REMINDER: Report Safety Drills to County Emergency Management Coordinator by September 15, 2014

As we reported in the March 27, 2014 edition of School Law Notes, Public Act 12 of 2014 (the “Act”) modified the frequency and recording requirements of Michigan school safety drills. The Act became effective on July 1, 2014.

Under these new requirements, by September 15 of each school year, the chief administrator (or designee) of a school building that operates any of grades kindergarten to 12 must pro­vide a list of the school buildings’ scheduled drill days to the County Emergency Management Coordinator appointed under Section 9 of the Emergency Management Act.

If a school building cancels a scheduled drill due to severe weather or other conditions outside its control, the cancellation will not result in a violation of the Act so long as school officials: (1) conduct the minimum number of drills required under the Act; (2) reschedule the drill to occur within 10 school days after the scheduled date of the canceled drill; and (3) notify the County Emergency Management Coordinator of the rescheduled date for the drill.

School officials should review these new requirements, which are found in Section 19 of the Fire Prevention Code, MCL 29.19, as amended, and report each school building’s scheduled drill days to the County Emergency Management Coordinator by not later than September 15, 2014. School officials also are reminded that the Act requires schools that operate grades K-12 adopt and im­plement a cardiac response plan.

Clarification: Section 19 of the Fire Prevention Code requires that school officials document completed school safety drills on the school’s website within 30 days of completing the drill (not within 5 days of completing the drill as reported in our March 27, 2014 edition of School Law Notes). We apologize for any confusion the original article may have caused.