Severe weather is one example of when it's good to have an emergency plan. Omaha Public Schools will have a structured system in place starting this fall, but progress has hit a snag.

OPS sent out forms early last month asking parents for emergency contact information, crucial data for the district's automatic notification system. The deadline came and went with just one-fifth of OPS parents responding.

"I don't recall getting anything, but I might have gotten something and overlooked it," says Traci Case, a mother of five who didn't even realize that OPS wants updated contact numbers from her.

"If something occurs at school, like a water main break or something that we need to tell them about, we can do that and we need their information to do it," says OPS’ Luanne Nelson.

Up to three phone numbers, points of contact for each student, will be added to the new system which will send automated messages to parents. “That'd be awesome, that covers the house phone and mom's cell phone and dad's cell phone,” says Case.

The messages will alert parents to issues like when school buses ran late last year due to frozen fuel lines or more serious problems, like the recent shooting outside King Science Center where a student was hit by a stray bullet.

"We can adjust the system to be district-wide, one building, even a couple buildings in a neighborhood if there's something occurring that we need to warn parents about," says Nelson.

OPS staffers have been working for seven days now, entering the phone numbers of parents or guardians who did respond.

Benson High School parent Toni Rahn seems to be the exception, since OPS only received responses for about 20 percent of its 47,000 students. "It's really surprising that they haven't turned 'em in, but if you're working and you don't have time…"

Now that she knows, Case says she'll be calling her kids' school. "Oh, yeah, I got their number.”

Nelson says while the deadline has technically passed, they are still collecting information from parents and urge them to contact their child's school or just stop by to update the information as soon as possible.

OPS would like to have enough people in the system to test it by the end of this month.

The system does not include text messaging or e-mails at this time. That would cost more money and OPS says its resources are limited.