N.Y. Education Law § 2801-a: School safety plans

§ 2801-a. School safety plans. 1. The board of education or trustees,

as defined in section two of this chapter, of every school district

within the state, however created, and every board of cooperative

educational services and county vocational education and extension board

and the chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York

shall adopt and amend a comprehensive district-wide school safety plan

and building-level emergency response plans regarding crisis

intervention, emergency response and management, provided that in the

city school district of the city of New York, such plans shall be

adopted by the chancellor of the city school district. Such plans shall

be developed by a district-wide school safety team and a building-level

emergency response team established pursuant to subdivision four of this

section and shall be in a form developed by the commissioner in

consultation with the division of criminal justice services, the

superintendent of the state police and any other appropriate state

agencies. The commissioner, in consultation with the superintendent of

the state police, is authorized to develop an appeals process from

duplicative requirements of a district-wide school safety plan for

school districts having only one school building.

2. Such comprehensive district-wide safety plan shall be developed by

the district-wide school safety team and shall include at a minimum:

a. policies and procedures for responding to implied or direct threats

of violence by students, teachers, other school personnel including bus

drivers and monitors, as well as visitors to the school, including

threats by students against themselves, which for the purposes of this

section shall include suicide;

b. policies and procedures for responding to acts of violence by

students, teachers, other school personnel including bus drivers and

monitors, as well as visitors to the school, including consideration of

zero-tolerance policies for school violence;

c. appropriate prevention and intervention strategies such as:

(i) 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;

(ii) non-violent conflict resolution training programs;

(iii) peer mediation programs and youth courts; and

(iv) extended day and other school safety programs;

d. policies and procedures for contacting appropriate law enforcement

officials in the event of a violent incident;

e. 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 and 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 purposes of this

section shall include suicide;

f. policies and procedures relating to school building security,

including where appropriate the use of school safety officers and/or

security devices or procedures. District-wide school safety teams shall

consider, as part of its reviews of the comprehensive district-wide

safety plan, the installation of a panic alarm system. For purposes of

this paragraph, "panic alarm system" shall mean a silent security system

signal generated by the manual activation of a device intended to signal

a life-threatening or emergency situation requiring a response from

local law enforcement or, in the case of a school building located in a

municipality in which there is no municipal police department, a

location designated by the superintendent of state police and may

include one or more of the following: wired panic button or buttons,

wireless panic button or buttons or a mobile or computer application;

g. 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, school

personnel including bus drivers and monitors, persons in parental

relation to students of the district, students and other persons deemed

appropriate to receive such information;

h. policies and procedures for annual school safety training for staff

and students; provided that the district must certify to the

commissioner that all staff have undergone annual training on the

emergency response plan, and that the school safety training include

components on violence prevention, mental health and sudden cardiac

arrest, such training may be implemented and conducted in conjunction

with existing professional development and training; provided however

that new employees hired after the start of the school year shall

receive training within thirty days of such hire or as part of a

district's existing new hire training program, whichever is sooner;

i. protocols for responding to bomb threats, hostage-takings,

intrusions and kidnappings;

j. 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;

k. a description of the duties of hall monitors and any other school

safety personnel, the training required of all personnel acting in a

school security capacity, and the hiring and screening process for all

personnel acting in a school security capacity;

l. the designation of the superintendent, or superintendent's

designee, as the district chief emergency officer responsible for

coordinating communication between school staff and law enforcement and

first responders, and ensuring staff understanding of the district-level

safety plan. The chief emergency officer shall also be responsible for

ensuring the completion and yearly updating of building-level emergency

response plans;

m. protocols for responding to a declared state disaster emergency

involving a communicable disease that are substantially consistent with

the provisions of section twenty-seven-c of the labor law; and

n. policies and procedures relating to sudden cardiac arrest. The

district-wide school safety team shall develop and implement a cardiac

emergency response plan that addresses the use of appropriate personnel

to respond to incidents involving any individual experiencing sudden

cardiac arrest or similar life-threatening emergency on any school site

owned or operated by a school or at a location of a school sponsored

event, including but not limited to all athletic programs. Such plan

shall be a written document and shall include specific procedures for

incidents involving an individual experiencing sudden cardiac arrest or

a similar life-threatening emergency while attending or participating in

an athletic practice or event while on school grounds that are venue

specific. Each plan shall integrate nationally recognized,

evidence-based core elements, such as those recommended by the American

Heart Association. School officials shall consider how to best integrate

their cardiac emergency response plan into community EMS responder

protocols. The district-wide school safety team may provide first aid,

CPR, and AED training for relevant staff, including members of

building-level emergency response teams provided for in subdivision four

of this section, provided that such training shall be voluntary.

3. A building level emergency response plan, developed by the

building-level emergency response team defined in subdivision four of

this section, shall be kept confidential, including but not limited to

the floor plans, blueprints, schematics or other maps of the school

interior, school grounds and road 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:

a. policies and procedures for response to emergency situations, such

as those requiring evacuation, sheltering, lock-down, and sudden cardiac

arrest. These policies shall include, at a minimum, evacuation routes,

shelter sites, and procedures for addressing medical needs,

transportation and emergency notification of parents and guardians;

b. designation of an emergency response team comprised of school

personnel, law enforcement officials, fire officials and representatives

from local regional and/or state emergency response agencies, other

appropriate incident response teams, and a post-incident response team

that includes appropriate school personnel, medical personnel, mental

health counselors and others who can assist the school community in

coping with the aftermath of a violent incident;

c. floor plans, blueprints, schematics or other maps of the school

interior, school grounds and road maps of the immediate surrounding

area;

d. establishment of internal and external communication systems in

emergencies which may include the installation of a panic alarm system;

e. definition of the chain of command in a manner consistent with the

national interagency incident management system/incident command system;

f. coordination of the emergency response plan with the state-wide

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;

g. procedures for review and the conduct of drills and other exercises

to test components of the emergency response plan; and

h. 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.

4. Each district-wide school safety team shall be appointed by the

board of education, or the chancellor in the case of the city school

district of the city of New York, and shall include but not be limited

to representatives of the school board, teacher, administrator, and

parent organizations, school safety personnel, and other school

personnel including bus drivers and monitors. At the discretion of the

board of education, or the chancellor in the case of the city of New

York, a student may be allowed to participate on the safety team,

provided however, that no portion of a confidential building-level

emergency response plan shall be shared with such student nor shall such

student be present where details of a confidential building-level

emergency response plan or confidential portions of a district-wide

emergency response strategy are discussed. Each building-level emergency

response team shall be appointed by the building principal, in

accordance with regulations or guidelines prescribed by the board of

education, chancellor or other governing body. Such building-level teams

shall include but not be limited to representatives of teacher,

administrator, and parent organizations, school safety personnel and

other school personnel including bus drivers and monitors, community

members, law enforcement officials, fire officials or other emergency

response agencies, and any other representatives the board of education,

chancellor or other governing body deems appropriate.

5. The district-wide safety plan and building-level emergency response

plans shall be reviewed by the appropriate team on at least an annual

basis and updated as needed.

6. Each board of education, chancellor or other governing body shall

make each district-wide safety plan available for public comment at

least thirty 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 file a copy of its

district-wide safety plan with the commissioner and all amendments to

such plan shall be filed with the commissioner no later than thirty days

after their adoption.

7. Each board of education, chancellor or other governing body or

officer shall ensure a copy of each building-level emergency response

plan and any amendments thereto, shall be filed with the appropriate

local law enforcement agency and with the state police within thirty

days of its adoption. 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. If the board of

education, chancellor or other governing body or chancellor fails to

file such plan as required by this section, the commissioner may, in an

amount determined by the commissioner, withhold public money from the

district until the district is in compliance.

8. The commissioner shall annually report to the governor and the

legislature on the implementation and compliance with the provisions of

this section.

9. Whenever it shall have been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the

commissioner that a school district has failed to adopt a code of

conduct which fully satisfies the requirements of section twenty-eight

hundred one of this article, or a district-wide safety plan or

building-level emergency response plans which satisfies the requirements

of this section, or to faithfully and completely implement all three,

the commissioner may, on thirty days notice to the district, withhold

from the district monies to be paid to such district for the current

school year pursuant to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this

chapter, exclusive of monies to be paid in respect of obligations to the

retirement systems for school and district staff and pursuant to

collective bargaining agreements, or the commissioner may direct the

district to expend up to such amount upon the development and

implementation of a code of conduct and a school district safety plan as

required by such sections. Prior to such withholding or redirection, the

commissioner shall provide the district an opportunity to present

evidence of extenuating circumstances; when combined with evidence that

the district shall promptly comply within short time frames that shall

be established by the commissioner as part of an agreement between the

district and the commissioner, the commissioner may temporarily stay the

withholding or redirection of funds pending implementation of such

agreement. If the district promptly and fully complies with the

agreement and is in full compliance with this section and section

twenty-eight hundred one of this article, the commissioner shall abate

the withholding in its entirety. Any failure to meet the obligations of

the compliance agreement by the district within the time frames

established shall be considered a willful violation of a commissioner's

order by the members of the district board for purposes of subdivision

one of section three hundred six of the education law. Notwithstanding

any other law, rule or regulation, such transfer shall take effect upon

filing of a notice thereof with the director of the budget and the

chairs of the senate finance and assembly ways and means committees.

10. Every school shall define the roles and 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.