New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 8 - EDUCATION DEPARTMENT › Chapter II - Regulations of the Commissioner › Subchapter J - Buildings And Transportation › Part 155 - Educational Facilities › Section 155.4 - Uniform code of public school building inspections, safety rating and monitoring

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Short
				  title and application. This section, promulgated pursuant to sections 409-d, 409-e, 3602 (6) and (6-e) and 3641 (4)  of the Education Law, shall be known as
				  the Uniform Code of Public School Building Inspections, Safety Rating and
				  Monitoring (hereinafter referred to as the code), and shall consist of three
				  components: procedures for periodic inspections, a safety rating system and a
				  monitoring system. The provisions of this section shall apply to all occupied
				  public school buildings, provided that nothing herein shall prevent a school
				  district or board of cooperative educational services from adopting stricter
				  local codes. Such local code must meet or surpass all requirements of the code.
				  Nothing herein shall affect a separate requirement to inspect and maintain
				  school buildings pursuant to any other State or local law or
				  regulation.
(b) Procedures for
				  periodic inspections. To ensure that all occupied public school buildings are
				  properly maintained and preserved and provide a suitable educational setting,
				  the board of education of each school district or board of cooperative
				  educational services (BOCES) shall cause such facilities owned, operated or
				  leased by the school district or BOCES to be assessed in accordance with
				  sections 409-d and
				  409-e  of the Education Law and this
				  section, and, where applicable, section 807-a  of the Education Law and section
				  155.8 
				  of this Part. Buildings shall be assessed by a building condition survey
				  conducted once every five years, an annual fire safety inspection conducted
				  pursuant to section 807-a  of the Education Law and section
				  155.8 
				  of this Part or pursuant to local law or codes, and a visual inspection
				  conducted in years 2020 and 2022 to the extent required in paragraph (2) of
				  this subdivision. The commissioner may require additional visual inspections as
				  deemed necessary to maintain the safety of public school buildings and the
				  welfare of the occupants.
(1) Building
				  condition surveys. School districts and BOCES shall conduct a building
				  condition survey for all occupied public school buildings in calendar years
				  2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 or 2024 on a schedule prescribed pursuant to this
				  paragraph and at least every five years thereafter. Such schedule shall assign
				  districts to Labor Market Regions (Capital Region, Central NY, Finger Lakes,
				  Hudson Valley, Long Island, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Southern Tier and
				  Western NY) and shall use data regarding the number of occupied buildings for
				  each district to equally distribute the number of buildings to be surveyed
				  within each Labor Market Region in each scheduled assignment year, and shall
				  use data from the 2015 Building Condition Survey to the greatest extent
				  practicable to assign districts with the highest number of buildings rated
				  unsatisfactory or poor to the first two years of the assignment schedule while
				  at the same time ensuring a pro-rated staggered implementation schedule within
				  each Labor Market Region.
(i) The physical
				  inspections required to complete the survey shall be conducted by a team that
				  includes at least one licensed architect or engineer. The Commissioner of
				  Education shall prescribe the format required to complete the survey.
(ii) The survey shall include, but not be
				  limited to list of all program spaces and an inspection of the following
				  building system components for evidence of movement, deterioration, structural
				  failure, probable useful life, need for repair and maintenance and need for
				  replacement:
(a) the building site, including
				  utilities, paving, playgrounds, and play fields;
(b) roofing;
(c) exterior elements of the building,
				  including walls, doors, windows, fire escapes;
(d) building structural elements;
(e) building interiors, including finishes,
				  doors, and hardware;
(f) electrical
				  systems, including service and distribution, lighting, communications,
				  technology infrastructure and cabling;
(g) plumbing, including water distribution
				  system, drainage system, and fixtures;
(h) heating and cooling systems, including
				  boilers, furnaces, terminal units, and control systems;
(i) ventilation systems;
(j) air conditioning systems, including
				  refrigeration, terminal units, and control systems;
(k) special construction, including stairs,
				  elevators, escalators, and swimming pools;
(l) fire protection and security systems,
				  including alarm, detection and fire protection; and
(m) environmental features, including
				  appearance, cleanliness, acoustics, lighting quality, thermal comfort,
				  humidity, ventilation and space adequacy.
(iii) Reports of building condition surveys,
				  signed and sealed by the licensed architect or engineer, shall be submitted to
				  the commissioner by March 1st following the calendar year the building
				  condition survey is due pursuant to the staggered schedule set forth in this
				  paragraph and March 1st of every fifth year thereafter. Building aid computed
				  pursuant to section 3602 (6-e)  of the Education
				  Law is available for building condition surveys conducted by a licensed
				  architect or engineer if no claim for such a building condition survey in such
				  a building has been filed in the previous five years. The apportionment of such
				  building aid for each school building so inspected by a school district in the
				  base year shall not exceed the lesser of the product of the building aid ratio
				  and the actual cost, or the building condition survey aid ceiling computed by
				  the commissioner. For aid payable in the 2000-2001 school year and thereafter,
				  the building condition survey aid ceiling shall be the product of 20 cents plus
				  an additional amount times the gross area of the building. Such additional
				  amount shall be the result obtained when the cost of labor and material index
				  determined by the New York State Department of Labor for the month of July of
				  the current year is divided by the cost index for July 1999 and the result is
				  rounded to two decimal places. A claim for building aid shall be made in a form
				  prescribed by the commissioner, within six months of the date of the architect
				  or engineer report, for aid payable in the following school year. Such reports
				  shall be made available to the public on request.