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Board reviews FOIL disciplinary-notification language and updates to school safety plans under new state rules
Summary
Board members reviewed suggested edits to the district’s school-district-records policy to implement Public Officers Law 87 FOIL notice requirements and considered updates to school safety plans and threat-assessment teams required by recent State Education Department rules.
At Wednesday’s meeting Bay Shore Union Free School District trustees reviewed two policy updates on first reading: suggested additions to the district’s school-district-records policy implementing notification requirements under Public Officers Law §87 (FOIL) and edits to the school safety and school safety team policy (8130) to reflect recent State Education Department rules.
On records and FOIL, a presenter told the board the law requires public agencies to notify current and former employees whenever the district responds to a FOIL request for disciplinary information from their personnel file. The presenter said the recommended language requires that notification be provided in writing after the FOIL response is issued and that reasonable efforts be made to notify former employees. The board member suggested adding explicit language that employees should be notified even if no records were released and recommended a 10-business-day window for staff to notify affected employees after a response is released; the presenter said she supported that change as a practical matter.
On school safety, district staff summarized edits to policy 8130 to reflect new regulations. Updates include authorization for a student representative on the districtwide safety team (which Bay Shore already uses), the requirement that staff be trained in emergency protocols by Sept. 15 each year, inclusion of emergency-remote-instruction and pandemic protocols, and consideration of actions such as installing panic buttons. Staff also described new expectations for multidisciplinary behavioral threat-assessment teams; districts may meet the requirement with a districtwide, building-level or regional approach. Bay Shore staff said they plan to continue with a building-level team approach, and reminded the board that threat-assessment plans are confidential and not subject to FOIL.
Staff discussed a practical classroom safety measure: temporary coverings for classroom door windows during an emergency. One board member described low-cost Velcro or magnetic window covers used during drills; staff said they will consider adding language to permit window coverings during emergencies.
Staff said drills must be trauma-informed and that parents should be given notice before drills while staff should repeatedly communicate to students during a drill that it is a practice. The district’s emergency district plan must be adopted by the board each year by Sept. 1, the presenter said, replacing the earlier July 1 deadline. The board will consider the policy language at a second reading and asked staff to incorporate the suggested clarifying sentence and the 10-business-day timeline for employee notification.
