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Senate panel advances bill requiring standardized school safety mapping for first responders
Summary
The Senate Education Committee voted to report House Bill 3166 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass and be referred to Finance. The bill would require county boards of education to create standardized school safety mapping data that is permanently available, free to local response agencies, and verifiable on-site.
The West Virginia Senate Education Committee on a voice vote advanced House Bill 3166, a measure that would require each county board of education to produce standardized school safety mapping data for use by first responders.
Committee counsel Hank told the committee, "This bill allows each county board of education to create standardized school safety mapping data and sets forth a list of minimum requirements that the mapping data must conform to." Hank said the data must be deliverable in formats that integrate with software used by public safety answering points and local, state and federal public safety agencies without requiring additional software purchases or access fees.
The bill would require maps' accuracy to be verified by the producing entity through an on-site walkthrough with relevant public safety agencies, school safety personnel or school administration. Counsel said the mapping data must be provided to the State Board of Education, the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and local first-response agencies, "including police, fire, emergency medical services and any other local entities the school's scribe response planning team determines should be consulted." The bill requires initial production costs be borne by the producing entity but mandates that the data be made permanently available at no additional cost to the receiving agencies.
Senators raised practical questions about whether mapping capabilities might be included in security systems already being purchased. A junior senator from the eighth asked whether the state should buy mapping proactively if the districts may obtain mapping as part of forthcoming security system purchases; Hank replied that the bill will next go to Finance, where costs will be considered.
The committee's vice chair moved to report the bill to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass, under the original double committee reference first to the Committee on Finance. The motion passed on a voice vote with no recorded opposition.
The measure now goes to Finance for fiscal review before a full Senate vote.
