In Wake County, the emergency operations plan for Wake County schools has a special section on tornadoes that talks about where kids and teachers should go and what they should do.
For instance, it warns about not being near windows and has instructions for taking shelter.
We went down to Moore Square Middle School in Raleigh where that's a particular challenge. It's a four-story building that's full of glass. Because of that, their tornado safety drill calls for all the kids to get out of their classrooms and onto the first floor or into the basement.
Everyone goes into the hallways to put as many walls between them and the potential twister as possible. Then, they get in the drop and tuck position - hands over their heads - and then they wait.
The state requires a drill once a year. But at Moore Square, they do it twice each year and Principal Kengie Bass says they could benefit from even more practice.
"There's never enough training for any of these events. Often, when something happens in a different area of the state or country, you harken back to, it's time for another drill because that very easily could have happened to us in North Carolina," he said.
Many of the safety guidelines the school system has in place apply to the rest of us as well. If there's a tornado warning, take shelter away from windows and doors in the most structurally sound part of your home you can find.