Colorado school emergency plan law

Who must have an emergency plan in Colorado?

Colorado law requires each board of education to set up a school response framework, made up of the policies listed in C.R.S. 22-32-109.1(4), and those policies must, at a minimum, require the listed items. One of them: each school district had to start, by July 1, 2009, to develop a school safety, readiness and incident management plan that coordinates with statewide or local emergency operations plans. Each district also had to set a date by which each of its schools would meet subsection (4); the school board may change that date for cause. Districts must make those compliance dates available to the public on request. For this law, "school" means district public schools, charter schools and institute charter schools; it does not reach private schools. The state Charter School Institute must set up a school response framework that meets the same law for each state charter school. The Charter School Institute tells its schools they are required to set up a School Response Framework consistent with the law and its board policy.

What must the plan and framework include?

For each public school in the district, the plan must identify:

Each district must formally adopt the National Response Framework and NIMS (the National Incident Management System) by order or resolution. Each district must build in the incident command system (a standard chain of command for emergencies) as taught by FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. Each district must adopt written procedures for acting and communicating with law enforcement, emergency services, parents, students and the media during incidents. Each public school must, at least every academic term, take stock of emergency equipment and test communications equipment, including whether it works with other agencies' systems. Each board must adopt a policy requiring yearly school building inspections to remove hazards and other barriers to safety.

How is the plan kept current?

After exercises and certain incidents, each public school must write an evaluation, and address lessons learned and corrective actions when it updates its response plans.

How do schools work with police, fire and emergency management?

In writing the plan, a district may work with community partners. This is allowed, not required. Community partners include fire departments, law enforcement, 911 agencies, EMS, emergency management, homeland security staff and school resource officers. To the extent possible, each district must sign memoranda of understanding with community partners on who does what in an incident. Each district must work with community partners to update all standard operating procedures so every part of NIMS is built in. Each district must set a timeline and strategy for meeting subsection (4), and plan and hold activities with community partners. School resource officers must know the school response framework, the all-hazard exercise program and the school's interoperable communications. The Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), local fire departments and certified fire inspectors may partner with schools to assess each school's NIMS implementation. As part of its fire code duties, DFPC may ask about a school's safety, readiness and incident management plan, but questions that don't relate to the fire code cannot be the basis for a deficiency notice or enforcement.

What training is tied to the plan?

Key emergency school staff, including safety teams and backups, must complete FEMA Emergency Management Institute courses or courses from the state community and technical colleges. The framework policies must include employee safety and incident management training.

What does the fire code require?

DFPC's rule 8 CCR 1507-101 adopts the 2021 International Fire Code (IFC) as the fire code it enforces, and DFPC enforces the adopted codes under its public school rules. DFPC guidance says the 2021 IFC applies to every public and charter school in Colorado. Under the 2021 IFC, which 8 CCR 1507-101 adopts, a school (Group E) building must prepare and maintain an approved fire safety and evacuation plan. The 2021 IFC requires fire safety, evacuation and lockdown plans to be reviewed or updated every year, and when staff assignments, occupancy or the building layout change. The plans must be available to employees, and copies must go to the fire code official for review on request. A fire evacuation plan must include procedures for helping those who cannot use the exits on their own and for accounting for all students and staff after evacuation. A fire safety plan must include site plans showing the assembly point, fire hydrants and fire department vehicle access routes. A lockdown plan is allowed only if the fire code official approves it and it meets IFC Sections 404.2.3.1 and 404.2.3.2. A lockdown plan must include procedures for reporting lockdowns that affect exits to the fire department, and for reporting who is present or absent to emergency responders. DFPC guidance recommends writing these plans with fire officials, and ideally law enforcement.

How is it checked?

Each district's accreditation contract must include an assurance that the district follows the school safety law, as a way to monitor compliance. The state School Safety Resource Center's duties include helping schools write and carry out safety and preparedness plans.

What changed recently?

HB26-1252 was signed on June 4, 2026 (Session Laws chapter 382) and takes effect August 12, 2026. It rewords the opening of C.R.S. 22-32-109.1(4) and moves a NIMS course cross-reference to C.R.S. 24-33.5-1604(7); the board's duty to set up the framework stays. SB26-104 was signed on May 4, 2026 and takes effect August 12, 2026; it adds C.R.S. 22-1-151 on exterior key boxes at schools. The key box law covers private K-12 schools as well as district, charter and institute charter schools, but not home schools. A key box's contents, and the information in them, are not public records under the Colorado Open Records Act. A local education provider does not have to install an exterior key box at a school if it applied for, but did not receive, money from the School Security Disbursement Program. HB26-1264, which did not pass, would have required districts and charter schools to write policies on safety reports and other student safety topics.