Title: Pub. Rec./School District After-Drill Report

Summary: Provides exemption from public records requirements for school district's after-drill report that summarizes emergency drills of each school in district & recommendations from participating law enforcement officers or fire officials; provides for future review & repeal of exemption; provides statement of public necessity; provides for contingent effect.

Full Text:
An act relating to public records; amending s. 1006.07, F.S.; exempting from public records requirements a school district's after-drill report that summarizes the emergency drills of each school in the district and the recommendations from participating law enforcement officers or fire officials; providing for future repeal and legislative review of the exemption under the Open Government Sunset Review Act; providin ga statement of public necessity; providing a contingent effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. Subsection (7) is added to section 1006.07, Florida Statutes, to read: 1006.07 District school board duties relating to student discipline and school safety.-The district school board shall provide for the proper accounting for all students, for the attendance and control of students at school, and for proper attention to health, safety, and other matters relating to the welfare of students, including: (7) AFTER-DRILL REPORTS.-A school district's after-drill report and the recommendations from participating law enforcement officers or fire officials are exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of th eState Constitution. This subsection is subject to the Open Government Sunset Review Act in accordance with s. 119.15 and shall stand repealed on October HB 2013 2, 2018, unless reviewed and saved from repeal through reenactment by the Legislature. Section 2. The Legislature finds that it is a public necessity that information contained in a school district's after-drill report and the recommendations from participating law enforcement officers or fire officials be made exempt from public records requirements. While educating students is a school district's primary focus, each school district must also protect its students along with its employees and faculty members at each school. In light of the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conne cticut, where 39 students and six adults were killed on December 14, 2012, and at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, where students and one teacher were murdered and an additional students were injured on April 20, 1999, school districts i nthis state are keenly aware that the safety and security of students, employees, and faculty members is of paramount concern. The information contained in an after-drill report and the recommendations from participating law enforcement officers or fire officials regarding a school's conducted emergency drills and the school's strengths and weaknesses in conducting those drills is information that could be used by a person who intends harm, possibly deadly harm, against the school's students, employees, an dfaculty members. Failing to exempt this information from public records requirements could expose a school's safety measures to a person who means ill will or is mentally unstable and could hamper the school's efforts to keep its students, employees, and faculty members safe and secure. HB 2013 Accordingly, the Legislature finds that the harm to a school's students, employees, and faculty members which would result from the release of the school district's after-drill report and the recommendations from participa ting law enforcement officers or fire officials substantially outweighs any public benefit derived from disclosure to the public. Section 3. This act shall take effect on the same date that HB or similar legislation takes effect,if such legislat ion is adopted in the same legislative session or an extension thereof and becomes a law.