Vermont school emergency plan law

Does Vermont require school emergency plans?

Yes. 16 V.S.A. § 1480 requires each supervisory union or supervisory district to adopt and maintain an all-hazards emergency operations plan for each school site, at least as comprehensive as the Vermont School Safety Center (VSSC) template. Approved and recognized independent schools must adopt and maintain an all-hazards emergency operations plan consistent with the same § 1480(a) requirements that apply to supervisory unions and districts. The Agency of Education's posted copy of State Board of Education rule § 4102 also says superintendents and school boards must develop a comprehensive emergency plan for each school, updated and tested every year, and a working emergency organization. The State Board's rules page still lists Series 4000 (Pupils), which contains § 4102, among its rules.

What must the plan contain?

The VSSC must maintain the plan template and update it as appropriate. VSSC guidance says schools do not have to use the template itself, but each plan must be at least as comprehensive as it.

The athletic emergency action plan must set out the steps to take when a student is seriously or life-threateningly injured in sports, and must be consistent with the Vermont Principals' Association policy on athletic emergency action plans. Under the State Board rule, the emergency plan must provide for fire, smoke, tornado, nuclear disaster, snow, blizzard, ice, flood, earthquake, bomb threat, civil disturbance, bus accidents and other emergencies. Education agency guidance says Act 72 requires all schools to adopt a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan, with Athletic Emergency Action Plan provisions, within their existing plans before the start of the 2026-2027 school year. VSSC guidance says all plans must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

How often is the plan reviewed?

The plan must be reviewed and updated every year, in collaboration with local emergency first responders and local emergency management officials.

How do schools work with first responders?

The yearly review and update is done with local emergency first responders and local emergency management officials. VSSC guidance says schools must work with first responders and local emergency management officials when developing the plan. VSSC guidance makes the superintendent or independent school head responsible for sharing the plan with crisis teams, staff, local first responders and emergency management officials. VSSC guidance says all schools in a district take part in developing the plan and are responsible for training the right staff in their roles.

Is the plan confidential?

Vermont's Public Records Act exempts, for publicly owned, managed or leased buildings, unpublished emergency evacuation, escape or other emergency response plans, along with vulnerability assessments and security manuals, plans and codes. That exemption applies only to the extent that releasing the record would present a substantial likelihood of jeopardizing safety or the security of public property. The Act also exempts security procedures and similar information whose disclosure would threaten safety or the security of public property. The Act reaches records of public agencies, defined as state bodies and bodies of the State's political subdivisions; the definition names no private entity, so by its terms it does not cover independent schools. VSSC guidance recommends keeping plans confidential among the responsible parties and says plans should not be presented for public use or copied.

What about independent schools?

State Board rules for approving independent schools list an all-hazards emergency operations plan consistent with § 1480 among the items each approved independent school must, at a minimum, develop and maintain. Every approved independent school must assure the state each year, by February 15, that it still meets the approval rules and state and federal law, which includes that plan item. VSSC guidance offers an optional alternate plan format for certain independent schools; one criterion is average enrollment below 30 students a year. Under that guidance, the alternate format must still include an overhead map showing evacuation locations, routes and family reunification sites.

What about threat assessment?

School districts and independent schools must adopt behavioral threat assessment team policies, a duty separate from the emergency operations plan. Act 72 of 2025 added a requirement that districts and independent schools take every action needed to put behavioral threat assessment and management programs in place by October 1, 2025; the list under it includes "updating and exercising emergency operations plans".

What changed recently?

The statute's history note says § 1480 was added by 2023 Act No. 29, effective July 1, 2025; amended by 2025 Act No. 72, effective July 1, 2026; and amended by 2025 Act No. 91 (Adj. Sess.), effective April 30, 2026. Act 29 (S.138), Sec. 2, added § 1480, and the Governor signed it on May 30, 2023. Act 72 (H.480), signed June 27, 2025, moved § 1480's effective date from July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2025, and made its change to § 1480(d) effective July 1, 2026. Act 91 (technical corrections, H.927), signed April 30, 2026, amended § 1480(d) in its Sec. 57. H.247, a 2025-2026 bill on cardiac emergency response plans in schools, was referred to the House Committee on Education on 2/18/2025 and did not become an act. S.273, a 2025-2026 bill that proposed to amend § 1480(b) and (d)(2) as part of a broader independent school overhaul, was referred to the Senate Committee on Education on 1/20/2026, its last action, and did not become an act.