HOUSE BILL REPORT
SB 5647
As Passed House:
February 27, 2024
Title: An act relating to providing substitute teachers and other temporary employees necessary information about school safety policies and procedures.
Brief Description: Providing temporary employees necessary information about school safety policies and procedures.
Sponsors: Senators Torres, Conway, King, Lovelett, Wilson, C. and Wilson, J..
Brief History:
Committee Activity:
Education: 2/14/24, 2/19/24 [DP].
Floor Activity:
Passed House: 2/27/24, 95-0.
Brief Summary of Bill
  • Requires school district safe school plans to include how substitute teachers and other temporary employees will receive necessary information about safe school plans.
  • Requires model safety policies, procedures, and best practices of the School Safety Center to include how substitute teachers and other temporary employees will receive necessary information about school safety policies and procedures.
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Majority Report: Do pass.Signed by 15 members:Representatives Santos, Chair; Shavers, Vice Chair; Rude, Ranking Minority Member; McEntire, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Bergquist, Couture, Eslick, Harris, McClintock, Nance, Ortiz-Self, Pollet, Steele, Stonier and Timmons.
Staff: Ethan Moreno (786-7386).
Background:

Safe School Plans.
School districts must adopt and implement "safe school plans" that address emergency preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.  The plans, which must include school safety policies and procedures, must also include provisions for assisting and communicating with students and staff, family reunification plans, and guidelines for the participation of local first responders in school safety-related drills.
 
Safe school plans must use training and guidance provided by the Washington Emergency Management Division of the State Military Department in collaboration with the School Safety Center in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and a student well-being advisory committee established in statute.
 
School Safety Center.
Legislation adopted in 2019 directed the Superintendent of Public Instruction to establish the School Safety Center for the purposes of working with regional school safety centers and forming a statewide network for school safety.  The School Safety Center, in collaboration with the OSPI, is required to perform certain duties, including:

  • serving as a clearinghouse for information on comprehensive school safety planning and practice;
  • disseminating information about school safety incidents in the state and elsewhere;
  • serving as the lead school safety center and working with the regional school safety centers to support school districts in meeting requirements for school safety, including requirements for safe school plans;
  • developing model school safety policies and procedures, and identifying best practices in school safety; and
  • holding an annual school safety summit. 


Functional Drills.
School principals and administrators are required to assess the threats and hazards most likely to impact their school, and to practice three basic functional drills:  shelter-in-place, lockdown, and evacuation, as these drills relate to those threats and hazards.  Some threats or hazards may require the use of more than one basic functional drill.  Schools must conduct at least one safety-related drill per month, document the date, time, and type of each drill, and maintain the documentation in the school office.
Summary of Bill:

School district safe school plans must include information regarding how substitute teachers and other temporary employees will receive necessary information about safe school plans, including school safety policies and procedures and responses to the three basic functional drills (shelter-in-place, lockdown, and evacuation).
 
Model safety policies, procedures, and best practices of the School Safety Center must include information regarding how substitute teachers and other temporary employees will receive necessary information about school safety policies and procedures.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.
Staff Summary of Public Testimony:

(In support) The amount of safety information and training that substitute teachers and temporary employees receive is inconsistent.  This bill requires school district safe school plans to include information about how these employees will receive this necessary information, including information about school safety policies and procedures and the three basic functional drill responses.  The bill also directs the School Safety Center to include information about how substitute teachers and other temporary employees will receive necessary information about school safety policies and procedures in their model safety policies and procedures.

 

(Opposed) None.
Persons Testifying:

Senator Nikki Torres, prime sponsor.
Persons Signed In To Testify But Not Testifying: None.