Grant Park has joined other school districts in the Kankakee and Iroquois County areas in participating in the Sheriff Alert Program for school districts.

Sheriff Alert is a service that uses state-of-the-art technology to provide parents with alerts related to weather-related school cancellations, emergency and crisis situations, reunification procedures for parents and students and severe weather alerts. The program is designed to provide quick information when it is needed most to cell phones via text messages or computers via email.

This program is provided through the cooperation of the Kankakee County Sheriff's Department and Iroquois- Kankakee Regional Office of Education's Emergency Response and Crisis Management discretionary grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The school district will complete its installation in late January or early February.

Parents will be able to sign up to receive the alerts on their cell phones or computers via the Grant Park school district website, www.grantpark.k12.il.us.

When the system is fully operational, an alert box icon on the district website will take parents through the sign-up procedures. The only cost to participants may be text message charges incurred from cell phone carriers. The community will be notified via the news letter or "backpack mail."