NY schools must notify parents of lockdown drills, try to avoid unintended student trauma

Starting this fall, New York schools will have to develop procedures for notifying parents ahead of lockdown drills and will have to make sure that drills do not mimic a school shooting or other incident of violence.

The state Board of Regents, which sets statewide education policy, approved the changes to its school safety rules on Monday.

A memo from Angelique Johnson-Dingle, the state deputy education commissioner of P-12 instructional support, explained that the changes are necessary because of worries that drills can frighten students, staff and parents.

"In recent years, concerns have been raised nationwide about the unintended trauma or harm to students, staff, and/or families that may result from drills that are not communicated as being practice rather than an actual emergency," she wrote. "This is pronounced when a drill is conducted that includes elements to simulate a possible emergency."

Lockdown drills are designed to prepare students and staff for how to respond to an emergency inside a school. State law requires that each school must conduct at least eight evacuation and four lockdown drills each school year.

Going forward, schools will be required to design drills and trainings that are developmentally and age appropriate and that seek to avoid unintended trauma to students, staff and families.

Schools will have to give notice to parents and caregivers within one week before a drill. It was not immediately clear whether parents are free to tell their children about an upcoming drill or whether schools can ask parents not to do so.

Schools are also supposed to tell students and staff when a drill is being conducted.

Security concerns vs. worries over mental health

Schools across the nation became increasingly focused in recent years on security, including safety drills, because of school shootings. But equally grave concerns about mental health challenges facing students have educators rethinking the best way to maintain safety and security.

The Board of Regents created the New York State Safe Schools Task Force in 1999, after Columbine, to recommend school safety measures. The task force was reconvened in 2013 after Sandy Hook.

State law requires that each school district and each public school have a detailed emergency response plan.

The amended state regulations approved by the Board of Regents also say that should a school district or school choose to participate in "full-scale exercises" on school grounds with local and county preparedness officials, including the simulation of a school shooting or act of violence, such exercises cannot be conducted on a regular school day or when school activities are taking place on. Also, students cannot participate without written consent from parents or guardians.