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Committee advances bill creating Office of School Safety, streamlines school-safety functions and adjusts fire/inspection rules
Summary
Lawmakers advanced a bill to move school-safety functions into the Department of Homeland Security, create an Office of School Safety, add roles to county school safety commissions and change certain fire and building code review processes; stakeholders urged minor additions and technical amendments.
A House committee on Monday advanced a comprehensive public-safety bill that creates an Office of School Safety within the Department of Homeland Security (IDHS), transfers existing school-safety staff from the Department of Education, and consolidates grant and school-safety functions under one agency.
Sponsor Chairman Steve Bartels said the bill formalizes a governor-led initiative to streamline school-safety work already performed by both the Department of Education and IDHS. Under the proposal, staff and funding currently housed at the Department of Education would transfer to IDHS, with no net increase in government head count, and the secure school safety board’s director would become the director of the new Office of School Safety. The proposal also adds four specialized positions to the board and adds the fire-chief designee to county school safety commissions.
IDHS legislative director Alyssa Schroeder described the consolidation as creating a one-stop shop for school safety, combining grant administration and training and aligning responsibilities so schools and local governments have a single state contact. The department said no additional funding is needed because the functions and funding will move from the Department of Education to IDHS.
The bill contains additional provisions: it expands which IDHS staff and inspectors are included in the law-enforcement definition for sentencing purposes, clarifies arson investigators’ authority to follow evidence of other crimes found during fire investigations, exempts fire departments and training facilities from repetitive burn permit requirements for training burns, and requires IDHS to publish a list of project types that do not require a full plan review for a construction design release to speed approvals.
Stakeholders including the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana, Indiana Fire Chiefs Association and Indiana chapter of the American Institute of Architects testified in support. The architecture group asked the committee to consider adding an architect with K–12 design experience to the secure school safety board to ensure building design expertise is available for safety reviews. Other witnesses recommended standardized school mapping and information-sharing practices to improve cross-jurisdiction response.
The committee recessed further amendment work and said it will circulate a technical amendment in advance of subsequent discussion. Chairman Bartels said an amendment will be circulated to incorporate local government entities into burn-permit or training-facility exemptions. The transcript records the committee holding the bill for further amendment distribution, and it closed the hearing for additional testimony and review.
Ending: The bill advances committee-level policy to centralize school-safety functions and streamline fire and inspection processes. Stakeholders asked for a technical amendment to add K–12 architectural expertise to the secure school safety board and suggested standardized mapping and data sharing to improve mutual-aid responses; the committee said it will circulate a formal amendment for review.
Votes at a glance: the transcript indicates the committee proceeded to take additional testimony and deferred final action on amendments; the bill was held for further amendment distribution (transcript: "we are going to hold a bill").
