§ 2801-a. School safety plans. 1. The board of education or trustees,
as defined in section two of this chapter, of every school district
within the state, however created, and 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 and amend a comprehensive district-wide school safety plan
and building-level emergency response plans regarding crisis
intervention, emergency response and management, 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 established pursuant to subdivision four 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. The commissioner, in consultation with the superintendent of
the state police, is authorized to develop an appeals process from
duplicative requirements of a district-wide school safety plan for
school districts having only one school building.

2. Such comprehensive district-wide safety plan shall be developed by
the district-wide school safety team and shall include at a minimum:

a. policies and procedures for responding to implied or direct threats
of violence by students, teachers, other school personnel including bus
drivers and monitors, as well as visitors to the school, including
threats by students against themselves, which for the purposes of this
section shall include suicide;

b. policies and procedures for responding to acts of violence by
students, teachers, other school personnel including bus drivers and
monitors, as well as visitors to the school, including consideration of
zero-tolerance policies for school violence;

c. appropriate prevention and intervention strategies such as:

(i) collaborative arrangements with state and local law enforcement
officials, designed to ensure that school safety officers and other
security personnel are adequately trained, including being trained to
de-escalate potentially violent situations, and are effectively and
fairly recruited;

(ii) non-violent conflict resolution training programs;

(iii) peer mediation programs and youth courts; and

(iv) extended day and other school safety programs;

d. policies and procedures for contacting appropriate law enforcement
officials in the event of a violent incident;

e. policies and procedures for contacting parents, guardians or
persons in parental relation to the students of the district in the
event of a violent incident and policies and procedures for contacting
parents, guardians or persons in parental relation to an individual
student of the district in the event of an implied or direct threat of
violence by such student against themselves, which for purposes of this
section shall include suicide;

f. policies and procedures relating to school building security,
including where appropriate the use of school safety officers and/or
security devices or procedures. District-wide school safety teams shall
consider, as part of its reviews of the comprehensive district-wide
safety plan, the installation of a panic alarm system. For purposes of
this paragraph, "panic alarm system" shall mean 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;

g. policies and procedures for the dissemination of informative
materials regarding the early detection of potentially violent
behaviors, including but not limited to the identification of family,
community and environmental factors, to teachers, administrators, school
personnel including bus drivers and monitors, persons in parental
relation to students of the district, students and other persons deemed
appropriate to receive such information;

h. policies and procedures for annual school safety training for staff
and students; provided that the district must certify to the
commissioner that all staff have undergone annual training on the
emergency response plan, and that the school safety training include
components on violence prevention and mental health, such training may
be implemented and conducted in conjunction with existing professional
development and training; provided however that new employees hired
after the start of the school year shall receive training within thirty
days of such hire or as part of a district's existing new hire training
program, whichever is sooner;

i. protocols for responding to bomb threats, hostage-takings,
intrusions and kidnappings;

j. strategies for improving communication among students and between
students and staff and reporting of potentially violent incidents, such
as the establishment of youth-run programs, peer mediation, conflict
resolution, creating a forum or designating a mentor for students
concerned with bullying or violence and establishing anonymous reporting
mechanisms for school violence;

k. a description of the duties of hall monitors and any other school
safety personnel, the training required of all personnel acting in a
school security capacity, and the hiring and screening process for all
personnel acting in a school security capacity;

l. the designation of the superintendent, or superintendent's
designee, as the district chief emergency officer responsible for
coordinating communication between school staff and law enforcement and
first responders, and ensuring staff understanding of the district-level
safety plan. The chief emergency officer shall also be responsible for
ensuring the completion and yearly updating of building-level emergency
response plans; and

m. protocols for responding to a declared state disaster emergency
involving a communicable disease that are substantially consistent with
the provisions of section twenty-seven-c of the labor law.

3. A building level emergency response plan, developed by the
building-level emergency response team defined in subdivision four of
this section, shall be kept confidential, including but not limited to
the floor plans, blueprints, schematics or other maps of the school
interior, school grounds and road maps of the immediate surrounding
area, and shall not be disclosed except to authorized department or
school staff, and law enforcement officers, and shall include the
following elements:

a. policies and procedures for response to emergency situations, such
as those requiring evacuation, sheltering, and lock-down. These policies
shall include, at a minimum, evacuation routes, shelter sites, and
procedures for addressing medical needs, transportation and emergency
notification of parents and guardians;

b. designation of an emergency response team comprised of school
personnel, law enforcement officials, fire officials and representatives
from local regional and/or state emergency response agencies, other
appropriate incident response teams, and a post-incident 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;

c. floor plans, blueprints, schematics or other maps of the school
interior, school grounds and road maps of the immediate surrounding
area;

d. establishment of internal and external communication systems in
emergencies which may include the installation of a panic alarm system;

e. definition of the chain of command in a manner consistent with the
national interagency incident management system/incident command system;

f. coordination of the emergency response plan with the state-wide
plan for disaster mental health services to assure that the school has
access to federal, state and local mental health resources in the event
of a violent incident;

g. procedures for review and the conduct of drills and other exercises
to test components of the emergency response plan; and

h. policies and procedures for securing and restricting access to the
crime scene in order to preserve evidence in cases of violent crimes on
school property.

4. Each district-wide school safety team shall be appointed by the
board of education, or the chancellor in the case of the city school
district of the city of New York, and shall include but not be limited
to representatives of the school board, teacher, administrator, and
parent organizations, school safety personnel, and other school
personnel including bus drivers and monitors. 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 where details of a confidential building-level
emergency response plan or confidential portions of a district-wide
emergency response strategy are discussed. Each building-level emergency
response team shall be appointed by the building principal, in
accordance with regulations or guidelines prescribed by the board of
education, chancellor or other governing body. Such building-level teams
shall include but not be limited to representatives of teacher,
administrator, and parent organizations, school safety personnel and
other school personnel including bus drivers and monitors, community
members, law enforcement officials, fire officials or other emergency
response agencies, and any other representatives the board of education,
chancellor or other governing body deems appropriate.

5. The district-wide safety plan and building-level emergency response
plans shall be reviewed by the appropriate team on at least an annual
basis and updated as needed.

6. Each board of education, chancellor or other governing body shall
make each district-wide safety plan available for public comment at
least thirty days prior to its adoption. Such district-wide plans may be
adopted by the school board only after at least one public hearing that
provides for the participation of school personnel, parents, students
and any other interested parties. Each district shall file a copy of its
district-wide safety plan with the commissioner and all amendments to
such plan shall be filed with the commissioner no later than thirty days
after their adoption.

7. Each board of education, chancellor or other governing body or
officer shall ensure a copy of each building-level emergency response
plan and any amendments thereto, shall be filed with the appropriate
local law enforcement agency and with the state police within thirty
days of its adoption. Building-level emergency response plans shall be
confidential and shall not be subject to disclosure under article six of
the public officers law or any other provision of law. If the board of
education, chancellor or other governing body or chancellor fails to
file such plan as required by this section, the commissioner may, in an
amount determined by the commissioner, withhold public money from the
district until the district is in compliance.

8. The commissioner shall annually report to the governor and the
legislature on the implementation and compliance with the provisions of
this section.

9. Whenever it shall have been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the
commissioner that a school district has failed to adopt a code of
conduct which fully satisfies the requirements of section twenty-eight
hundred one of this article, or a district-wide safety plan or
building-level emergency response plans which satisfies the requirements
of this section, or to faithfully and completely implement all three,
the commissioner may, on thirty days notice to the district, withhold
from the district monies to be paid to such district for the current
school year pursuant to section thirty-six hundred nine-a of this
chapter, exclusive of monies to be paid in respect of obligations to the
retirement systems for school and district staff and pursuant to
collective bargaining agreements, or the commissioner may direct the
district to expend up to such amount upon the development and
implementation of a code of conduct and a school district safety plan as
required by such sections. Prior to such withholding or redirection, the
commissioner shall provide the district an opportunity to present
evidence of extenuating circumstances; when combined with evidence that
the district shall promptly comply within short time frames that shall
be established by the commissioner as part of an agreement between the
district and the commissioner, the commissioner may temporarily stay the
withholding or redirection of funds pending implementation of such
agreement. If the district promptly and fully complies with the
agreement and is in full compliance with this section and section
twenty-eight hundred one of this article, the commissioner shall abate
the withholding in its entirety. Any failure to meet the obligations of
the compliance agreement by the district within the time frames
established shall be considered a willful violation of a commissioner's
order by the members of the district board for purposes of subdivision
one of section three hundred six of the education law. Notwithstanding
any other law, rule or regulation, such transfer shall take effect upon
filing of a notice thereof with the director of the budget and the
chairs of the senate finance and assembly ways and means committees.

10. Every school shall define the roles and areas of responsibility of
school personnel, security personnel and law enforcement in response to
student misconduct that violates the code of conduct. A school district
or charter school that employs, contracts with, or otherwise retains law
enforcement or public or private security personnel, including school
resource officers, shall establish a written contract or memorandum of
understanding that is developed with stakeholder input, including, but
not limited to, parents, students, school administrators, teachers,
collective bargaining units, parent and student organizations and
community members, as well as probation officers, prosecutors, defense
counsels and courts that are familiar with school discipline. Such
written contract or memorandum of understanding shall define the
relationship between a school district or charter school, school
personnel, students, visitors, law enforcement, and public or private
security personnel. Such contract or memorandum of understanding shall
be consistent with the code of conduct, define law enforcement or
security personnel's roles, responsibilities and involvement within a
school and clearly delegate the role of school discipline to the school
administration. Such written contract or memorandum of understanding
shall be incorporated into and published as part of the district safety
plan.