School Safety Drills Requirement
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Districts or other applicable schools shall conduct standard operations and procedures to the best of their abilities without deviating from current requirements. Fire (evacuation) Drills and Lockdown Drills are required by Education Law (12 drills including 8 evacuation drills to be completed by December 31st and 4 lockdown drills) and the Fire Code (1 evacuation drill every month of the calendar year). Such drills must be conducted without exceptions. Methods to promote and provide for social distancing during the evacuation and lockdown drills are ultimately the district’s or other applicable school’s decision and responsibility. Those changes must be included in their Safety Plans.
Fire and Lockdown Drills
Evacuation (Fire) Drills will be conducted in a manner that regardless of what in-person educational model is utilized all groups of students will participate in the drill. This means that split schedules or alternate day education will need to provide evacuation drills in a manner that all students are included. In some instances, this may result in more drills (possibly double) the number of normally required drills in order to cover all students. In order to maintain social distancing, evacuation of the entire building at one time may not be possible. Each building Principal/Administrator will determine based, on total building attendance, the best practice for their site which may include: (1) Due to reduced building occupancy following the usual evacuation process; (2) Conduct drills with each split schedule group; (3) For total in-building occupancy conduct drills in limited portions of the building until the entire building is complete and (4) Any alternate combination which will reduce the number of students evacuating the building at any given time. Evacuation locations outside the building will be supervised by each teacher to avoid congregation and maintain social distancing while maintaining security and control over the class they supervise. In the event of an actual evacuation social distancing will not be the priority.
Lockdown Drills will not be able to be conducted in the normal manner and students will refrain from gathering in corners of the classroom. Instead, the normal lockdown drill procedure will be initiated over the loudspeaker or other defined notification method, but students will remain in their seats. The classroom teacher will explain the reason for a lockdown and the normal process that would take place. Time will be given for questions and answers. The lockdown drill will end with a loudspeaker announcement explaining that if it was a real event a Police Officer would be coming to every classroom to release students. This concept will be reinforced by the classroom teacher. As noted for evacuation drills, regardless of the educational in-person model utilized, all students in every group will need to participate. It should be noted that in the event of an actual lockdown the normal lockdown procedures will be followed and social distancing will not be the priority.
NYSED School Bus Drills
Three bus drills must be completed this school year: during the first seven days of school, between November 1 and December 31, and between March 1 and April 30. The drills may be modified to prevent transmission.
School Program Guidelines
Before and Aftercare Programs
Nassau BOCES does not run any before or after school care programs.
