Source: http://vacode.org/22.1-279.8/
Timestamp: 2013-05-20 05:10:58
Document Index: 307890971

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 22', '§ 22', '§ 22', '§ 2', '§ 9', '§ 44', '§ 32', '§ 2', '§ 23', '§ 9', '§ 22', '§ 22', '§ 22', '§ 19', '§ 22', '§ 2', '§ 2']

School safety audits and school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans required. (§ 22.1-279.8)—Virginia Decoded
The Virginia state code, for humans.
← 22.1 Education → 14 Pupils → § 22.1-279.8 School safety audits and school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans required. →
§ 22.1-279.8 School safety audits and school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans required.
This law was first passed in 1997. It was updated in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2012.
2007HB2271: School boards; required to annually review school crisis, emergency management, etc. response plans.2009HB2612: Emergency response plans; ensuring victims' rights. (passed)SB1150: Emergency response plans; ensuring victims' rights. (passed)2012HB352: Emergency management plans; victims' rights. (passed)HB504: Virginia Center for School Safety; provide training to public school personnel on antibullying. (passed)SB271: Virginia Center for School Safety; provide training to public school personnel on antibullying. (passed)2013HB2171: School safety audits; school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. (failed)HB2337: Public schools; school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. (failed)HB2346: Lock-down drills; every public school is required to have at least two practices per year, etc. (passed)
§ 2.2-3705.2 Exclusions to application of chapter; records relating to public safety.§ 9.1-184 Virginia Center for School Safety created; duties.
§ 44-146.18 Department of Emergency Services continued as Department of Emergency Management; administration and operational control; coordinator and other personnel; powers and duties.§ 32.1-111.3 Statewide emergency medical care system.§ 2.2-3705.2 Exclusions to application of chapter; records relating to public safety.§ 23-9.2:9 Institutional crisis and emergency management plan; review required; annual functional exercise required.§ 9.1-102 Powers and duties of the Board and the Department.
Official: Va. Code § 22.1-279.8Universal: VA Code § 22.1-279.8
accuracy—read § 22.1-279.8 on the official Code of Virginia website.
A. For the purposes of this section, unless the context requires otherwise: ¶“School crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan” means the essential procedures, operations, and assignments required to prevent, manage, and respond to a critical event or emergency, including natural disasters involving fire, flood, tornadoes, or other severe weather; loss or disruption of power, water, communications or shelter; bus or other accidents; medical emergencies, including cardiac arrest and other life-threatening medical emergencies; student or staff member deaths; explosions; bomb threats; gun, knife or other weapons threats; spills or exposures to hazardous substances; the presence of unauthorized persons or trespassers; the loss, disappearance or kidnapping of a student; hostage situations; violence on school property or at school activities; incidents involving acts of terrorism; and other incidents posing a serious threat of harm to students, personnel, or facilities. The plan shall include a provision that the Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Virginia Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund shall be contacted immediately to deploy assistance in the event of an emergency as defined in the emergency response plan when there are victims as defined in § 19.2-11.01. The Department of Criminal Justice Services and the Virginia Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund shall be the lead coordinating agencies for those individuals determined to be victims, and the plan shall also contain current contact information for both agencies. ¶“School safety audit” means a written assessment of the safety conditions in each public school to (i) identify and, if necessary, develop solutions for physical safety concerns, including building security issues and (ii) identify and evaluate any patterns of student safety concerns occurring on school property or at school-sponsored events. Solutions and responses shall include recommendations for structural adjustments, changes in school safety procedures, and revisions to the school board’s standards for student conduct. ¶
B. The Virginia Center for School Safety shall develop a list of items to be reviewed and evaluated in the school safety audits required by this section. Such items shall include those incidents reported to school authorities pursuant to § 22.1-279.3:1. ¶The Virginia Center for School Safety shall prescribe a standardized report format for school safety audits, additional reporting criteria, and procedures for report submission, which may include instructions for electronic submission. ¶Each local school board shall require all schools under its supervisory control to annually conduct school safety audits as defined in this section and consistent with such list. ¶The results of such school safety audits shall be made public within 90 days of completion. The local school board shall retain authority to withhold or limit the release of any security plans and specific vulnerability assessment components as provided in subdivision 7 of § 2.2-3705.2. Each school shall maintain a copy of the school safety audit, which may exclude such security plans and vulnerability assessment components, within the office of the school principal and shall make a copy of such report available for review upon written request. ¶Each school shall submit a copy of its school safety audit to the relevant school division superintendent. The division superintendent shall collate and submit all such school safety audits, in the prescribed format and manner of submission, to the Virginia Center for School Safety. ¶
C. The school board may establish a school safety audit committee to consist of representatives of parents, teachers, local law-enforcement agencies, judicial and public safety personnel, and the community at large. The school safety audit committee shall evaluate, in accordance with the directions of the local school board, the safety of each school and submit a plan for improving school safety at a public meeting of the local school board. ¶
D. Each school board shall ensure that every school that it supervises shall develop a written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan, consistent with the definition provided in this section. The Department of Education and the Virginia Center for School Safety shall provide technical assistance to the school divisions of the Commonwealth in the development of the school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans that describe the components of a medical emergency response plan developed in coordination with local emergency medical services providers, the training of school personnel and students to respond to a life-threatening emergency, and the equipment required for this emergency response. The local school board shall annually review the written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. The local school board shall have the authority to withhold or limit the review of any security plans and specific vulnerability assessment components as provided in subdivision 7 of § 2.2-3705.2. The local school division superintendent shall certify this review in writing to the Virginia Center on School Safety no later than August 31 of each year. ¶Upon consultation with local school boards, division superintendents, the Virginia Center for School Safety, and the Coordinator of Emergency Management, the Board of Education shall develop, and may revise as it deems necessary, a model school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan for the purpose of assisting the public schools in Virginia in developing viable, effective crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans. Such model shall set forth recommended effective procedures and means by which parents can contact the relevant school or school division regarding the location and safety of their school children and by which school officials may contact parents, with parental approval, during a critical event or emergency. ¶
This law has been modified 10
times since it was first created in 1997. Those modifications
are cataloged by “The Acts of Assembly,” a state publication, by year and chapter.
Those modifications that can be read on the General Assembly’s website will be
linked accordingly. Those modifications are as follows: in 1999, chapters 475, 516; in 2001, chapters 436, 440, 688, 820, 841; in 2002, chapters 166, 221, 229, 235; in 2003, chapter 801; in 2004, chapter 690; in 2005, chapter 904; in 2006, chapter 43; in 2007, chapter 44; in 2009, chapters 222, 269; in 2012, chapter 418.
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