Professional Report

MANAGEMENT PLANS (FORMERLY CALLED SCHOOL SAFETY PLANS)

preparatory schools, and educational centers and facilities are required to develop and adopt a comprehensive emergency management plan that incorporates a floor plan, site plan, and emergency contact information sheet, in addition to protocols for threats and emergency events. The plan is to be submitted on standardized forms developed by ODE. The plan’s development is to include community law enforcement and safety officials and parents of students and employees assigned to that building. The “administrator” is required to submit the plans to ODE, and the department then submits plans to the Attorney General and the Director of Public Safety. Each administrator also is required annually to review the plan and certify its accuracy to the Department, as well as to update the plan every three years, whenever major modifications require changes, or whenever information on the emergency contact information sheet is not accurate. Each administrator is also required to conduct at least one annual emergency management test (defined as “a regularly scheduled drill, exercise, or activity designed to assess and evaluate an emergency management plan”). Local law enforcement, the fire department, emergency medical organization, and the county emergency management agency are to afforded access to the school for training purposes but outside of regular school hours. The building administrator must be present during such training sessions. Any administrator who is an applicant for a license or who holds a license from the State Board of Education is subject to disciplinary action related to licensure if the administrator fails to comply with the requirements related to such plans. (The state superintendent can exempt an administrator from the emergency management plan requirements if the requirements do not apply to the schools under the control of the administrator.)

EMERGENCY PROTOCOL NOTIFICATION

3313.536

Prior to the opening day of each school year, a board of education must inform each student enrolled in the school and the student’s parents of the parental notification procedures included in the protocols for addressing serious threats and for responding to emergency events.

The emergency protocol notification is part of the emergency management plan, which must be updated every three years.

EMERGENCY SCHOOL ADVANCEMENT FUND AND REQUIREMENTS

3313.483 3313.487 3313.488 3313.489

These sections of law govern the procedures whereby a district may access the Emergency School Advancement Fund through which it may secure a loan to remove a deficit that will be incurred in the General Fund by the end of a fiscal year.

EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT

3313.47

If the board has adopted an annual appropriation, it may, “by general resolution, authorize the superintendent or other officer to appoint janitors, superintendents of buildings, and such other employees as are provided for in such annual appropriation resolution.” This applies to city, exempted village, local, and vocational education planning (by inference, see Section 3311.19) districts.