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 155.17 - School safety plans

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Development
				  of school safety plans. Every board of education of a school district, 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 by July 1, 2001, and shall update by July 1st for the
				  2002-2003 through the 2015-2016 school years and shall update and adopt by
				  September 1st for the 2016-2017 school year and each subsequent September 1st
				  thereafter, a comprehensive district-wide school safety plan and building-level
				  emergency response plans regarding crisis intervention and emergency response
				  and management, and commencing with the 2023-2024 school year districtwide
				  school safety plans shall include plans for the provision of remote instruction
				  during any emergency school closure, 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, as such terms are
				  defined in subdivision (b) 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. Each district-wide school safety plan and building-level
				  emergency response plan shall be reviewed by the appropriate school safety team
				  on at least an annual basis, and updated as needed.
(b) Definitions.
As used in this section:
(1) Educational agencies means public and
				  nonpublic elementary and secondary schools, public and private nursery schools,
				  approved private schools for the education of students with disabilities as
				  defined in section
				  200.1(d)  of this
				  Title, and public and private schools for the education of preschool children
				  with disabilities.
(2)
				  Superintendent means a superintendent of schools or a district superintendent
				  of schools, as appropriate.
(3)
				  Disaster means occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage,
				  illness, injury, or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or
				  manmade causes, such as fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, high
				  water, landslide, mudslide, windstorm, wave action, epidemic, air
				  contamination, drought, explosion, water contamination, chemical accident,
				  communicable disease outbreak, war or civil disturbance.
(4) Emergency means a situation, including
				  but not limited to a disaster that requires immediate action, occurs
				  unpredictably, and poses a threat of injury or loss of life to students or
				  school personnel or of severe damage to school property.
(5) Emergency services organization means a
				  public or private agency, organization or group other than a governmental
				  agency, which provides police, fire, medical, ambulance, rescue, housing or
				  other services for the relief of human suffering, injury or loss of life or
				  property as a result of an emergency.
(6) School cancellation means a determination
				  by school officials that a school or schools should not be in session for one
				  or more school days due to an emergency.
(7) Early dismissal means returning students
				  to their homes or other appropriate locations before the end of the school
				  day.
(8) Evacuation means moving
				  students for their protection from a school building to a predetermined
				  location in response to an emergency.
(9) Sheltering means keeping students in
				  school buildings and providing them with shelter when it is deemed safer for
				  students to remain inside rather than to return home or be evacuated.
(10) Lock-down means to immediately clear the
				  hallways, lock and/or barricade doors, hide from view, and remain silent while
				  readying a plan of evacuation as a last resort. Lock-down will only end upon
				  physical release from the room or secured area by law enforcement.
(11) Building-level emergency response plan
				  means a building-specific school emergency response plan that addresses crisis
				  intervention, emergency response and management at the building level and has
				  the contents prescribed in paragraph (c)(2) of this section.
(12) Building-level emergency response team
				  means a building-specific team appointed by the building principal, in
				  accordance with regulations or guidelines prescribed by the board of education,
				  the chancellor in the case of New York City, or other governing body. The
				  building-level emergency response team is responsible for the designation of
				  the emergency response team and the development of the building-level emergency
				  response plan and its required components. The building-level emergency
				  response team shall include, but not be limited to, representatives of teacher,
				  administrator, and parent organizations, school safety personnel, other school
				  personnel, community members, local law enforcement officials, local ambulance,
				  fire officials or other emergency response agencies, and any other
				  representatives the school board, chancellor or other governing body deems
				  appropriate.
(13) District-wide
				  school safety plan means a comprehensive, multihazard school safety plan that
				  covers all school buildings of the school district, BOCES or county vocational
				  education and extension board, that addresses crisis intervention, emergency
				  response and management, and commencing July 1, 2023, provision of remote
				  instruction during an emergency school closure, at the district level and has
				  the contents prescribed in paragraph (c)(1) of this section.
(14) District-wide school safety team means a
				  district-wide team appointed by the board of education, the chancellor in the
				  case of New York City, or other governing board. The district-wide team shall
				  include, but not be limited to, representatives of the school board, teacher,
				  administrator, and parent organizations, school safety personnel and other
				  school personnel. 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 when details of a confidential
				  building-level emergency response plan or confidential portions of a
				  district-wide emergency response strategy are discussed.
(15) Emergency response team means a
				  building-specific team designated by the building-level emergency response team
				  that is comprised of school personnel, law enforcement officials, fire
				  officials, and representatives from local, regional and/or State emergency
				  response agencies and assists the school community in responding to a violent
				  incident or emergency. In a school district in a city having a population of
				  more than one million inhabitants, such emergency response team may be created
				  on the district-level with building-level participation, and such district
				  shall not be required to establish a unique team for each of its
				  schools.
(16) Post-incident
				  response team means a building-specific team designated by the building-level
				  emergency 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 or emergency.
In a school district in a city having a population of more
					 than one million inhabitants, such post-incident response team may be created
					 on the district-level with building-level participation, and such district
					 shall not be required to establish a unique team for each of its
					 schools.
(17) School safety
				  plan means a district-wide school safety plan or a building-level school safety
				  plan.
(18) Serious violent incident
				  means an incident of violent criminal conduct that is, or appears to be, life
				  threatening and warrants the evacuation of students and/or staff because of an
				  imminent threat to their safety or health, including, but not limited to: riot,
				  hostage-taking kidnapping and/or the use or threatened use of a firearm,
				  explosive, bomb, incendiary device, chemical or biological weapon, knife or
				  other dangerous instrument capable of causing death or serious
				  injury.
(19) Panic alarm system
				  means 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.