Delaware school emergency plan law

Who must have a school safety plan in Delaware?

Delaware law requires each public school and district to work with the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and first responders to develop a school- or district-specific Comprehensive School Safety Plan (CSSP) and submit it to that department. The Omnibus School Safety Act calls for a site-specific safety and emergency preparedness plan, built on NIMS (the National Incident Management System), for each public school and each district. In the Act, "school" means any public school in Delaware, including charter schools; the definition does not reach private schools. Each school and district must create a school safety team, the group responsible for writing and carrying out its CSSP. Under a separate law, every public school, including charter schools, must also prepare a crisis response policy for school-connected traumatic events; the law does not say whether it must be a separate document from the CSSP.

What must the plan contain?

Schools and districts must use the department's Emergency Preparedness Guidelines (templates) to write, carry out, exercise and update their plans. The department must adopt, publish and update those guidelines. The Act defines a critical incident to include weather-, crime- and terrorism-related events. The crisis response policy must include procedures for deciding what information to release about the event and how to share it with students, teachers and staff. The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA), in guidance, says Delaware has adopted the Standard Response Protocol, with five actions: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate and Shelter. DEMA says it works to make sure each school's plan has hazard-specific annexes (sections), including active assailant and natural hazards, and that school safety plans address many hazards.

Who approves the plan?

The CSSP must be NIMS-compliant and approved by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which is a different agency from the Department of Education. The department reviews and certifies the plans schools and districts submit. DEMA guidance says it certifies public schools after two lockdown drills and one tabletop exercise, and that it works with district, charter and private schools each year to help update their safety plans.

How often is the plan tested and updated?

Each school and district must hold at least one tabletop exercise (a discussion-based walk-through) every year and at least two lockdown or intruder drills each school year, working with the department and first responders. The exercises must test emergency readiness and how well the current plan works. After each required exercise, the school or district must send the department proof of the exercise and any proposed changes to its CSSP, which the department reviews and approves. DEMA guidance says schools must review, update and test plans every year through drills and tabletop exercises. This is the agency's statement, not the statute's wording. Each public school had to adopt its crisis response policy and send it to the Department of Education by September 1, 2024; a new charter school files it by September 1 of its first year. Changes to the crisis response policy must go to the Department of Education within 60 calendar days.

How do schools work with first responders?

The department must connect schools and districts with first responders and other partners, including the Capitol Police, to write their plans. Under the Act, "first responder" includes law enforcement, fire, EMS, hazmat teams, 911 dispatchers and emergency managers. DEMA guidance says school safety teams should include administrators, teachers, staff, law enforcement and other first responders. DEMA's 2024 report says every school has been mapped and the maps are shared with police, fire, 911 centers and emergency management agencies. That report lists, as a future goal and not current law, requiring schools to check their maps every three years or within 90 days of a floor plan change.

Is the plan confidential?

Delaware's Freedom of Information Act, in a general rule that is not specific to schools, leaves out of public records emergency response plans whose release would reveal vulnerability assessments, tactics, or emergency or security procedures.

How is it checked?

The Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security must report on the program's implementation progress to the General Assembly by September 1 each year. DEMA's 2024 report states 100% plan completion for July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. The Department of Safety and Homeland Security, consulting the Department of Education, must adopt the rules needed to carry out the Act. The Delaware School Safety and Security Fund pays for school safety or security projects in districts, technical schools and charter schools, and comprehensive school threat assessments are an eligible cost.

What changed recently?

The official Code's history note for § 8237 lists no session law after 80 Del. Laws c. 377, so no 2025 or 2026 act has amended the Omnibus School Safety Act as shown in the current official code. The Department of Education repealed its own school emergency preparedness regulation in 2016, because districts and charter schools are to follow the Omnibus School Safety Act instead.