Ohio school drill law

What drills does Ohio require, and how often?

Ohio requires the principal or person in charge of each public or private school with an average daily attendance of 20 or more students to hold fire drills or rapid dismissals at least six times during the school year. Schools without smoke detectors or a sprinkler system in all classroom buildings must hold them at least nine times instead. Every public or private school must also hold school safety drills at least three times during the school year. School safety drills cover threats such as someone with a deadly weapon on school property or another act of violence, and at least one must have students secured inside the building rather than evacuated. Schools must hold at least one fire drill, rapid dismissal or school safety drill in each month of the school year.

What else do the drill rules say?

Fire drill timing and frequency follow rules adopted by the State Fire Marshal. The Ohio Fire Code rule says schools with 20 or more students must hold at least one drill or rapid dismissal in each month of the school year. A fire drill or rapid dismissal must not double as the end-of-day dismissal. The principal may choose the exact date and time of each drill. Schools on the nine-drill schedule may combine those drills with school safety drills. Schools must also teach students safety precautions for a tornado alert or warning. No March tornado drill is required for a school that took part in that March's statewide tornado drill run by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. All school safety drills must be held under the district's or school's emergency management plan. A theoretical school safety drill gives all faculty and staff instruction at least once a school year, and does not need student participation.

What does the fire code add?

Ohio's fire code rule adopts Chapter 4 of the 2021 International Fire Code, with Ohio's changes. Under that code, drills must be held at unexpected times and under varying conditions. Ohio's rule changes the lockdown drill section so lockdown drills follow the drill statute, R.C. 3737.73(D), instead of a plan approved by the fire official. It also changes the lockdown plan section so schools give their lockdown plan to the fire code official on request, rather than needing the official's approval. The lockdown drill section Ohio adopts still says lockdown drills shall not be substituted for the required fire and evacuation drills. Separately, the drill statute lets schools on the nine-drill schedule combine those drills with school safety drills.

What role does law enforcement have?

Each school safety drill must be held together with the local police chief or similar chief law enforcement officer (or a designee) for the city, township or police district where the school is located. Only where there is no such local official is the drill held with the county sheriff or the sheriff's designee. Schools must give local law enforcement written notice at least 72 hours before the date of each school safety drill. By December 5 each year, the principal or person in charge must give local law enforcement written certification of the school safety drills. After a law enforcement warning, a school must correct the violation by holding a school safety drill within 30 days. Under a Department of Public Safety rule, the yearly emergency management test should include at least one representative from law enforcement, fire, EMA, EMS, a mental health provider and public health. This is a recommendation, not a requirement.

Do drills have to be logged or reported?

Schools must keep a written record of the date and time of each school safety drill. Under the Ohio Fire Code, schools must file fire drill records with the State Fire Marshal at the middle and the end of the school year. Those filed records must contain the information the fire code's timing section calls for, plus anything else the State Fire Marshal requires. Under the 2021 International Fire Code, which Ohio adopts in Ohio Adm. Code 1301:7-7-04, drill records must list who ran the drill, the date and time, the notification method, staff on duty and taking part, the number evacuated, special conditions simulated, problems found, the weather, and the time to evacuate fully. A record of tornado drills must be kept at each school for the fire code official to examine. The State Fire Marshal or a designee must inspect each school every year. Administrators must send an after-action report to the Ohio Department of Public Safety within 30 days of the emergency management test. Records of emergency management tests are security records and are not public records.

What is the emergency management test?

Each covered school administrator must prepare and run at least one emergency management test a year: a regularly scheduled drill, exercise or activity that evaluates the emergency management plan. Under the Department of Public Safety rule, this test comes on top of the fire code's evacuation drills, once each year of the three-year review cycle. Each test is a tabletop, functional or full-scale exercise, and each type is used once every three years. Schools must also hold yearly training sessions for employees on running school safety drills.

What about students' wellbeing and parents?

The drill statute's school safety drill provision says nothing on simulated gunfire, realistic props or role-played attackers, and gives students no opt-out from those drills. The Department of Public Safety rule's student section covers only student participation in the yearly emergency management test, and sets no limit on simulated gunfire, props or role-played attackers. Students are not required to take part in the emergency management test. The rule says schools should get parental consent before including students, and should consider age-appropriate participation and trauma-informed best practice. These are recommendations, not requirements. Each emergency management plan must include a protocol on student cell phone use during an active threat or emergency. Before each school year opens, the administrator must tell each student and parent the parental notification procedures in that protocol.

Who's covered?

The fire drill duty covers public and private schools with an average daily attendance of 20 or more students. The emergency plan and yearly test duty names community (charter) schools and chartered nonpublic schools. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission (the legislature's nonpartisan staff), in an October 2026 brief, lists the drill statute, R.C. 3737.73, among the school district mandates that also apply to community schools. This is LSC's informational reading, not a court ruling.

What has changed recently?

The current Ohio Fire Code chapter 4 rule took effect November 20, 2025, and is adopted under authority that includes the school drill statute. House Bill 96 (effective September 30, 2025) added the requirement that each school emergency management plan include a protocol on student cell phone use during an active threat or emergency. The emergency plan section, R.C. 5502.262, was amended by House Bill 96 (effective September 30, 2025), House Bill 184 (effective March 20, 2026) and House Bill 455 (effective October 9, 2026). The latest legislation shown for the drill statute, R.C. 3737.73, is House Bill 123 of the 133rd General Assembly.