Louisiana school emergency plan law

What does Louisiana require of school emergency plans?

Under R.S. 17:416.16, as amended by Act 821 of 2026, each public school principal must prepare the school's emergency operations plan jointly with local law enforcement, fire, public safety and emergency preparedness officials. Act 821 renamed the plans "emergency operations" plans and took effect August 1, 2026. Act 821 amends only some parts of R.S. 17:416.16, so the section's other subsections stay as codified.

Who must have a plan?

The duty falls on each public school principal. The plan statute is among the laws that apply to charter schools. A separate BESE (state school board) rule for nonpublic schools requires each school system or independent nonpublic school to have written emergency plans and procedures. Under that rule, the plan must be developed jointly with local law enforcement and emergency personnel, reviewed at least once a year, and given to local law enforcement and the nearest fire chief, and all school employees must be trained on it.

What must the plan contain?

If a classroom door is left unlocked or open for any other reason, an authorized person must actively staff it. Each plan must provide for bleeding control kits in easy-to-reach places in each school, with employees the principal names trained to use them; this part depends on legislative funding. The plan must seek to use resources and information from the Louisiana Commission on School and Nonprofit Security.

Who helps write it?

In preparing or revising the plan, the principal must consult the district team, which Act 821 renames the "district safety and emergency team". Act 821 widens that team to include staff from school facilities, transportation, school nutrition, curriculum and other areas. It also creates an emergency response coordinator, who oversees developing the plan.

How often is the plan reviewed?

Each principal, jointly with local law enforcement, fire, public safety and emergency preparedness officials, must review the plan at least once a year and revise it as needed. The principal must submit the plan in writing to the local superintendent for approval at least once a year and each time it is revised. The Louisiana Center for Safe Schools advises schools to update their plans every year.

Is the plan submitted, and to whom?

Each principal must keep a copy of the approved plan in the principal's office. Copies still go to the local police chief or parish sheriff and to the fire chief whose office is closest to the school. Under Act 821, the plan must be available to the state Department of Education and the Louisiana Center for Safe Schools on request. Act 821 repealed the provisions that had principals send copies to those two offices. BESE's Bulletin 741 rule, in the State Register's current copy, still tells the principal to send the plan to the local superintendent, the Department of Education and the Center for Safe Schools; this page does not decide which text controls. Superintendents must give building information to GOHSEP (the state homeland security office) for the critical incident mapping system.

What training and drills go with the plan?

The principal's yearly staff training on the plan must involve local law enforcement, fire, public safety and emergency preparedness officials in preparing and presenting it. Each principal must tell all teachers and other school employees about revisions to the plan. Within the first thirty instructional days of each school year, each principal must hold a safety drill that rehearses the plan, plus at least one more drill each year during high-traffic or transition times. After each drill, the principal must send the local superintendent a written report summarizing it. Every school emergency preparedness activity must be classified as either a discussion-based or an operations-based exercise. Full-scale exercises use staff, equipment and the coordinated participation of all community partners expected to respond. Drills such as evacuation, lockdown or shelter-in-place may not use blanks.

Is the plan confidential?

Act 821 keeps the public records exemption for the plans, now called emergency operations plans. Interior blueprints and floor plans of public school buildings are exempt from the Public Records Law, and the records law itself says they are not public records.

How is it checked?

Act 821 drops the superintendent's plan-status report to the governing authority; schools and districts fill out safety questionnaires instead. Each public school must complete a yearly school safety questionnaire, and each governing authority then completes a district-level one. The school questionnaire asks about compliance with the plan rules and completion of required drills. Both questionnaires go to the Department of Education and the Center for Safe Schools at a date and frequency still to be determined. As of July 2026, the Center said details of the questionnaires were still to come. BESE's Bulletin 741, in the Register's current copy, still requires the superintendent's yearly report on each school's plan status.

What does the state school board rule add?

BESE's Bulletin 741 requires each public school principal or school leader to have a crisis plan developed jointly with local law enforcement, fire, public safety and emergency preparedness officials. The rule has the plan include a cardiac emergency response plan. When the principal is absent, someone else at the school must be given authority to use emergency procedures. Schools must set building evacuation procedures for fire, severe weather and bomb threats, tested by practice drills, and procedures for reporting accidents to parents or the central office. Each public school governing authority must develop violence and terrorism resources, policies and procedures as part of its crisis plan. The local superintendent or chief charter school officer may dismiss schools in emergencies.

What changed recently?

Act 821 (HB 624) was signed by the Governor. It changes "active shooter" to "active assailant" in the all-hazards plan element. SB 132 was signed and became Act 738; the legislature's bill page lists it as taking effect August 1, 2026. Act 738 adds to the school mapping submission how first responders get into locked buildings, or where the exterior master key box is. It also has a governing authority with no locked-building access system for first responders before January 1, 2028, install at least one exterior master key box on each campus. Each key box must hold copies of building keys or key cards for all campus doors, and the governing authority picks its location with local law enforcement. The codified note on the mapping section says it takes effect only when an act funding Act 425 of 2025 takes effect, as Act 425 itself provides. Blueprints and school mapping data of public school buildings are exempt from the Public Records Law; Act 738 moves this exemption to Subsection F. Once collection starts, schools with under 299 students begin collecting mapping data four years after the first group. Act 521 of 2026 creates a school safety drone pilot that must run as part of the school plans. HB 821 of 2026, signed as Act 846, re-establishes the Louisiana Center for Safe Schools within the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice. The Center's duties include helping schools develop and revise their plans. A September 2026 BESE notice proposes having the plan account for how first responders get into locked buildings, or where the key box is. The same notice proposes listing school emergency operations plans among the state laws charter schools must follow.