Susan, I am assuming kids location is unknown. It could be a weekend or summer vacation and kids are scattered around visiting their friends, maybe enojying some festival or baseball game, or perhaps biking around the neighborhood . Whatever.

Your point of having a netwrk of parents is a good one. Kids should know houses of our friends and even may exchange with other kids information about their expected meeting points. If my kid is somewhere in town where OUR meeting point is too far or hard to reach ( blocked roads ..etc.) then maybe he can think of reaching the house or meeting point of his friends family.

Cell phones are out in this scenario.
Not all my kids have them anyway (only th eldest daughter), and they may not work in a disaster..etc. In any case, they are in age groups that I cant provide them with cell phones (just in case). They can lose them many times before they can use them in a disaster.

Hmmm.
Any of you thought of this ?
How about a super tough retreat at home that would not be feasible for an adult but good enough for a kid ?

Say a fortified shed in the garden or whatever that a kid can use in case ALL OPTIONS are out. He comes back home and whole family has left. It becomes like ( Home Alone) case. After a few attempts of contacting someone, he decides to stay home in that little safe room. It has food and water, survival kits, breathing aids like filters and even a small cylinder of oxygen. It can even include a cell phone there, but keeping it charged will be a problem. Maybe a solar charger can be added but the point is to keep things as simple as possible.