Yorktown board adopts districtwide safety plan; superintendent flags new ‘Desha’s Law’ cardiac requirement

The Yorktown Central School District Board of Education on Aug. 25 opened and closed a public hearing on the districtwide safety plan and voted to adopt the plan for the 2025–26 school year.

The hearing gave the community an opportunity to review the plan, which Superintendent Dr. Hatter said the district had posted online for 30 days. "Each year, school districts are required to post their district wide safety plan to their website for 30 days for the community to review," Dr. Hatter said. He added that building-level plans are confidential and filed with the state.

The adoption matters because the plan codifies emergency protocols used across district facilities. "The safety plan has few modifications from prior year to this year and we continue obviously to prioritize the safety of our staff and students," Dr. Hatter said. Board members moved, seconded and approved the adoption during the meeting.

Dr. Hatter told the board the district will need to return for a later hearing and an amended adoption to incorporate recent state legislation that he identified as "Desha's Law." He said the new law, effective in January 2026, "talks about how school districts [must have] a cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac arrest plan for each venue in which they hold events." He said the district will work with legal counsel, the medical director, nurses and athletic staff to implement the required protocols and then bring revisions to the board for public review and adoption.

The superintendent said the district posted the plan in July and believed it had been available longer than the statutory 30-day review window. He also noted that building-level safety plans are not made public because they are filed with the state.

No members of the public spoke during the hearing. The board voted to adopt the districtwide safety plan for the 2025–26 school year during the same meeting.

The board and Dr. Hatter indicated the district will return to the board for a separate hearing and adoption to incorporate the cardiac arrest requirements mandated by the new legislation in advance of its January 2026 effective date.