BILL NUMBER:  S3254A

 TITLE OF BILL :

An act to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the "public
schools emergency alert act"


 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL :

This bill would require New York City to establish an emergency alert
notification system at each of its public schools using a combination
of text messages, emails and phone calls in order to provide staff,
parents and the community notification and instructions in emergency
situations occurring within public school buildings. The cost to
establish such a system is minimal, particularly insofar as New York
city has the potential to plug into the existing NY-Alert system run
by the New York State Emergency Management Office.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Adds section 409-j to the Education Law, requiring New York city to
establish an emergency alert notification system at each of its public
schools, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Chancellor, using
a combination of text messages, emails and phone calls in order to
provide parents or persons in parental relation, faculty, staff, and
              

elected representatives who choose to receive such alerts notification
and instructions in emergency situations occurring within public
school buildings. Participation by parents or persons in parental
relation, faculty, staff, and elected representatives is voluntary.

 JUSTIFICATION :

It is essential that parents or persons in parental relation, faculty,
staff, and elected representatives be given notice and instructions in
the event of an emergency in our public schools. Text message, email
and phone based emergency notification systems have proved critical in
containing emergencies and preserving public safety. The campus
massacre at Virginia Tech, where students walked about the campus
unaware that a fellow student was walking around on a shooting spree,
proved that a dependable system for disseminating information
efficiently during on-campus emergencies is necessary to protect
students, faculty and staff during incidents which pose a threat to
their safety and health.

John's University recently successfully deployed a text message based
alert system to alert and instruct students, faculty and staff when a
gunman was discovered on the university's Queens campus. Almost every
SUNY and CUNY campus has or is implementing an emergency alert
notification system.  New York State's NY-Alert program has over one
million enrollees. New York city is conducting a pilot community alert
system (Notify NYC) in four neighborhoods.

The lack of such a system for New York City Public schools caused
parents tremendous anxiety recently when three Public schools on a
shared campus in Glen Oaks, Queens, were "locked down" after a
threatening letter was discovered on campus. Parents arrived to pick
up their children to discover the lockdown and had little or no
information on what was happening. Parents Waiting for their children
to arrive home or at bus stops had no idea where their children were.
Thankfully, the emergency turned out to he a hoax, hut the anxiety
which parents suffered Was real. Had it not been a hoax, parents and
the commnnity could have been at risk for lack of information and
instructions.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
New Bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

Minimal. The software and administrative support necessary to
establish and maintain an emergency alert notification system is
relatively inexpensive, particularly for an organization as large as
the New York City Department of Education, and in any event the
Department has the potential to piggy-hack onto the existing NY-Alert
system run by the State Emergency Management Office or the Notify NYC
emergency alert system currently being tested by the New York City
Office of Emergency Management.

The cost to use the system is ten Cents per registrant (or school) per
year and three Cents per user (school)/per gateway activation fee.
There will he no charge for email activations.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately, although New York city is given until the start of the
2009-2010 school year to have the system up and running.

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S3254B

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the "public
schools emergency alert act"


 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL :
This bill would require New York City to establish an emergency alert
notification system at each of its public schools using a combination
of text messages, emails and phone calls in order to provide staff,
parents and the community notification and instructions in emergency
situations occurring within public school buildings. The cost to
establish such a system is minimal, particularly insofar as New York
city has the potential to plug into the existing NY-Alert system run
by the New York State Emergency Management Office.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :
Adds section 409-j to the Education Law, requiring New York city to
establish an emergency alert notification system at each of its public
schools, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Chancellor, using
a combination of text messages, emails and phone calls in order to
provide staff, parents and members of the community who choose to
receive such alerts notification and instructions in emergency
situations occurring within public school buildings.  Participation by
staff, parents and community residents is voluntary.
              

 JUSTIFICATION :
It is essential that parents, staff and the community be given notice
and instructions in the event of an emergency in our public schools.
Text message, email and phone based emergency notification systems
have proved critical in containing emergencies and preserving public
safety.  The campus massacre at Virginia Tech, where students walked
about the campus unaware that a fellow student was walking around on a
shooting spree, proved that a dependable system for disseminating
information efficiently during on-campus emergencies is necessary to
protect students, faculty and staff during incidents which pose a
threat to their safety and health. 81. John's university recently
successfully deployed a text message based alert system to alert and
instruct students, faculty and staff when a gunman was discovered on
the university's Queens campus. Almost every SUNY and CUNY campus has
or is implementing an emergency alert notification system. New York
State's NY-Alert program has over one million enrollees. New York city
is conducting a pilot community alert system (Notify NYC) in four
neighborhoods.

The lack of such a system for New York city public schools caused
parents tremendous anxiety recently when three public schools on a
shared campus in Glen Oaks, Queens, were "locked down" after a
threatening letter was discovered on campus. Parents arrived to pick
up their children to discover the lockdown and had little or no
information on what was happening. Parents waiting for their children
to arrive home or at bus stops had no idea where their children were.
Thankfully, the emergency turned out to be a hoax, but the anxiety
which parents suffered was real. Had it not been a hoax, parents and
the community could have been at risk for lack of information and
instructions.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
New Bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
Minimal. The software and administrative support necessary to
establish and maintain an emergency alert notification system is
relatively inexpensive, particularly for an organization as large as
the New York City Department of Education, and in any event the
Department has the potential to piggy-back onto the existing NY-Alert
system run by the State Emergency Management Office or the Notify NYC
emergency alert system currently being tested by the New York City
Office of Emergency Management.

The cost to use the system is 10 cents per registrant per year and 3
cents per user/per gateway activation fee. There will be no charge for
email activations.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately, although New York city is given until the start of the
2010 school year to have the system up and running.