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MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — WPTV is taking a deeper dive into the state of Florida’s new school safety legal guidelines designed to maintain your youngsters protected.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Education
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed in law HB 1421, which incorporates each safety and psychological well being necessities for public colleges in Florida.
One of these necessities entails school districts having a board-approved reunification plan in case of an emergency.
WPTV schooling reporter Stephanie Susskind discovered that a few of our space school districts have already got a number of of the new necessities in place as they work to continuously enhance safety.
The Martin County School District put an evacuation and reunification system in place for emergencies effectively earlier than it turned a requirement within the new school safety law.
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“We saw a need to try to improve what is the norm around the country. So we kind of took it a step further,” stated Frank Frangella, the director of safety and safety for the Martin County School District.
The system Frangella put in place entails students swiping their identification playing cards in the event that they need to evacuate for an emergency.
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“It tells me, number one, that they are on the bus and safe and going to our reunification site,” Frangella stated. “We can pull that information and send it to the parents, in hoping to get that message to parents quicker.”
“Reunification is an important part of [HB 1421]. After the events in Parkland, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission really called out the piece that followed. And there was just so much going on and it just took so long. And so they were really looking to deal with that in this bill,” stated David Rogers with Raptor Technologies, an organization that gives safety software program for school districts, together with Palm Beach County.
Rogers agrees the reunification step is a crucial a part of the method.
“Florida is really ahead of the curve in terms of proactively addressing a lot of the school safety issues,” Rogers stated. “Unfortunately, a lot of times it takes an event to make things happen.”
Other provisions of the new law embrace:
- Requiring school cops to finish disaster intervention coaching
- Authorizing Florida’s schooling commissioner to implement safety compliance and set guidelines for emergency drills
- Requiring school districts have at the least 80% of school personnel obtain youth psychological well being consciousness coaching as of July 2023
Speaking in Fort Myers Beach on Wednesday, DeSantis doubled down on Florida’s dedication to school safety.
“If you are one of these nutjobs, if you try that, just know you are going to end up on your ass,” DeSantis stated. “And it’s not going to end up being pretty and you are not going to walk out of there alive.”
WATCH GOVERNOR’S COMMENTS:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks about school safety
Frangella stated he opinions the safety laws with law enforcement earlier than it even goes up for a vote. And if it is sensible, he implements it as quickly as doable.
“We’ll never say it’s over and we’ve done everything. We’ll just keep going,” Frangella stated.
The new law additionally extends the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission to 2026 to proceed monitoring how school saftey guidelines are carried out.
A spokeswoman for St. Lucie Public Schools stated the district has a reunification plan in place as a part of its Emergency Management Plan, and school directors obtain ongoing coaching on reunification.
The district has skilled roughly 3,000 employees members on youth psychological well being consciousness and “are well on our way to meet this requirement by July 1, 2023.”
In addition, all school useful resource officers in St. Lucie Public Schools are sworn law enforcement officers and have obtained youth psychological well being coaching. The district stated it “will continue to do so as required.”
The district stated it is also in compliance with the new law by using the Columbia Suicide Severity Scale, “which is the same suicide screening tool used by the local mobile response teams and approved by [the Florida Department of Education],” a spokeswoman stated.
A spokeswoman for the School District of Indian River County stated the district is “making Mental Health Awareness training a top priority,” and can present youth psychological well being teacher coaching for employees members in late June.
In addition, all school useful resource officers will obtain psychological well being consciousness coaching in August, which can function a recertification for most of them.
“Moving forward into the next school year we will offer [youth mental health] trainings on every school based professional development day available,” stated Cristen Maddux, the general public information officer for the School District of Indian River County. “At the conclusion of next year, it is our goal to have trained 100% of our staff.”
The district stated it additionally has a reunification plan in place inside its Emergency Management Plan, and that plan has been offered to Indian River County constitution colleges.
“Charter schools may choose to use/adopt our EMP plan or use their own. Our family reunification plan locations and procedures encompass charter schools as well,” Maddux stated.
WPTV contacted school districts in Palm Beach and Okeechobee counties to be taught extra about their school safety measures associated to the new law, however has not heard again.
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