Emergencies in schools must be addressed in an expeditious and effective manner. Schools are at risk of acts of violence, natural, and manmade disasters. To address these threats, the State of New York has enacted the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) law. Project SAVE is a comprehensive planning effort that addresses prevention, response and recovery with respect to a variety of emergencies in schools.
Individual charter schools are required by the NYSED to complete 2 safety plans: a District- Wide Safety Plan and a Building-Level Safety Plan. These plans differ as defined here taken directly from the NY Safe Schools website.
District Wide School Safety Plans
Comprehensive, district wide plans provide broad concepts, policies and procedures. District wide plans outline strategies rather than provide details. The district plan focuses on district policy. The district plan includes DASA and Code of Conduct requirements. District wide plans, approved by the Board are open for public review.
Building Level Emergency Response Plans
Building level plans detail specific response strategies. Detailed plans show how school personnel and students respond in their building to an emergency. Details about evacuation and where students reassemble are included. Information specific to emergency communication between staff, responders and family is provided. Building level plans are confidential. They are protected from disclosure under Article 6 of the Public Officers Law.
If you share space with a DOE school, you will also need to submit a combined/shared safety plan into the DOE system. Usually, the DOE school makes the actual entry. Your school must be involved in the planning/ documentation process and sign off on the building-wide plan.
Check out an easy-to-use guide for creating safety plans with side-by-side comparison of district and building requirements.
NYSED Project SAVE resources: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/sss/ssae/schoolsafety/save/
NYS Center for School Safety: https://www.nyscfss.org/project-save-safetyplans
See the full text of the law HERE!