Public schools in the United States are prone to crises that can have major effects on the student, parents, teachers, and school community (Smith & Riley, 2012). In addition to all school leaders in the country experiencing the COVID-19 crisis, others also experienced crises related to extreme weather, wildfires, and weapons offenses. Through an examination of scholarly literature in the area of crisis leadership and public schools, the need for effective communication emerged as a common theme (Bosworth et al., 2011; Fearn-Banks, 2007; Fein & Isaacson, 2009; Pepper et al., 2010). This study sought to further advance understanding of the sensemaking and communicative aspect of crisis leadership in the context of PK-12 public schools. Even though many school divisions have crisis management plans in place, very few of them have crisiscommunication plans (Lee et al., 2008). This dissertation explored school leaders' sensemaking and crisis communication in the context of PK-12 public schools. My specific interests focused on understanding how principals make sense of an ambiguous and unpredictable event in order to develop an appropriate response, and to understand how the decision-making process influences the communicative choices made by school leaders during crisis events. Through a basic qualitative interpretive design, I interviewed 10 school leaders from around the United States who led their school through one or more crisis events. The crises were significant enough to disrupt the school day, gain the attention of the media, and/or displace the entire school community. The data from the semi-structured interviews, as well as an analysis of division level policy resulted in five themes: School leaders relied on experience, emotion, and/or policy to make sense of the crisis; Policies and relationships framed what and how school leaders communicated during the crisis; Lack of coordination strained communication efforts and recovery time; The school leaders' dispositional and relational attributes impacted the effectiveness of their crisis communication; Policies lack direct consideration and practice/drills for crisis communication. The findings of this study support the need for comprehensive crisis communication plans in PK-12 public school systems in the United States. The findings also support increased collaboration between the school division and the school buildings, as well as increased collaboration between school divisions and outside agencies. The role of the school leader in crisis proved crucial to both crisis response and crisis communication. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]