(c) District-wide school safety plans and
building-level emergency response plans. District-wide school safety plans and
building-level emergency response plans shall be designed to prevent or
minimize the effects of violent incidents, declared state disaster emergency
involving a communicable disease or local public health emergency declaration
and other emergencies and to facilitate the coordination of schools and school
districts with local and county resources in the event of such incidents or
emergencies.
(1) District-wide school safety
plans. A district-wide school safety plan shall be developed by the
district-wide school safety team and shall include, but not be limited to:
(i) policies and procedures for responding to
implied or direct threats of violence by students, teachers, other school
personnel and visitors to the school, including threats by students against
themselves, which for the purposes of this subdivision shall include
suicide;
(ii) policies and
procedures for responding to acts of violence by students, teachers, other
school personnel and visitors to the school, including consideration of
zero-tolerance policies for school violence;
(iii) appropriate prevention and intervention
strategies, such as:
(a) collaborative
arrangements with State and local law enforcement officials, designed to ensure
that school safety officers and other security personnel are adequately
trained, including being trained to de-escalate potentially violent situations,
and are effectively and fairly recruited;
(b) nonviolent conflict resolution training
programs;
(c) peer mediation
programs and youth courts; and
(d)
extended day and other school safety programs;
(iv) policies and procedures for contacting
appropriate law enforcement officials in the event of a violent
incident;
(v) except in a school
district in a city having a population of more than one million inhabitants, a
description of the arrangements for obtaining assistance during emergencies
from emergency services organizations and local governmental
agencies;
(vi) except in a school
district in a city having a population of more than one million inhabitants,
the procedures for obtaining advice and assistance from local government
officials, including the county or city officials responsible for
implementation of article 2-B of the Executive Law;
(vii) except in a school district in a city having a
population of more than one million inhabitants, the identification of district
resources which may be available for use during an emergency;
(viii) except in a school district in a city
having a population of more than one million inhabitants, a description of
procedures to coordinate the use of school district resources and manpower
during emergencies, including identification of the officials authorized to
make decisions and of the staff members assigned to provide assistance during
emergencies;
(ix) policies and
procedures for contacting parents, guardians or persons in parental relation to
the students of the district in the event of a violent incident or an early
dismissal or emergency school closure;
(x) policies and procedures for contacting
parents, guardians or persons in parental relation to an individual student of
the district in the event of an implied or direct threat of violence by such
student against themselves, which for the purposes of this subdivision shall
include suicide;
(xi) policies and
procedures relating to school building security, including, where appropriate:
a. the use of school safety or security
officers and/or school resource officers. Beginning with the 2019-20 school
year, and every school year thereafter, every school shall define the areas of
responsibility of school personnel, security personnel and law enforcement in
response to student misconduct that violates the code of conduct. A school
district or charter school that employs, contracts with, or otherwise retains
law enforcement or public or private security personnel, including school
resource officers, shall establish a written contract or memorandum of
understanding that is developed with stakeholder input, including, but not
limited to, parents, students, school administrators, teachers, collective
bargaining units, parent and student organizations and community members, as
well as probation officers, prosecutors, defense counsels and courts that are
familiar with school discipline. Such written contract or memorandum of
understanding shall define the relationship between a school district or
charter school, school personnel, students, visitors, law enforcement, and
public or private security personnel. Such contract or memorandum of
understanding shall be consistent with the code of conduct, define law
enforcement or security personnel's roles, responsibilities and involvement
within a school and clearly delegate the role of school discipline to the
school administration. Such written contract or memorandum of understanding
shall be incorporated into and published as part of the district safety plan;
and
b. security devices or
procedures. District-wide school safety teams shall consider, as part of their
review of the comprehensive districtwide safety plan, the installation of a
panic alarm system;
(xii) policies and procedures for the dissemination of
informative materials regarding the early detection of potentially violent
behaviors, including but not limited to the identification of family, community
and environmental factors to teachers, administrators, parents and other
persons in parental relation to students of the school district or board,
students and other persons deemed appropriate to receive such
information;
(xiii) policies and
procedures for annual multi-hazard school safety training for staff and
students, provided that the district must certify to the commissioner that all
staff have undergone annual training by September 15, 2016 and each subsequent
September 15 thereafter on the building-level emergency response plan which
must include components on violence prevention and mental health, provided
further that new employees hired after the start of the school year shall
receive such training within 30 days of hire or as part of the district's
existing new hire training program, whichever is sooner.
(xiv) procedures for review and the conduct of drills
and other exercises to test components of the emergency response plan,
including the use of tabletop exercises, in coordination with local and county
emergency responders and preparedness officials;
(xv) the identification of appropriate responses to
emergencies, including protocols for responding to bomb threats,
hostage-takings, intrusions and kidnappings;
(xvi) strategies for improving communication among
students and between students and staff and reporting of potentially violent
incidents, such as the establishment of youth- run programs, peer mediation,
conflict resolution, creating a forum or designating a mentor for students
concerned with bullying or violence and establishing anonymous reporting
mechanisms for school violence;
(xvii) in the case of a school district,
except in a school district in a city having more than one million inhabitants,
a system for informing all educational agencies within such school district of
a disaster;
(xviii) in the case of
a school district, except in a school district in a city having more than one
million inhabitants, a system for informing all educational agencies within
such school district of a disaster or emergency school closure;
(xix) the designation of the superintendent,
or superintendent's designee, as the district chief emergency officer whose
duties shall include, but not be limited to:
(a) coordination of the communication between
school staff, law enforcement, and other first responders;
(b) lead the efforts of the district-wide
school safety team in the completion and yearly update of the district-wide
school safety plan and the coordination of the district-wide plan with the
building-level emergency response plans;
(c) ensure staff understanding of the
district-wide school safety plan;
(d) ensure the completion and yearly update
of building-level emergency response plans for each school building;
(e) assist in the selection of security
related technology and development of procedures for the use of such
technology;
(f) coordinate
appropriate safety, security, and emergency training for district and school
staff, including required training in the emergency response plan;
(g) ensure the conduct of required evacuation
and lock-down drills in all district buildings as required by Education Law
section 807; and
(h) ensure the
completion and yearly update of building-level emergency response plans by the
dates designated by the commissioner; and
(xx) ensure the development of protocols for
responding to a declared state disaster emergency involving a communicable
disease that are substantially consistent with the provisions of section
27-c of the Labor
Law; and
(xxi) beginning with the
2023-2024 school year and every school year thereafter, an emergency remote
instruction plan. For purposes of this subparagraph remote instruction shall
have the same meaning as defined in section
100.1(u) of this
Chapter. Emergency remote instruction plans shall include:
(a) policies and procedures to ensure
computing devices will be made available to students or other means by which
students will participate in synchronous instruction and policies and
procedures to ensure students receiving remote instruction under emergency
conditions will access internet connectivity. Each chief executive officer of
each educational agency located within a public school district shall survey
students and parents and persons in parental relation to such students to
obtain information on student access to computing devices and access to
internet connectivity to inform the emergency remote instruction
plan;
(b) expectations for school
staff as to the proportion of time spent in synchronous and asynchronous
instruction of students on days of remote instruction under emergency
conditions with an expectation that asynchronous instruction is supplementary
to synchronous instruction;
(c) a
description of how instruction will occur for those students for whom remote
instruction by digital technology is not available or appropriate;
(d) a description of how special education
and related services will be provided to students with disabilities, as defined
in section 200.1(zz) of this
Chapter, and preschool students with disabilities, as defined in section
200.1(mm) of this
Chapter, as applicable, in accordance with their individualized education
programs to ensure the continued provision of a free appropriate public
education; and
(e) for school
districts that receive foundation aid, the estimated number of instructional
hours the school district intends to claim for State aid purposes for each day
spent in remote instruction due to emergency conditions pursuant to section
175.5 of this
Chapter.
(2)
Building-level emergency response plan. A building-level emergency response
plan shall be developed by the building-level emergency response team, shall be
kept confidential, including but not limited to the floor plans, blueprints,
schematics or other maps of the immediate surrounding area, and shall not be
disclosed except to authorized department or school staff, and law enforcement
officers, and shall include the following elements:
(i) policies and procedures for the response
to emergency situations, such as those requiring evacuation, sheltering, and
lock-down, which shall include, at a minimum, the description of plans of
action for evacuation, sheltering, lock-down, evacuation routes and shelter
sites, and procedures for addressing medical needs, transportation and
emergency notification to persons in parental relation to a student;
(ii) designation of an emergency response
team, other appropriate incident response teams, and a post-incident response
team;
(iii) floor plans,
blueprints, schematics or other maps of the school interior, school grounds and
road maps of the immediate surrounding area;
(iv) establishment of internal and external
communication systems in emergencies which may include the installation ofa
panic alarm system;
(v) definition
of the chain of command in a manner consistent with the National Incident
Management System (NIMS)/Incident Command System (ICS);
(vi) coordination of the building-level
emergency response plan with the statewide plan for disaster mental health
services to assure that the school has access to Federal, State and local
mental health resources in the event of a violent incident;
(vii) procedures for an annual review of the
building-level emergency response plan and the conduct of drills and other
exercises to test components of the building-level emergency response plan,
including the use of tabletop exercises, in coordination with local, county,
and state emergency responders and preparedness officials;
(viii) policies and procedures for securing
and restricting access to the crime scene in order to preserve evidence in
cases of violent crimes on school property;
(ix) in the case of a school district, except
in a school district in a city having more than one million inhabitants,
certain information about each educational agency located in the school
district, including information on school population, number of staff,
transportation needs and the business and home telephone numbers of key
officials of each such agency.
(3)
(a)
Each board of education, chancellor or other governing body shall make each
district-wide safety plan available for public comment at least 30 days prior
to its adoption. Such district-wide plans may be adopted by the school board
only after at least one public hearing that provides for the participation of
school personnel, parents, students and any other interested parties. Each
district shall submit its district-wide safety plan and all amendments to such
plan to the commissioner, in a manner prescribed by the commissioner, within 30
days after its adoption. Commencing with the 2019-2020 school year, such
district-wide plans must be submitted no later than October 1, 2019, and each
subsequent October 1 thereafter.
(b) Each board of education, chancellor or
other governing body or officer shall ensure that each building-level emergency
response plan and any amendments thereto, is submitted to the appropriate local
law enforcement agency and the State Police within 30 days of its adoption, but
no later than October 15 for the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020
school years and for the 2020-2021 school year and thereafter, such
building-level emergency response plans must be submitted no later than October
1, 2020, and each subsequent October 1 thereafter. Building-level emergency
response plans shall be confidential and shall not be subject to disclosure
under article six of the Public Officers Law or any other provision of
law.