PRINTER'S NO. 160
No. 172 Session of 1999
INTRODUCED BY ORIE, BARLEY, ZUG, MASLAND, CORRIGAN, GEIST,
GEORGE, E. Z. TAYLOR, BELFANTI, MICOZZIE, PISTELLA, DeLUCA,
ARGALL, CORNELL, SANTONI, VAN HORNE, TRELLO, RAMOS,
GIGLIOTTI, B. SMITH, SOLOBAY, SEYFERT, M. COHEN, J. TAYLOR,
FREEMAN, BROWNE, BUNT, SCRIMENTI, YOUNGBLOOD AND HARHAI,
JANUARY 27, 1999
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY, JANUARY 27, 1999
AN ACT
1 Requiring all school districts to develop a comprehensive school
2 violence prevention plan.
3 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
4 hereby enacts as follows:
5 Section 1. Short title.
6 This act shall be known and may be cited as the School
7 Violence Prevention Act.
8 Section 2. Legislative intent.
9 It is the intent of the General Assembly that:
10 (1) All Pennsylvania school districts develop a
11 comprehensive and coordinated school violence prevention plan
12 relevant to the specific needs of the district and drawing on
13 existing State and community resources with the goal to
14 create a safe school environment while assuring that
15 appropriate procedures are in place to deal with crisis
16 situations which might occur.
1 (2) The school violence prevention plan is to be
2 developed by a broad-based violence prevention task force
3 based on an assessment of the current needs and resources of
4 the district in the areas of violence prevention and
5 intervention, including an analysis of the types and
6 frequency of crimes and incidents of violence currently
7 occurring on school property or at school-sponsored
8 activities and a review of available community-based
9 resources to address family and youth-related issues.
10 (3) The school violence prevention plan should include
11 appropriate strategies and programs to address both school
12 safety and violence prevention.
13 Section 3. Definitions.
14 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
15 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
16 context clearly indicates otherwise:
17 "Department." The Department of Education of the
18 Commonwealth.
19 "Local law enforcement agencies." Local police departments,
20 regional Pennsylvania State Police field installations or
21 headquarters, county sheriffs' offices and school district
22 police or security departments.
23 "Plan." The school violence prevention plan developed and
24 adopted by a school district pursuant to this act.
25 "Public School Code of 1949." The act of March 10, 1949
26 (P.L.30, No.14), known as the Public School Code of 1949.
27 "School board." The local board of school directors of a
28 school district.
29 "Secretary." The Secretary of Education of the Commonwealth.
30 "Task force." The locally constituted violence prevention
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1 task force formed pursuant to this act.
2 Section 4. Violence prevention plan.
3 (a) Plan required.--By August 1, 1999, every school district
4 shall develop and submit to the department a violence prevention
5 plan. The plan shall be submitted to the department only after
6 it is recommended by the violence prevention task force created
7 pursuant to section 6 and approved by the school board.
8 (b) Public inspection.--The violence prevention plan shall
9 be made available for public inspection in the school district
10 offices for at least 30 days prior to its approval by the school
11 board.
12 (c) Duration.--The violence prevention plan shall remain in
13 effect until it is superseded by an approved revision.
14 (d) Revisions.--Any revisions to the original plan submitted
15 to the department shall be approved by the school board with the
16 advice of its task force and the revised plan submitted to the
17 department.
18 Section 5. Preliminary assessments.
19 (a) Needs assessment.--Before beginning development of its
20 plan, the task force shall undertake a needs assessment to
21 determine specific issues and concerns within the district and
22 its surrounding community. This should include documentation of
23 current problems such as truancy, fighting, vandalism, weapons-
24 related offenses and drug-related and alcohol-related incidents
25 already occurring within the school environment as well as an
26 evaluation of the district's physical environment in order to
27 identify locations which may be particularly isolated or
28 violence prone.
29 (b) Review of existing programs.--Concurrent with the needs
30 assessment the task force shall also compile a list of school-
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1 based and community-based programs for young people already
2 available to deal with violence prevention, intervention and
3 rehabilitation.
4 Section 6. Violence prevention task force.
5 (a) Membership.--The plan provided for in section 4 shall be
6 prepared for submission to the school board by a violence
7 prevention task force whose membership shall at a minimum
8 include: district administrators, teachers, guidance counselors,
9 school nurses and school directors; parents; students; local law
10 enforcement agencies; community and business leaders; probation
11 and court representatives; social service and health care
12 providers; and other youth-serving professionals.
13 (b) Public hearing.--The task force shall hold at least one
14 public hearing prior to preparing its plan for submission to the
15 school board for approval.
16 Section 7. Content of school violence prevention plan.
17 The plan developed by the task force and submitted to the
18 department shall include the following components:
19 (1) A brief description of the process used to develop
20 the plan, including the members of the task force, the date
21 of public hearings held and the date and official vote by
22 which the local board adopted the plan.
23 (2) Procedures for assuring compliance with existing
24 laws related to school safety including:
25 (i) Article XIII-A of the Public School Code of
26 1949.
27 (ii) Section 1317.1 of the Public School Code of
28 1949.
29 (iii) Section 1317.2 of the Public School Code of
30 1949.
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1 (iv) Sections 1 through 4 of the act of July 12,
2 1972 (P.L.765, No.181) entitled, "An act relating to
3 drugs and alcohol and their abuse, providing for projects
4 and programs and grants to educational agencies, other
5 public or private agencies, institutions or
6 organizations."
7 (v) 18 Pa.C.S. Ch. 61 (relating to firearms and
8 other dangerous articles).
9 (vi) 23 Pa.C.S. Ch. 23 Subch. C.2 (relating to
10 background checks for employment in schools).
11 (vii) 23 Pa.C.S. Ch. 63 Subch. B (relating to
12 provisions and responsibilities for reporting suspected
13 child abuse) governing reporting of child abuse.
14 (3) A code of student conduct.
15 (i) The code of conduct shall conform to the State
16 Board of Education regulations found in 22 Pa. Code 12.3
17 (relating to school rules).
18 (ii) The code shall clearly explain school rules and
19 punishments for infractions.
20 (iii) The code shall include conformity with the
21 zero-tolerance provisions regarding weapons found in
22 section 1317.2 of the Public School Code of 1949; and any
23 other zero-tolerance offenses as established by the
24 school board.
25 (iv) The code shall include any establishment of a
26 uniform schoolwide dress code pursuant to section 1317.3
27 of the Public School Code of 1949.
28 (v) At the beginning of each school year students
29 shall be furnished with a copy of the current code of
30 student conduct adopted by the school board. Copies shall
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1 also be made available to administrators, parents and
2 teachers within the district.
3 (4) Establishment of policies to insure consistent crime
4 reporting by school officials to law enforcement to include
5 development of memoranda of understanding in compliance with
6 section 1303-A of the Public School Code of 1949.
7 (5) A comprehensive school crisis plan which outlines
8 policies and procedures for dealing with potential crisis
9 situations which, depending on a local assessment of those
10 situations most likely to occur in the district, may include
11 facilities problems such as electrical outages; fires;
12 protests, strikes or other unrest; natural disasters;
13 transportation delays, problems or accidents; individual
14 child accidents; medical problems involving multiple
15 students, such as a meningitis outbreak; individual medical
16 crises including alcohol and drugs; individual mental health
17 crises, including trauma and suicide; intentional acts
18 against persons, including assaults, rape, assaults with
19 weapons, assaults with chemicals, bomb threats or bullying;
20 hostage situations; abductions, kidnappings or missing
21 persons; and events outside school that may affect the school
22 community, such as a major crime or accident such as an
23 airline crash. A comprehensive crisis plan should include the
24 following elements:
25 (i) Prevention guidelines which outline policies to
26 prevent incidents. These may include curricular offerings
27 or special age-appropriate programs to develop students'
28 interpersonal skills such as peer mediation, mentoring,
29 peer intervention and conflict resolution; staff
30 training; techniques and procedures for identification
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1 and reporting by staff and students of potential violent
2 or criminal acts; disciplinary and counseling procedures
3 for drug-related and alcohol-related incidents; and
4 implementation of specific safety procedures to be put in
5 place within the district, such as mandatory visitor
6 identification.
7 (ii) Early interventions which delineate activities
8 and guidelines to inform people of how to assess a
9 potential problem and what to do about it. These may
10 include staff training in assessment tools for predicting
11 violent juvenile behavior, bomb threat procedures and
12 crisis training drills so students and staff know what to
13 do if an emergency occurs.
14 (iii) Crisis intervention guidelines which include
15 directions on how to get help, specific steps to be taken
16 and steps to avoid. These should be developed in concert
17 with existing memoranda of understanding developed with
18 law enforcement pursuant to section 1301-A(c) of the
19 Public School Code of 1949. Specific issues that should
20 be addressed in the guidelines include lines of
21 responsibility, reporting procedures, communications
22 protocols, special equipment and materials needs, etc.
23 (iv) Support guidelines which identify needs and
24 available resources in terms of support for staff,
25 students, families and others after a crisis situation
26 occurs. This may include referral to counseling,
27 rehabilitation or other intervention programs available
28 in the local community.
29 (v) Debriefing and evaluation which outlines
30 procedures for all responders to meet following an
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1 incident in order to evaluate how the various components
2 of the plan operated in actual application.
3 (vi) Revisions and upgrading of plan which are based
4 on evaluation and other input from responders, victims,
5 staff and others involved in the incident.
6 (6) Any other programs, curricular offerings or
7 procedures that the task force deems necessary to the safe
8 and orderly operation of the district.
9 Section 8. State resources.
10 (a) General rule.--In developing its plan, a district may
11 utilize the existing resources of the Center for Safe Schools
12 established by the Department of Education pursuant to the
13 Public School Code of 1949. In particular, districts may
14 reference the Toolkit for School Safety Planning developed by
15 the Center for Safe Schools.
16 (b) Dissemination of model plans.--The Department of
17 Education, through its Office for Safe Schools, shall develop
18 and make available to school districts model violence prevention
19 plans drawn from programs already offered in this State and
20 nationally. These model plans shall include any pertinent
21 supporting materials and information indicating why the model
22 was selected and where it was previously used. These models may
23 be used by individual districts and their task forces to develop
24 their local plans. The department shall make every effort to
25 assure that multiple model plans are available which reflect
26 rural, suburban and urban perspectives.
27 Section 9. Regional planning.
28 (a) Cooperation.--In order to provide for maximum
29 coordination of efforts and to avoid duplication, one or more
30 districts may join to form a consortium for the purposes of
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1 developing their violence prevention plan and may form a single
2 joint task force to assist them in this regard.
3 (b) Intermediate unit utilization.--Districts may utilize
4 the services of their intermediate units to facilitate such
5 regional planning.
6 (c) Submission of individual plan required.--The provisions
7 of this section notwithstanding, each district which is a member
8 of such a consortium shall submit its own plan, adopted by its
9 school board to the department.
10 Section 10. Pre-existing plans.
11 (a) General rule.--Any school district which has already
12 developed a school violence prevention plan adopted by its local
13 board of school directors and that contains the components
14 required in section 7 may not be required to develop a new plan
15 but may submit the pre-existing plan to the Department of
16 Education in compliance with section 4.
17 (b) Revisions.--Any revisions to a pre-existing plan shall
18 be subject to the requirements of section 4.
19 Section 11. Effective date.
20 This act shall take effect immediately.
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