Alabama § 16-22B-5 - District Safety Coordinators.

§ 16-22B-5. District Safety Coordinators.

(a) Each local board of education shall designate an employee in the school district’s central office as the district safety coordinator. Each district safety coordinator must have direct access to the local superintendent of education and must have prior experience in crisis response.

(b) Within one year of designating an employee as the district safety coordinator, each local superintendent of education shall ensure that the district safety coordinator completes training related to:

(1) Emergency operation plan implementation;

(2) Lockdown best practices;

(3) Relocation, evacuation, and reunification;

(4) Weather and sheltering;

(5) Behavioral threat assessment; and

(6) Facility security.

(c) Each district safety coordinator shall:

(1) Annually attend at least four safety training sessions, with no more than one credit granted for attending a vendor-based training session. Acceptable training includes programming by the department, the Alabama Homeland Security Office, the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, the National Incident Management System, the Partnership Alliance for Safe Schools, the Alabama School Resource Officer Association, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National School Resource Officer Association, or other governmental agency or nonprofit organization focusing on relevant school safety best practices.

(2) Organize, administer, and attend at least one school-based lockdown drill and one other safety drill per semester and review the implementation of those drills with the building-level administrator.

(3) Annually organize and oversee a meeting with school administrators and local public safety officials at each school in the local school district in order to familiarize the local officials with each school, its respective school emergency operating plan, and its school mapping data. The district safety coordinator shall ensure that each of the following local public safety officials attend the meeting:

a. At least one local law enforcement officer.

b. At least one local firefighter.

c. At least one representative of the local emergency management agency office.

d. The school mental health coordinator.

e. Any other local public safety officials, as determined by the district safety coordinator.

(4) Collaborate with the local board of education to adopt policies relating to the sharing of camera data and remote access control with appropriate local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

(d)(1) Each district safety coordinator shall annually review the school emergency operation plan of each school in his or her local school district.

(2) No later than September 1 of each year, each district safety coordinator shall notify his or her superintendent of education of any building-level administrator or school that fails to have a current, up-to-date school emergency operation plan.

(3) Upon receiving a notice under subdivision (2), a local superintendent of education shall ensure that the school emergency operation plan is updated within 30 days of his or her receipt of notice.

(e) The board shall adopt rules to implement and administer this section, including rules relating to the qualification of district safety coordinators and training requirements for district safety coordinators.