Virginia school emergency plan law

Does Virginia require school emergency plans?

Yes. Va. Code § 22.1-279.8(D) requires each school board to ensure that every school it supervises develops a written school crisis, emergency management and medical emergency response plan. Each school division must also name an emergency manager. Separately, under the 2021 International Fire Code, which Virginia's Statewide Fire Prevention Code (13VAC5-52-30) adopts by reference, an approved fire safety and evacuation plan must be prepared and maintained for Group E (school) occupancies.

Who writes the plan?

Local law enforcement, the fire chief, the EMS agency chief, the regional EMS council executive director and the local emergency management official (or their designees) must be included in developing the plans. The Board of Education must develop a model school crisis, emergency management and medical emergency response plan. The Department of Education and the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety must give school divisions technical help in developing the plans.

What must the plan contain?

The statute's definition of the plan covers natural disasters (fire, flood, tornadoes, severe weather), loss of utilities or communications, bus or other accidents, and medical emergencies including cardiac arrest. It also covers bomb threats, weapons threats, hazardous spills, trespassers, missing or kidnapped students, hostage situations, violence and terrorism. The plan must provide that DCJS (the Department of Criminal Justice Services) and the Virginia Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund are contacted right away to send help when an emergency has victims, and must list their current contact information. That statutory definition does not name reunification, lockdown or shelter-in-place procedures, or site maps, as plan elements. The state's model plan must set out recommended ways for parents to contact the school about their children's location and safety during an emergency. DCJS's 2025 school-level plan template, which is guidance, uses the Standard Response Protocol for response and the Standard Reunification Method for recovery. Any division-wide or school-specific building evacuation plan must include provisions to help students with mobility impairments evacuate alongside their peers.

Each public school must also develop and carry out a cardiac emergency response plan or an athletic emergency action plan.

What does the fire code add?

Under the 2021 IFC as adopted by 13VAC5-52-30, a fire evacuation plan must include procedures for assisted rescue and for accounting for employees and occupants after evacuation. A fire safety plan must include site plans showing the assembly point, fire hydrant locations and fire department vehicle access routes. A lockdown plan is allowed only if the fire code official approves it and it meets the code's lockdown plan rules. Fire safety, evacuation and lockdown plans must be reviewed or updated every year and whenever staff assignments, occupancy or the building layout change. The plans must be available to employees, and copies must be given to the fire code official for review on request.

How often is the plan reviewed?

The school board and the local first-responder officials must review the written plans every year. The cardiac emergency response plan or athletic emergency action plan must be reviewed, evaluated and amended as needed on an ongoing and yearly basis.

Is the plan submitted to anyone?

The division superintendent must certify the yearly review in writing to the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety by August 31 each year. DCJS guidance says that certification is made on the Division Safety Survey.

How do schools work with police, fire and EMS?

First responders help develop the plans and take part in the yearly review with the school board. School officials must work directly with local emergency service providers to build the cardiac emergency response plan or athletic emergency action plan into local EMS response protocols. Each division superintendent must set up a threat assessment team for each school, including members with expertise in counseling, instruction, school administration and law enforcement.

What about the yearly safety audit?

School boards must require every school to conduct a school safety audit every year, in collaboration with the locality's chief law enforcement officer or designee. As part of each audit, the school board must create, or certify as accurate, a detailed floor plan for each school building. Each audit must include a review of the school's plan for closures during public health emergencies. The completed walk-through checklist must be made available to the locality's chief law enforcement officer or designee, and the superintendent must give that officer the audit results for review and recommendations. The division superintendent must collect all school safety audits and submit them to the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety. Audit results must be made public within 90 days of completion.

What training is tied to the plan?

Under Board of Education rules, the emergency plan must be outlined in the student handbook and discussed with staff and students during the first week of each school year. Each school board must develop emergency safety procedures training and give it to each student and employee at least once each school year. Every public school must employ at least one administrator who has completed school safety training from the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety. The state's model critical incident response training program must also be made available to private schools.

Is the plan confidential?

The school board may withhold or limit first responders' review of security plans and specific vulnerability assessment parts. Virginia's FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) covers security plans and specific assessment parts of school safety audits under a public safety exclusion. Information under that exclusion does not have to be released, but the records custodian may choose to release it. The exclusion does not block disclosure about how well security plans worked after a fire, explosion, natural disaster or other catastrophic event at a school.

Are there penalties?

Subsection D of § 22.1-279.8, which sets the plan duties, states no penalty, fine or funding consequence for failing to adopt, review or certify the plan.

What changed recently?

§ 22.1-279.8 was amended in the 2025 session by Acts chapters 232, 234, 573 and 581. The threat assessment team statute was amended in 2025 (c. 500) and 2026 (c. 46). A 2026 law, Acts chapter 45, lets school boards provide wearable panic alarms to public school employees; it allows this but does not require it. 2026 HB 1260 was folded into HB 650 by the House Public Safety Committee on February 6, 2026, and did not advance on its own. HB 650 (2026) passed both chambers but was vetoed by the Governor on May 20, 2026, so it did not become law.