HB 385

Under current law, each local board of education is required to adopt a comprehensive school safety plan for each school under its authority. This overarching plan must include a specific plan relating to threats to the safety of school property, students, employees, or administrators, referred to as a code red school safety plan

This bill would redesignate this comprehensive school safety plan as a school emergency operations plan, and would change terms from code red plan to school lockdown safety plan, and from code red drill to school lockdown drill, to help participants understand the reason for the plan and the drills

This bill would also require a local board of education creating or revising a school emergency operations plan to utilize the four tiers of lockdown alert level currently adopted by the State Superintendent of Education

Relating to public K-12 education and school safety plans; to amend Sections 16-1-44 and 36-19-10 of the Code of Alabama 1975; to redesignate comprehensive school safety plans as school emergency operations plans; to redesignate code red school safety plans and code red drills as school lockdown safety plans and school lockdown drills; and to require that each school lockdown safety plan include additional four-tiered specific plans of action for school personnel to follow in case of an alert.

Section 1

Sections 16-1-44 and 36-19-10 of the Code of Alabama 1975, are amended to read as follows:

§16-1-44.

(a)(1) Each local board of education shall develop and adopt a comprehensive school safety emergency operations plan for each school under the authority of the board.

(2) The local board or its agent shall examine the conditions and operations of each school under the authority of the local board to determine hazards to student and staff safety and shall propose changes, if needed to promote the prevention of dangerous problems and circumstances.

(3) In developing the plan for each school, the local board or its agent shall involve community law enforcement, and safety officials, including community fire and emergency management assigned to the school.

(b)(1) The board shall incorporate into the each comprehensive school emergency operations plan the following:

a. A protocol Protocols for addressing each type of serious threats to the safety of school property, students, employees, or administrators including which shall include, but not be limited to: , a specific code red school safety plan Security-related threats addressed within a school lockdown plan, fire-related threats addressed within a fire safety plan, and severe weather-related threats addressed within a severe weather safety plan.

b. A protocol for responding to emergency events that compromise the safety of school property, students, and employees.

(2) Each protocol shall include procedures for notification and responding to threats and emergency events, respectively, including such action as notification of appropriate law enforcement and emergency response personnel for assistance, and informing parents of affected students.

(3) Each comprehensive school Emergency Operations Plan shall include and use the following four alert levels, along with set plans of notification, action, and procedures for school personnel to follow in each circumstance:

1. Heightened Awareness. This means a potential may exist for an unusual situation and all parties should have heightened awareness to react as needed.

2. Secure Your Area of Responsibility. This means a specific incident has occurred, such as a medical emergency or a threat to one's self, and school personnel shall secure their area of responsibility in order to decrease risk of further incidents.

3. Secure Perimeter. A potential threat or danger does exist or has occurred within the community or neighborhood, and all parties should be aware to react as needed.

4. Lockdown. Recognition of potential immediate danger. Take immediate action using the safest and best option for survival.

(c)(1) The board shall update the safety emergency operations plan whenever a major modification to the building requires changes in the procedures outlined in the plan, and at other necessary times. The code red school emergency operations safety plan shall be reviewed and revised annually, as needed, by the local board of education in consultation with the principal, administrative staff, faculty, and employees of the school.

(2) Upon request of law enforcement or safety officials, or both, the local board shall provide a copy of the current school site and safety emergency operations plan, which shall be kept in a secure place and not considered public record.

(d) The local board shall grant access to each school under its control to law enforcement and fire department personnel to enable them to prepare for responding to threats and emergency events affecting the school. Such access shall occur outside of student instructional hours and an employee of the board shall be present.

(e) The principal or his or her designee shall instruct and train students concerning procedures to be used for emergency drills and evacuations. The principal or his or her designee shall ensure that all safety and security drills and procedures are conducted and performed no less than what is required by state or federal law, or both. The doors and exits of each school may be locked from the outside but shall allow for immediate egress by those inside the building during school hours and at all school functions. An emergency drill shall include, but not be limited to, safety, security, severe weather, fire, and code red school lockdown drills.

(f) In conjunction with drills or evacuations required by subsection (e), a principal or his or her designee shall instruct students in safety precautions to be taken in case of a severe weather watch, alert, or warning. A principal or his or her designee shall designate, in accordance with standards prescribed by the local superintendent of education in conjunction with local public safety officials and the fire marshal, or appropriate local fire safety official in counties that do not have a fire marshal, appropriate locations to be used to shelter students in case of a severe weather watch, alert, or warning.

(g) In the event of a perceived an immediate threat to a school involving acts of violence, such as terrorism, a person possessing a firearm or a deadly weapon, or any other threat of violence, the principal, or his or her designee, any person who perceives the threat, or his or her designee, may institute a code red safety lockdown alert level for the school. In addition to the requirements of subsection (e), the principal or his or her designee shall conduct a code red school safety lockdown drill during the first six weeks of the fall and spring semesters of each school year to provide students with instruction in the procedures to follow in the case of a code red school lockdown. The principal or his or her designee shall hold an annual training session for employees of the school regarding the code red school safety lockdown plan, drills, and procedures to be conducted during a school year.

(h) Appropriate disciplinary action shall be taken against any principal or his or her designee who knowingly neglects or refuses to comply with the requirements of this section.

(i) This section shall be read in pari materia with other laws relating to school safety and emergency planning.

§36-19-10.

The Fire Marshal, and his or her deputies and assistants shall require officials and teachers of public and private schools and educational institutions to have at least one emergency drill each month and to have all doors and exits at such schools and educational institutions open out and that all such doors and exits shall be unlocked during school hours and that the doors and exits of factories, asylums, hospitals, churches, halls, theatres, amphitheatres, and other places in which numbers of persons live, work, or congregate from time to time, for any purpose or purposes, shall open out. For the purposes of this section, an emergency drill shall include, but not be limited to, a fire drill, severe weather drill, or code red school lockdown drill as provided in Section 16-1-44."

Section 2

This act shall become effective immediately following its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law.