2023 New Hampshire Revised Statutes › Title XV - Education › Chapter 189 - School Boards, Superintendents, Teachers, and Truant Officers; School Census › Section 189:64 - Emergency Operations Plans.

189:64 Emergency Operations Plans. –
I. Every public, chartered public, and nonpublic school shall develop a site-specific school emergency operations plan which is based on and conforms to the Incident Command System and the National Incident Management System and submit such plan to the director of homeland security and emergency management, department of safety by October 15 of each year. Access to all plans shall be provided to the department of education.
II. (a) The plan shall address hazards including but not limited to acts of violence, biological incidents, civil unrest, cyber incidents, drought, earthquakes, extreme temperatures, floods, hurricane/severe storm, internal and external hazardous materials releases, medical emergencies, structural fire, threats, tornadoes, wildfire, winter storm, or any other hazard deemed necessary by school officials and local emergency authorities.
(b) Schools that are located within the emergency planning zone shall address radiological emergencies within the emergency operations plan, as required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in NUREG 0654.
III. The plan shall provide that at least 4 of the currently required number of fire evacuation drills shall be emergency, all-hazard response drills of which at least one shall test emergency response to an armed assailant. The armed assailant drill may be discussion based. The types of all-hazard drills and exercises and the manner and time in which these activities take place shall be determined by the school in collaboration with local public safety, emergency management, and public health officials. The school may include students and first responders in all-hazard response drills or activities, as appropriate. The first emergency operations plan drill shall be conducted within one year of the completion of the plan.
IV. If the school has a building schematic floor plan diagram, the school may, with the approval of the local school board, submit the diagram to the division of homeland security and emergency management, department of safety, in a commonly used digital format. Submission of the diagram will enable the state to better prepare, respond, and mitigate potentially dangerous conditions should the need arise.
V. Each school shall provide the plan to, and coordinate the plan with, local emergency authorities and with the emergency operations plan in the municipality in which the school is located. Each school shall review its plan at least annually and update the plan, as necessary, and shall submit the updated plan to the director of homeland security and emergency management, department of safety by October 15. If after review, the plan is unchanged, the school shall notify the department of safety by October 15 that the plan is unchanged.
VI. (a) The director of homeland security and emergency management, department of safety shall assist schools in conducting training for and providing support to schools districts in the development, implementation, and review of an emergency operations plan, upon request.
(b) For just cause, the director of homeland security and emergency management, department of safety may grant a school district, city, chartered public school, public academy, or nonpublic school up to a 30-day extension to the reporting deadline. The director may further extend the deadline when unusual or unforeseen circumstances prevent a school district, city, chartered public school, public academy, or nonpublic school from submitting the required reports under paragraph V before the expiration of such extension.
(c) If a school district, city, chartered public school, public academy, or nonpublic school fails to submit its emergency operations plan by the established deadline for 2 consecutive years the director of homeland security and emergency management, department of safety shall notify the department of education.
Source.
2007, 92:1. 2014, 87:1. 2017, 14:1, eff. June 16, 2017. 2018, 35:1, eff. July 14, 2018. 2019, 20:1, eff. July 14, 2019. 2022, 187:2, eff. June 17, 2022.