BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

Florida League of Cities

School Safety (Watch)

CS/SB 802 (Gruters) and CS/CS/HB 1421 (Hawkins) require the Department of Education to work with local emergency management and law enforcement personnel to create a model reunification plan for use by child care facilities, K-12 schools and public postsecondary educational institutions for schools that are unexpectedly evacuated due to a disaster. Each school district will be required to adopt a district-specific plan by working with local law enforcement. The model plan will be required to be reviewed annually. The bills also require law enforcement officers responsible for responding to specific schools in the event of an active assailant emergency to be physically present on campus during the execution of active assailant emergency drills. The bills also direct the Department of Education to consult with local constituencies to establish minimum drill policies relating to the timing, frequency, participation, training, notification, accommodations and responses to threat situations by incident type, as well as to school level and characteristics. The bills specify that these drills be conducted at least annually. (Taggart)