Idaho school emergency plan law

Who must have an emergency operations plan in Idaho?

Idaho law requires each school district's board of trustees to require each school in the district to create and maintain an emergency operations plan that the board approves. That duty sits on each district's board, for each school in its district; the provision does not mention private schools or public charter schools. A separate State Board of Education rule says each school district and public charter school will have district- or charter-wide policies and procedures on listed safety topics, including building safety and evacuation drills.

What must the plan meet?

Plans must meet the guidelines adopted by the Idaho School Safety and Security Advisory Board. The advisory board must write the school safety and security guidelines and review them every year; its members include a representative of the Idaho Office of Emergency Management. The state safety office's assessment question list (updated 2025), which is guidance and not law, asks whether a school's safety plan has first-response protocols and a chain of command, is reviewed and updated each year, and is shared with first responders, and whether there is a parent-student reunification plan. The state safety office promotes the Idaho Standard Command Responses for Schools (ISCRS), a set of four basic commands.

How often must the plan be reviewed?

Plans must be reviewed at least once a year for updates and changes. The State Board rule requires the district's or charter school's safe-environment policies and procedures to be reviewed every year.

How do schools work with first responders?

The board must make sure plans are written with local school staff and local emergency response agencies.

What training is tied to the plan?

All school district staff must receive initial and yearly emergency operations training, including how to run exercises. On request, the state School Safety and Security Program must provide training and technical help on school safety best practices.

How is it checked?

State School Safety and Security Program staff may enter all public school buildings to do annual assessments against the advisory board's guidelines. Assessment reports must list the safety or security weak points found and recommendations to fix them. The state safety office calls its on-site campus assessment the "Triennial Safety & Security Assessment". The School Safety and Security Act covers public buildings only, including public school districts and public charter schools; private schools are not in its definition. Each year, $300,000 moves from the public school income fund to the school safety and security program's fund.

Are plans confidential?

Idaho's public records law exempts critical infrastructure records held by public agencies when releasing them is reasonably likely to put safety at risk, and those records may include emergency evacuation or response plans and vulnerability assessments. The law defines critical infrastructure as a system or asset so vital to the state that its loss would badly harm economic security or public health or safety; it does not say whether a school is one. The state safety office says its assessment findings and recommendations are protected documents under that exemption.

What changed recently?

2025 H0224, signed March 14, 2025 as Session Law Chapter 72, took effect July 1, 2025. Before H0224, the law required a school safety plan for each school and a yearly meeting with emergency first responders to update the plans; H0224 replaced that wording. The sponsor described H0224 as a housekeeping bill that separates three provisions. 2026 H0831, an elections bill that amends § 33-512, was signed March 31, 2026 as Session Law Chapter 244, effective January 1, 2028; it carries the emergency operations plan wording forward. 2026 H0595, which would have required each public school district and charter school to write a cardiac emergency response plan from 2026-27, did not advance; its last action was referral to the House Health and Welfare Committee on February 6, 2026.