Enacts the "public schools emergency alert act"

BILL NUMBER:A1245A

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to enact- ing 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 poten- tial 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. St. 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 univer- sity's Queens campus. Almost every SUNY and CUNY campus has or is imple- menting an emergency alert notification system. New York State's NY-A- lert 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 threaten- ing 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

Passed Assembly in 2008.

Fiscal implications

Minimal. The software and administrative support necessary to establish and maintain an emergency alert notification system is relatively inex- pensive, particularly for an organization as large as the New York City Department of Education, and in any event the Department has the poten- tial 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 Manage- ment.

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.