This document addresses recommendations to school districts to establish plans for emegency events

(a) Written preventive maintenance program. A written preventive maintenance program should be established for each public building to provide a healthy environment. The program should include procedures for the following. (3) Emergency response plan. An emergency response plan for water leaks and other contaminant problems should be developed and utilized. [...] (n) Emergencies. An emergency response plan, including staff training, should be developed for chemical spills, release of hazardous air contaminants, and similar events. Such response measures may be required by state or federal law in some circumstances. (1) Ventilation. The required outside ventilation air rate should not be interrupted during building operation unless a known contaminant presents an immediate concern of entering the building's outside air intake. Consider the use of high efficiency and carbon-filtered outdoor air to improve general IAQ and reduce potential impact of intentionally released contaminants. Outdoor air intakes should be able to be closed manually in case of an intentional release of contaminants outside. (2) Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks. Guidance is available from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS): "Guidance for Protecting Building Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks," DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002-139.

(a) Each school district or public junior college district shall adopt and implement a multihazard emergency operations plan for use in the district’s facilities. The plan must address prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery as defined by the Texas School Safety Center in conjunction with the governor’s office of homeland security and the commissioner of education or commissioner of higher education, as applicable. The plan must provide for: (1) training in responding to an emergency for district employees, including substitute teachers; (2) measures to ensure district employees, including substitute teachers, have classroom access to a telephone, including a cellular telephone, or another electronic communication device allowing for immediate contact with district emergency services or emergency services agencies, law enforcement agencies, health departments, and fire departments; (3) measures to ensure district communications technology and infrastructure are adequate to allow for communication during an emergency; (4) if the plan applies to a school district, mandatory school drills and exercises, including drills required under Section 37.114, to prepare district students and employees for responding to an emergency; (5) measures to ensure coordination with the Department of State Health Services and local emergency management agencies, law enforcement, health departments, and fire departments in the event of an emergency; and (6) the implementation of a safety and security audit as required by Subsection (b). (b) At least once every three years, each school district or public junior college district shall conduct a safety and security audit of the district’s facilities. To the extent possible, a district shall follow safety and security audit procedures developed by the Texas School Safety Center or a person included in the registry established by the Texas School Safety Center under Section 37.2091. (b-1) In a school district’s safety and security audit required under Subsection (b), the district must certify that the district used the funds provided to the district through the school safety allotment under Section 42.168 only for the purposes provided by that section. (c) A school district or public junior college district shall report the results of the safety and security audit conducted under Subsection (b) to the district’s board of trustees and, in the manner required by the Texas School Safety Center, to the Texas School Safety Center. The report provided to the Texas School Safety Center under this subsection must be signed by: (1) for a school district, the district’s board of trustees and superintendent; or (2) for a public junior college district, the president of the junior college district. (c-1) Except as provided by Subsection (c-2), any document or information collected, developed, or produced during a safety and security audit conducted under Subsection (b) is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code. (c-2) A document relating to a school district’s or public junior college district’s multihazard emergency operations plan is subject to disclosure if the document enables a person to: (1) verify that the district has established a plan and determine the agencies involved in the development of the plan and the agencies coordinating with the district to respond to an emergency, including the Department of State Health Services, local emergency services agencies, law enforcement agencies, health departments, and fire departments; (2) verify that the district’s plan was reviewed within the last 12 months and determine the specific review dates; (3) verify that the plan addresses the four phases of emergency management under Subsection (a); (4) verify that district employees have been trained to respond to an emergency and determine the types of training, the number of employees trained, and the person conducting the training; (5) verify that each campus in the district has conducted mandatory emergency drills and exercises in accordance with the plan and determine the frequency of the drills; (6) if the district is a school district, verify that the district has established a plan for responding to a train derailment if required under Subsection (d); (7) verify that the district has completed a safety and security audit under Subsection (b) and determine the date the audit was conducted, the person conducting the audit, and the date the district presented the results of the audit to the district’s board of trustees; (8) verify that the district has addressed any recommendations by the district’s board of trustees for improvement of the plan and determine the district’s progress within the last 12 months; and (9) if the district is a school district, verify that the district has established a visitor policy and identify the provisions governing access to a district building or other district property. (d) A school district shall include in its multihazard emergency operations plan a policy for responding to a train derailment near a district school. A school district is only required to adopt the policy described by this subsection if a district school is located within 1,000 yards of a railroad track, as measured from any point on the school’s real property boundary line. The school district may use any available community resources in developing the policy described by this subsection. (e) A school district shall include in its multihazard emergency operations plan a policy for school district property selected for use as a polling place under Section 43.031, Election Code. In developing the policy under this subsection, the board of trustees may consult with the local law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the school district property selected as a polling place regarding reasonable security accommodations that may be made to the property. This subsection may not be interpreted to require the board of trustees to obtain or contract for the presence of law enforcement or security personnel for the purpose of securing a polling place located on school district property. Failure to comply with this subsection does not affect the requirement of the board of trustees to make a school facility available for use as a polling place under Section 43.031, Election Code. (f) A school district shall include in its multihazard emergency operations plan: (1) a chain of command that designates the individual responsible for making final decisions during a disaster or emergency situation and identifies other individuals responsible for making those decisions if the designated person is unavailable; (2) provisions that address physical and psychological safety for responding to a natural disaster, active shooter, and any other dangerous scenario identified for purposes of this section by the agency or the Texas School Safety Center; (3) provisions for ensuring the safety of students in portable buildings; (4) provisions for ensuring that students and district personnel with disabilities are provided equal access to safety during a disaster or emergency situation; (5) provisions for providing immediate notification to parents, guardians, and other persons standing in parental relation in circumstances involving a significant threat to the health or safety of students, including identification of the individual with responsibility for overseeing the notification; (6) provisions for supporting the psychological safety of students, district personnel, and the community during the response and recovery phase following a disaster or emergency situation that: (A) are aligned with best practice-based programs and research-based practices recommended under Section 161.325, Health and Safety Code; (B) include strategies for ensuring any required professional development training for suicide prevention and grief-informed and trauma-informed care is provided to appropriate school personnel; (C) include training on integrating psychological safety and suicide prevention strategies into the district’s plan, such as psychological first aid for schools training, from an approved list of recommended training established by the commissioner and Texas School Safety Center for: (i) members of the district’s school safety and security committee under Section 37.109; (ii) district school counselors and mental health professionals; and (iii) educators and other district personnel as determined by the district; (D) include strategies and procedures for integrating and supporting physical and psychological safety that align with the provisions described by Subdivision (2); and (E) implement trauma-informed policies; (7) a policy for providing a substitute teacher access to school campus buildings and materials necessary for the substitute teacher to carry out the duties of a district employee during an emergency or a mandatory emergency drill; and (8) the name of each individual on the district’s school safety and security committee established under Section 37.109 and the date of each committee meeting during the preceding year. (g) A school district shall include in its multihazard emergency operations plan a policy for responding to an active shooter emergency. The school district may use any available community resources in developing the policy described by this subsection.

(a) If the agency receives notice from the Texas School Safety Center of a school district’s failure to submit a multihazard emergency operations plan, the commissioner may appoint a conservator for the district under Chapter 39A. The conservator may order the district to adopt, implement, and submit a multihazard emergency operations plan. (b) If a district fails to comply with a conservator’s order to adopt, implement, and submit a multihazard emergency operations plan within the time frame imposed by the commissioner, the commissioner may appoint a board of managers under Chapter 39A to oversee the operations of the district. (c) The commissioner may adopt rules as necessary to administer this section.

(a) In accordance with guidelines established by the Texas School Safety Center, each school district shall establish a school safety and security committee. (a-1) The committee, to the greatest extent practicable, must include: (1) one or more representatives of an office of emergency management of a county or city in which the district is located; (2) one or more representatives of the local police department or sheriff’s office; (3) one or more representatives of the district’s police department, if applicable; (4) the president of the district’s board of trustees; (5) a member of the district’s board of trustees other than the president; (6) the district’s superintendent; (7) one or more designees of the district’s superintendent, one of whom must be a classroom teacher in the district; (8) if the district partners with an open-enrollment charter school to provide instruction to students, a member of the open-enrollment charter school’s governing body or a designee of the governing body; and (9) two parents or guardians of students enrolled in the district. (b) The committee shall: (1) participate on behalf of the district in developing and implementing emergency plans consistent with the district multihazard emergency operations plan required by Section 37.108(a) to ensure that the plans reflect specific campus, facility, or support services needs; (2) periodically provide recommendations to the district’s board of trustees and district administrators regarding updating the district multihazard emergency operations plan required by Section 37.108(a) in accordance with best practices identified by the agency, the Texas School Safety Center, or a person included in the registry established by the Texas School Safety Center under Section 37.2091; (3) provide the district with any campus, facility, or support services information required in connection with a safety and security audit required by Section 37.108(b), a safety and security audit report required by Section 37.108(c), or another report required to be submitted by the district to the Texas School Safety Center; (4) review each report required to be submitted by the district to the Texas School Safety Center to ensure that the report contains accurate and complete information regarding each campus, facility, or support service in accordance with criteria established by the center; and (5) consult with local law enforcement agencies on methods to increase law enforcement presence near district campuses. (c) Except as otherwise provided by this subsection, the committee shall meet at least once during each academic semester and at least once during the summer. A committee established by a school district that operates schools on a year-round system or in accordance with another alternative schedule shall meet at least three times during each calendar year, with an interval of at least two months between each meeting. (d) The committee is subject to Chapter 551, Government Code, and may meet in executive session as provided by that chapter. Notice of a committee meeting must be posted in the same manner as notice of a meeting of the district’s board of trustees.

(f) Each team shall: (3) support the district in implementing the district’s multihazard emergency operations plan.

The center shall conduct for school districts a safety training program that includes:

• (1) development of a positive school environment and proactive safety measures designed to address local concerns;

• (2) school safety courses for law enforcement officials, with a focus on school district police officers and school resource officers;

• (3) discussion of school safety issues with parents and community members; and

• (4) assistance in developing a multihazard emergency operations plan for adoption under Section 37.108.

(a) The center shall develop a model safety and security audit procedure for use by school districts and public junior college districts that includes: (1) providing each district with guidelines showing proper audit procedures; (2) reviewing elements of each district audit and making recommendations for improvements in the state based on that review; and (3) incorporating the findings of district audits in a statewide report on school safety and security made available by the center to the public. (b) Each school district shall report the results of its audits to the center in the manner required by the center. (c) In addition to a review of a district’s multihazard emergency operations plan under Section 37.2071, the center may require a district to submit its plan for immediate review if the district’s audit results indicate that the district is not complying with applicable Standard. (d) If a district fails to report the results of its audit as required under Subsection (b), the center shall provide the district with written notice that the district has failed to report its audit results and must immediately report the results to the center. (e) If six months after the date of the initial notification required by Subsection (d) the district has still not reported the results of its audit to the center, the center shall notify the agency and the district of the district’s requirement to conduct a public hearing under Section 37.1081. This subsection applies only to a school district.

(a) The center shall establish a random or need-based cycle for the center’s review and verification of school district and public junior college district multihazard emergency operations plans adopted under Section 37.108. The cycle must provide for each district’s plan to be reviewed at regular intervals as determined by the center. (b) A school district or public junior college district shall submit its multihazard emergency operations plan to the center on request of the center and in accordance with the center’s review cycle developed under Subsection (a). (c) The center shall review each district’s multihazard emergency operations plan submitted under Subsection (b) and: (1) verify the plan meets the requirements of Section 37.108; or (2) provide the district with written notice: (A) describing the plan’s deficiencies; and (B) stating that the district must correct the deficiencies in its plan and resubmit the revised plan to the center. (d) If a district fails to submit its multihazard emergency operations plan to the center for review, the center shall provide the district with written notice stating that the district: (1) has failed to submit a plan; and (2) must submit a plan to the center for review and verification. (e) The center may approve a district multihazard emergency operations plan that has deficiencies if the district submits a revised plan that the center determines will correct the deficiencies. (f) If three months after the date of initial notification of a plan’s deficiencies under Subsection (c)(2) or failure to submit a plan under Subsection (d) a district has not corrected the plan deficiencies or has failed to submit a plan, the center shall provide written notice to the district and agency that the district has not complied with the requirements of this section and must comply immediately. (g) If a school district still has not corrected the plan deficiencies or has failed to submit a plan six months after the date of initial notification under Subsection (c)(2) or (d), the center shall provide written notice to the school district stating that the district must hold a public hearing under Section 37.1081. (h) If a school district has failed to submit a plan, the notice required by Subsection (g) must state that the commissioner is authorized to appoint a conservator under Section 37.1082. (i) Any document or information collected, developed, or produced during the review and verification of multihazard emergency operations plans under this section is not subject to disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code.