. Kastr resolves audiences to named individuals or to everyone; it does not resolve by school, grade or bus route. That is a real limitation and it bites hardest on exactly this kind of partial decision. If per-building sends are how you run air quality events, weigh that before anything else on this site. See the closure hub for the full statement of what we do and do not do.
What does work in Kastr's favour on a multi-day event is the cost side. Eleven consecutive daily updates to a district of 8,000 students is a real number on a per-message contract. Kastr is $3.25 per student per year at that size, one tier, everything included, with no per-message fee — and the composer shows a live per-channel cost estimate before you send, so you can see what adding voice to a routine daily update would actually cost before you add it. See pricing and controlling SMS costs.
Questions people actually ask
At what AQI should schools cancel recess and outdoor PE?
The common line is AQI 101, the start of the Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups band, where most districts cap outdoor time at around 30 minutes and let any student opt indoors without a note. At 151 and above, Unhealthy, outdoor recess and PE stop entirely. These are conventions rather than federal requirements — several western states publish their own school guidance and where yours does, follow it and cite it in the message so families can see you are not inventing the number.
Should schools close for wildfire smoke, or stay open?
Stay open in most events, provided your buildings can recirculate filtered air. A school on recirculation usually holds indoor particulate well below the outdoor level, while a house with open windows or an evaporative cooler does not. Closing sends some children into worse air, removes a meal, and creates a supervision problem. Closure becomes the right call at the Very Unhealthy band and above, or at any level in a building whose ventilation you cannot vouch for.
What should a district say when the air smells bad but the AQI reads moderate?
Say exactly that, and explain the mismatch in one sentence: odour tracks what is burning, not how much particulate is in the air. Name the monitor you read and the threshold at which your decision would change. Districts that go quiet on days like this get accused of ignoring what everyone can smell; districts that publish their number and their source get the benefit of the doubt.
How often should a district message families during a multi-day smoke event?
Once a day, at a fixed time, including on days when nothing has changed. The no-change message is the one that earns you patience — it removes the need for every family to go and check a map that disagrees with yours. Use text and email for the daily update and reserve voice for a closure or a same-day activity change, because voice is billed by the minute and eleven district-wide calls is a budget line.
Do students with asthma need a separate air quality message?
They need a specific line in the general message rather than a separate send, because a separate send requires targeting most platforms will not do reliably and it singles children out. One sentence covers it: make sure a current rescue inhaler is at school, the health office is following the action plan on file, and families who want their child kept indoors at all levels can say so by replying. That last option matters more than it looks; it is a small accommodation that prevents a large number of absences.
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$3.50 per student per year under 5,000 students. No tiers, no add-on modules, no per-message fees. Published on the site because you should not have to book a call to learn a price.