We are pleased you have chosen Bellingham Technical College as a potential place to attend college. The College administration wants to assure you that, as part of the BTC community, your safety and security are of primary concern. BTC employees are committed to making our campus a safe, nurturing learning environment.

Please go to the Incident Reporting page to report any concerning behavior, conduct issues, crimes, accidents, or general safety concerns.

Stay in the know for campus safety incidents, weather announcements and emergencies - subscribe to BTC Alerts. You’ll receive a text and/or email alert about classes that are cancelled and/or whether campus is open. We encourage you to sign up for text alerts, because texts may reach you faster.

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• Students

  Students can receive urgent text and e-mail messages by signing up for BTC Students Emergency Alerts.

• Employees

  BTC employee email addresses are already registered. Employees can sign up with their personal email addresses at BTC Employees Emergency Alerts.

• General Public

  Community members, family and friends of of BTC may sign up for BTC's public emergency response notification system.

We know that many students and employees have to get up early to commute to campus. So BTC leadership makes the decision about inclement weather closures or delays as early as possible.

• Closure Considerations

  We take many things into consideration in making the decision to have a delayed start or to cancel school for the day: 

  • Weather:  We rely on the National Weather Service (NWS) and its forecasts. 
  • Road conditions:  We review road condition reports from our own staff, who are here in the mornings and provide a report; from NWS; and from other sources. Roads may be clear in some areas, but dangerous in others.
  • Buildings, parking lots, grounds: We review our needs to determine if our  campuses are safe to be open.
  • Other colleges and status reports: We look at the status of other colleges, schools, and local businesses in Whatcom County. 

  There are many factors at play when making a decision. We do not make a decision to delay opening or close the college lightly; we understand that schedules, classes, and childcare can be highly disrupted. We also realize that our students and employees live in several different school districts, and there will be times when another entity makes a different decision than affects BTC students and employees. If you're affected by such a decision, please talk to your professors or your supervisor to arrive at a solution that works for everyone. 

• Closure Information

  As soon as a decision is made, we'll communicate it via the following channels:

  • BTC Alerts (text & email to subscribers) 
  • btc.edu home page banner
  • BTC social media (@BhamTechCollege on Twitter and Facebook)
  • BTC Weather Watch: 360.752.8SNO (8766)
  • Local News

Learn more about BTC's emergency preparedness and response, including what to do in specific emergency scenarios, please visit the BTC Emergency Readiness page.

For information about parking on campus, please visit the BTC Parking page.

If you need to contact a BTC student due to a medical emergency, please call 360.752.8550.

If at anytime you are feeling unsafe to walk you to your car, an escort can be arranged by calling 360.305.1006 before 5 pm and 360.305.1004 after 5 pm.

In compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act of 1998, the college reports the mandated information about current campus policies concerning safety and security issues and the required crime statistics in an Annual Security Report. This report must be disseminated to all students, employees, prospective students and prospective employees by October 1st of each year. 

2024 Annual Security Report

For more information on BTC's Registered Sexual Offender policy, or to review the requirements for attending BTC as a Registered Sexual Offender, please visit the Registered Sexual Offender Notification page. 

In accordance with the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act of 2000 (which amends the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act), the Jeanne Clery Act, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, BTC also provides a link to the Sex Offender Registry on the Registered Sexual Offender Notification page.