Emergencies and violent incidents in school districts are critical issues that must be addressed in an expeditious and effective manner. Districts are required to develop a district-wide school safety plan designed to prevent or minimize the effects of serious violent incidents and emergencies and to facilitate the coordination of the district with local and county resources in the event of such incidents or emergencies. The district-wide plan is responsive to the needs of all schools within the district and is consistent with the more detailed emergency response plans required at the school building level. Districts stand at risk from a wide variety of acts of violence, natural, and manmade disasters. To address these threats, the State of New York has enacted the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) law. Project SAVE is a comprehensive planning effort that addresses prevention, response, and recovery with respect to a variety of emergencies in each school district and its schools.

The Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES herein referred to as "BOCES", supports the SAVE Legislation. The District Superintendent encourages and advocates on-going district-wide cooperation and support of Project SAVE.

Purpose

This BOCES District-wide School Safety Plan was developed pursuant to Commissioner’s Regulation 155.17. Upon the recommendation of the District Superintendent, the Board of Education appointed a District-wide School Safety Team and charged it with the development and maintenance of the District-wide School Safety Plan.

Identification of School Teams

BOCES has created a District-wide School Safety Team including the following positions:

Concept of Operations

The District-wide School Safety Plan shall be directly linked to the individual Building-level Emergency Response Plans for each school building. This District-wide School Safety Plan will guide the development and implementation of individual Building-level Emergency Response Plans.

In the event of an emergency or violent incident, the initial response will be by the School Emergency Response Team.

Upon the activation of the School Emergency Response Team, the District Superintendent or his/her designee will be notified and, where appropriate, local emergency officials will also be notified.

Emergency response actions including Post-incident Response may be supplemented by County and State resources through existing protocols.

Plan Review and Public Comment

This plan shall be reviewed and maintained by the District-wide School Safety Team and reviewed on an annual basis on or before July1 of each year.

Pursuant to Commissioner’s Regulation 155.17 (e)(3), this plan will be made available for public comment 30 days prior to its adoption. The district-wide and building-level plans must be formally adopted by the Board of Education after at least one public hearing that provides for the participation of school personnel, parents, students and any other interested parties.

While linked to the District-wide School Safety Plan, Building level Emergency Response Plans shall be confidential and shall not be subject to disclosure under Article 6 of the Public Officers Law or any other provision of law, in accordance with Education Law Section 2801-a.

Full copies of the District-wide School Safety Plan and any amendments will be submitted to the New York State Education Department within 30 days of adoption. Building-level Emergency Response Plans will be supplied to both local and State Police within 30 days of adoption.

Identification of sites of potential emergency

BOCES has established procedures for the identification of potential sites and the internal and/or external hazards that may be present in them. These procedures are developed in coordination with the local Emergency Management Office, Fire Department and law enforcement agencies, and are included as an integral part of the Building-level Plan.

 

Actions in response to an emergency

BOCES has identified the following general response actions to emergency situations. These actions include school cancellation, early dismissal, evacuation, and sheltering. The Building-level Emergency Response Plans include identification of specific procedures for each action depending upon the emergency.

Emergencies include, but are not limited to:

Threats of Violence Intruder

Hostage/Kidnapping Explosion/Bomb Threat

Natural/Weather Related Hazardous Material

Civil Disturbance Biological

School Bus Accident Radiological

Gas Leak Epidemic

Medical Emergencies Fire

Structural Damage Building System Failure

Others as determined by the Building-level School Safety Team

District resources and personnel available for use during an emergency

BOCES has committed the full inventory of its resources to be available for use during an emergency. These resources will be utilized in line with the Building-level Emergency Response Plans as deemed appropriate by the Incident Command Team.

Specific personnel and resources are identified in the Building-level Emergency Response Plans.

Procedures to coordinate the use of school district resources during emergencies

BOCES uses the Incident Command System model for emergency actions. For district-wide and building-level emergencies the Incident Commander will be The Assistant Superintendent for Management Services or his designee.

In building-level emergencies, the administrator in charge or his/her designee will act as the initial Incident Commander. The Incident Commander is authorized to activate such resources and personnel as are appropriate to the incident. The Incident Commander is empowered to render such decisions as may be necessary in keeping with the response actions as identified in the Building-level Emergency Response Plan. Building-level Incident Command staff are identified in the Building-level Emergency Response Plans.

Annual multi-hazard school training for staff and students

BOCES will conduct annual training for both staff and students in school safety issues. District level training will be coordinated by the Health & Safety Office and may consist of classroom activities, general assemblies, tabletop exercises, full-scale drills or other appropriate actions to increase the awareness and preparedness of staff and students.

Building level training will be coordinated by the Building level Emergency Response Teams.

Drills and other exercises will be coordinated with local, county and state emergency responders and preparedness officials. Existing Plans may be revised as a result of these drills.

The BOCES Professional Development Plan will address staff training in violence prevention and intervention during Superintendent Conference Days.

Policies and procedures for responding to implied or direct threats of violence or acts of violence by students, teachers, other school personnel and visitors to the school

BOCES has enacted policies and procedures dealing with violence. These policies and procedures deal with the safety of the school community as well as the range of discipline of those making the threat or committing the act of violence and are included herein as Appendix 2 of this document (also see the BOCES Code of Conduct.)

Policies and procedures for contacting appropriate law enforcement officials in the event of a violent incident

Law enforcement officials will be contacted at the direction of the Incident Commander in line with the Building Level Emergency Response Plan, and will be requested based upon the "closest response agency" concept to ensure that the response to the incident is as timely as possible.

Appropriate responses to emergencies

BOCES recognizes that appropriate response to emergencies varies greatly depending upon the actual threat or act as well as the magnitude of such emergency. The Building-level Emergency Response Plans detail the appropriate response to such emergencies.

 

Policies and procedures to contact parents, guardians or persons in parental relation to the students in the event of a violent incident or an early dismissal

BOCES will contact appropriate districts, parents, guardians or persons in parental relation to the students via media release, telephone contact or other appropriate means in the event of a violent incident or early dismissal. Conditions requiring such notification are outlined in the Building-level Emergency Response Plans.

Obtaining assistance during emergencies from emergency services organizations and local government agencies

During emergencies, local government agencies, including emergency services, can be obtained via the local emergency management office or through the local emergency communication center. The Incident Commander will authorize the procurement of these agencies.

A system for informing all educational agencies within a school district of a disaster

BOCES will notify any appropriate educational agencies within its boundaries as well as adjacent to its boundaries in the case of a disaster that would affect any of these agencies. The Incident Commander will determine the extent of notification and delegate its delivery.

BOCES will maintain certain information about each educational agency located in the school district

At a minimum, each Building-level Emergency Response Plan will include the following information:

School population

Number of staff,

Transportation needs, and

Business and home telephone numbers of key officials of each such educational agency

The Building-level School Safety Teams will insure that this information is current and accurate.

Policies and procedures for the dissemination of informative materials

BOCES is committed to the use of the interpersonal violence prevention education package for grades kindergarten through twelve, when available and where applicable.

Prevention and intervention strategies

BOCES continues to develop and investigate various strategies regarding violence prevention and intervention as addressed in the Professional Development Plan.

Strategies for improving communication among students, between students and staff and reporting of potentially violent incidents

BOCES recognizes that communication is a vital key in the prevention and intervention of violence in schools. BOCES will explore programs to address these needs.

 

Policies dealing with violence on school property

Policy 350 – Emergency Management Plans

Policy 360 – Emergency Closings

Policy 605 – Dangerous Weapons In School