Requires school emergency response plans to include an emergency alert notification system

2 Co-sponsors

• Andrew J. Lanza
• Frank Padavan

Title of bill

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

Purpose

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 provisions

Amends 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 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 lock down 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

2007-2008: S.6775A - Referred to Education

Fiscal implications

Minimal.

Effective date

This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a law, and the emergency alert system required by section 2801-a of the education law as amended by this act shall be implemented in the school year next succeeding such effective date.