To update requirements relating to emergency and fire drills in schools as prescribed in Chapter 2022-174, Laws of Florida.

 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

State Board of Education

RULE NO.:RULE TITLE:

6A-1.0018School Safety Requirements and Monitoring

PURPOSE AND EFFECT: To update requirements relating to emergency and fire drills in schools as prescribed in Chapter 2022-174, Laws of Florida.

SUMMARY: Address the rulemaking requirements established in section 1006.07(4)(a), F.S., “The State Board of Education shall refer to recommendations provided in reports published pursuant to s. 943.687 for guidance and, by August 1, 2023, consult with state and local constituencies to adopt rules applicable to the requirements of this subsection….” Additionally, the amendment includes clarifications to rule language and update the SSON-2021 form.

SUMMARY OF STATEMENT OF ESTIMATED REGULATORY COSTS AND LEGISLATIVE RATIFICATION:

The Agency has determined that this will not have an adverse impact on small business or likely increase directly or indirectly regulatory costs in excess of $200,000 in the aggregate within one year after the implementation of the rule. A SERC has not been prepared by the Agency.

The Agency has determined that the proposed rule is not expected to require legislative ratification based on the statement of estimated regulatory costs or if no SERC is required, the information expressly relied upon and described herein: This rule largely codifies best practice requirements relating to school safety, reporting, and training. This proposed rule is not expected to have any adverse impact on economic growth, business competitiveness or any other factors listed in s. 120.541(2)(a), F.S., and will not require legislative ratification. No increase in regulatory costs are anticipated as a result of this rule.

Any person who wishes to provide information regarding a statement of estimated regulatory costs, or provide a proposal for a lower cost regulatory alternative must do so in writing within 21 days of this notice.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY: 1001.02(2)(n), 1001.11(9), 1001.212(14), F.S.

LAW IMPLEMENTED: 1001.11(9), 1001.212(4), (12), (14), (15), 1006.07(4), (6), (7), (9), 1006.12(5), 1006.147, 1006.1493, 1008.386(3), 1012.584 (2), F.S.

A HEARING WILL BE HELD AT THE DATE, TIME AND PLACE SHOWN BELOW:

DATE AND TIME: March 22, 2023, 9:00 a.m.

PLACE: Tallahassee Community College, Student Union Ballroom, 444 Appleyard Dr., Tallahassee, FL 32304.

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE PROPOSED RULE IS: Julie Collins, Office of Safe Schools, [e-mail].

 

THE FULL TEXT OF THE PROPOSED RULE IS:

 

6A-1.0018 School Safety Requirements and Monitoring

(1) The purpose of this rule is to set forth requirements relating to school safety, reporting, and training. The rule also provides notice of the procedures and criteria utilized by the Office of Safe Schools to monitor school districts and individual schools for compliance with those requirements.

(2) Definitions.

(a) “Active threat” means any situation that presents an immediate and ongoing danger to the safety of students, staff and visitors, such as active assailant, hostage situation, or bomb threat.

(b) “After-action report” means a document completed following an emergency or fire drill that summarizes what took place during the event, analyzes the actions taken by participants, and provides areas needing improvement.

(c)(a) “CSTAG” means the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines behavioral threat assessment instrument, which must be used for threat assessments in all public schools, including charter schools.

(d)(b) “Department” means the Florida Department of Education.

(e)(c) “Discharge” means to fire a gun or firearm.

(f)(d) “Discipline” means a safe-school officer receiving a behavior-related official reprimand.

(g)(e) “Dismissal” means a safe-school officer is permanently relieved of his position. Dismissal or termination is involuntary and initiated by the employer, including firings or other discharges for cause.

(h) “Emergency drill” means a method of testing emergency plans and responses to incidents other than fire, including active threats, natural disasters, severe weather, hazardous materials, reunification, and other critical incident scenarios.

(i)(f) “Florida Safe Schools Assessment Tool” or “FSSAT” means the site security risk assessment tool used by school officials at each school district and public school site in the state, including charter schools, to conduct security assessments, as provided in Section 1006.1493, F.S.

(j)(g) “FortifyFL” means the mobile suspicious activity reporting tool that allows students and members of the community to report information anonymously concerning unsafe, potentially harmful, dangerous, violent, or criminal activities, or threats of such activities to law enforcement or school officials as described in Section 943.082, F.S.

(k)(h) “Law enforcement officer” means the persons identified in Section 943.10(1), F.S.

(l)(i) “Office” means the Department’s Office of Safe Schools.

(m)(j) “Safe-school officer” means a school resource officer, a school-safety officer, a school guardian, or a school security guard, as identified in Sections 1006.12(1)-(4), F.S. 

(n)(k) “School administrator” means the school personnel identified in Section 1012.01(3), F.S.

(o)(l) “School-based mental health services provider” means a school psychologist certified under Rule 6A-4.0311, F.A.C., a school social worker certified under Rule 6A-4.035, F.A.C., a school counselor certified under Rule 6A-4.0181, F.A.C., or a mental health professional licensed under Chapter 490 or 491, F.S., who is employed or contracted by a district to provide mental health services in schools. 

(p)(m) “School day” means any day, including a partial day, where students are physically present at school for instructional purposes, as defined by Section 1011.60(2), F.S., and Rule 6A-1.045111, F.A.C. 

(q)(n) “School district” or “district” means a Florida school district or district school board, the Florida Virtual School (Section 1002.37, F.S.), the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (Section 1002.36, F.S.), and Developmental Research (Laboratory) Schools (Section 1002.32, F.S.).

(r)(o) “School safety specialist” means the district school superintendent’s designee per Section 1006.07(6)(a), F.S., responsible for the oversight of all aspects of school safety and security within the school district and who is a school administrator or a law enforcement officer.

(s)(p) “SESIR” means School Environmental Safety Incident Reporting, as identified in Rule 6A-1.0017, F.A.C.

(t)(q) “Substantive threat” means a threat where the intent to harm is either present or unclear, and requires protective action, as further defined in the CSTAG, Form CSTAG-2021.

(u)(r) “Suspected deficiency” means that there is at least some evidence that a district or school is not acting in compliance with the safety requirements set forth in this rule. 

(v)(s) “Transient threat” means a threat where there is not a sustained intent to harm and the situation can be quickly resolved with apology, retraction, or explanation by the person who made the threat, as defined in the CSTAG, Form CSTAG-2021.

(3) District contact information.

(a) No change. 

(b) When any changes occur to the information required by paragraph (3)(a), the school district superintendent must update the information within one (1) school day. 

(4) Through (7) No change.

(8) Alyssa’s Alert. Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, Sschool districts are required to implement a mobile panic alert system that meets all requirements of Section 1006.07(4)(c), F.S. Districts are authorized to select, free of charge, a system under Department contract, or locally fund a system of their choice. The systems under contract with the Department are posted at http://www.fldoe.org/safe-schools/.

(a) through (c) No change.

(9) through (14) No change.

(15) Emergency and fire drills.

(a) The provisions of paragraph (15)(a) apply through July 31, 2023.

1.(a) Active assailant and hostage situation drills must be conducted at least as often as fire drills are required by the Florida Fire Prevention Code, as adopted by the State Fire Marshal, available at www.myfloridacfo.com.

2.(b) Districts must document completion of emergency drills at all school facilities in the district.

3.(c) Active assailant and hostage situation drills must be conducted in accordance with developmentally appropriate and age-appropriate procedures. Districts are authorized to develop policies that provide for accommodations for drills conducted by exceptional student education (ESE) centers, as defined in Section 1003.57(1)(a)1.a., F.S. District accommodations for drills conducted at ESE centers, if any, must be included in the written policies and procedures for exceptional students that are submitted to the Department in accordance with subsection 6A-6.03411(2), F.A.C.

4.(d) District school safety specialists must coordinate with the sheriff in their county to determine what law enforcement officers are responsible for responding to each school in their district in the event of an active assailant emergency and must provide those officers a minimum of twenty-four (24) hours’ notice prior to conducting an active assailant emergency drill, pursuant to Section 1006.07(4)(a), F.S. These law enforcement officers must be physically present on each school campus and directly involved in the execution of active assailant emergency drills, unless their presence is determined to be unnecessary by the sheriff.

(b) The provisions of paragraph (15)(b) apply beginning August 1, 2023.

1. Policies. Districts must develop policies and procedures for emergency drills and fire drills in consultation with the appropriate public safety agencies to include, at a minimum, law enforcement, fire service, and emergency management.

2. After-action report. An after-action report must be completed following each emergency drill and fire drill. After-action reports must identify the type of drill, location and date of the drill, participants, and involvement of law enforcement or other public safety agencies. In addition, the after-action report must describe actions taken by participants, must analyze areas of success and areas where improvement is needed, and include input from public safety agencies and a plan for corrective action. After-action reports must be submitted to the district school safety specialist for review fifteen (15) calendar days following drill completion.

3. Requirements for all emergency drills and fire drills.

a. All occupants of a building or any other location where an emergency or fire drill is held must participate in the drill.

b. During emergency drills, fire drills and during actual emergencies, schools must use plain language to communicate the nature of the emergency and instructions to students and staff. Plain language means communication that can be understood by the intended audience, which is free of coded language, jargon, and acronyms, and meets the purpose of the communicator.

c. Districts must vary the conditions of emergency drills and fire drills. Drills must be held at both expected and unexpected times and under varying conditions that require school staff, students and building occupants to take protective actions based on the specific circumstances of the simulated incident.

d. Districts must vary the time of day in which emergency drills and fire drills are held. In setting the drill schedule, districts must consider drills beginning at nonstandard times, such as within an hour of the start of the school day, during lunch, when students are between classes, or within an hour of the end of the school day.

e. Emergency drills and fire drills must test all applicable functions included in the threat scenario, such as panic buttons, participant movement (lockdown, shelter-in-place, or evacuation), simulated communications with first responders, notification to parents, and appropriate protective actions, such as turning off lights, and covering windows.

f. Emergency drills and fire drills must be conducted in accordance with developmentally appropriate and age-appropriate procedures. Districts are authorized to develop policies that provide for accommodations for drills conducted by exceptional student education (ESE) centers, as defined in Section 1003.57(1)(a)1.a., F.S. District accommodations for drills conducted at ESE centers, if any, must be included in the written policies and procedures for exceptional students that are submitted to the Department in accordance with subsection 6A-6.03411(2), F.A.C.

4. Requirements for specific types of drills.

a. Fire drills. Elementary, middle and high schools must conduct fire drills in accordance with the Florida Fire Prevention Code, located at https://www.myfloridacfo.com/.

b. Emergency drills.

(I) Elementary, middle and high schools are required to conduct six (6) emergency drills every school year that are nonconcurrent with fire drills. One emergency drill must take place within the first ten (10) days of the beginning of the school year, and the remaining drills must take place at least every forty-five (45) days that school is in session. Four (4) of the six (6) emergency drills must address active threats. The remaining two (2) drills must address other emergency events, such as severe weather, natural disasters, hazardous materials, or reunification.

(II) Active assailant drills. District school safety specialists must coordinate with the sheriff in their county to determine which law enforcement officers are responsible for responding to each school in their district in the event of an active assailant emergency and must provide those officers a minimum of twenty-four (24) hours’ notice prior to conducting an active assailant emergency drill, pursuant to Section 1006.07(4)(a), F.S. These law enforcement officers must be physically present on each school campus and directly involved in the execution of active assailant emergency drills, unless their presence is determined to be unnecessary by the sheriff.

(16) through (18) No change.

(19) Bullying and Harassment Prevention.

(a) No change.

(b) Each school principal must implement the district’s policy in a manner that is ongoing throughout the school year and is integrated with the school’s curriculum, bullying prevention and intervention program, student discipline policies, and other violence prevention efforts.

(20) through (21) No change.

(22) Reporting Safe-School Officer Discipline, Dismissal or Discharge of Firearm.

(a) Discharge of a weapon. The district school superintendent must notify the Office when a safe-school officer assigned to any school facility in the district discharges a firearm in the exercise of safe-school officer duties, other than for training purposes, as provided in Section 1006.12(5), F.S. Notification must be made no later than seventy-two (72) hours of the incident by submitting Form SSON-20232021 to [e-mail]. 

(b) Officer dismissal or discipline.

1. The district school superintendent must notify the Office when a safe-school officer assigned to a school facility in the district has been disciplined for misconduct or has been dismissed from their duties as a safe-school officer by their employer, including in cases where the officer is reassigned or moved to another school location, whether by a school district, charter school, law enforcement agency, or private security company, as provided in Section 1006.12(5), F.S. Notification must be made no later than seventy-two (72) hours of the dismissal or disciplinary action by submitting Form SSON-20232021 to [e-mail].

2. No change.

(c) No change.

(23) through (24) No change.

(25) The following forms are hereby incorporated by reference and made a part of this rule. Copies may be obtained from the Florida Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400.

(a) No change.

(b) Safe-School Officer Notification Report, Form SSON-20232021 (http://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-13301) effective April 2023 July 2021.

(c) through (d) No change.

Rulemaking Authority 1001.02(2)(n), 1006.07(4)(a) FS. Law Implemented 1001.11(9), 1001.212(4), (12), (14), (15), 1006.07(4)(a), (6), (7), (9), 1006.12(5), 1006.147, 1006.1493, 1008.386(3), 1012.584 FS. History‒New 7-14-21, Amended 11-23-21, 6-14-22, 9-20-22, 11-22-22,

 

NAME OF PERSON ORIGINATING PROPOSED RULE: Julie Collins, Office of Safe Schools.

NAME OF AGENCY HEAD WHO APPROVED THE PROPOSED RULE: Manny Diaz Jr., Commissioner, Department of Education.

DATE PROPOSED RULE APPROVED BY AGENCY HEAD: February 10, 2023

DATE NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHED IN FAR: January 18, 2023