Rhode Island school floor plan law
What Rhode Island requires of school floor plans and maps: who must plan for responder access, when plans are updated, and how they're kept private.
Every fact checked against the official source by an independent reviewer · Last verified October 26, 2026
Does Rhode Island require school floor plans?
Yes. R.I. Gen. Laws § 16-21-24 requires each building's school emergency response plan to include procedures assuring that crisis response and law enforcement officials have access to floor plans, blueprints, schematics or other maps of the school interior and grounds, and road maps of the surrounding area. Each district's school safety plan must include an emergency response plan for each school building, developed and approved in consultation with local police and fire.
Who must do it?
The school committee of each town, city and regional school department must adopt a comprehensive school safety plan, in executive session (a closed meeting). The sentence in § 16-21-23(b) that sets this duty names no private school. The school safety team that develops the plan includes members of local law enforcement, fire and emergency personnel.
Who is involved with the maps?
Each building plan must name an emergency response team of school staff, local law enforcement, and representatives of local, regional or state emergency response agencies. The State Police provide consultation on building plans for districts that do not have access to local police.
How often must plans be updated?
District school safety plans and school emergency response plans must be reviewed and updated every year by the school committee. Those reviews and updates must be finished by November 1 each year.
Are school maps confidential?
Documents produced by school safety teams are not subject to the state's public records law. The Access to Public Records Act also excludes school district documents meant to protect students' safety from threats.
What happened to recent bills?
2026 S 2280 Sub A would have required public and private schools and colleges to send a safety and emergency response plan to the Department of Education, with a copy to local police; it does not mention floor plans or maps. It would have required those plans to ensure immediate access to school buildings for first responders. It passed the Senate on June 3, 2026, its last official action, and was not enacted. Its House companion, H 7897, was held for further study in House Education on March 17, 2026, its last action.
How can QuickSecure help?
QuickSecure builds your campus floor plans in Nexus from your building drawings. They show every room by name, every door and exit, and where your AEDs, fire extinguishers and fire alarms are.
Administrators can open the plans in the dashboard at any time.
In a Lockdown, Nexus shows on the floor plan which rooms are secured.
Dispatch sends the building, address and room to 911 through RapidSOS.
This is not a statement that any product satisfies Rhode Island's requirements; that reading belongs to your district and its counsel.