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History
- Substituted by A1245A
- Advanced to third reading
- Amended by restoring to previous print 3254a
- 2nd report cal.
- Print number 3254b
- 1st report with amendments cal.210
- Print number 3254a
- Amend and recommit to education
- Referred to education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Enacts the "public schools emergency alert act"
Signed by Governor · Sponsor Rory Lancman
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
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.
Read the full memo (642 words)
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.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.