The school’s emergency plan: what they must hand you

Every school and every care centre must have a written plan for what is done if there is a hurricane, an earthquake, a fire or any threat to the children’s safety. This law gives you the right to be handed a copy of that plan — not a summary, a copy — and tells you when: during enrolment. It also requires the municipality to receive it and its emergency management corps to evaluate it. It applies to the public school and the private school alike.

If you are the father, mother or guardian of an enrolled minor, the right is yours with no further requirement. What is worth checking is whether the establishment is covered, and the Article 2 list is wider than people assume: “every school, college, supervised study centre or extended care centre, whether public or private.” Four kinds of establishment, and the word “private” is written there, so a private school is not outside it. The plan covers “cases of emergencies, natural disasters and any threat to the health or safety of minors,” which goes beyond hurricanes.

• Be the father, mother or guardian of a minor enrolled in a school, college, supervised study centre or extended care centre, public or private.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Ask at enrolment, which is when it is due

   There is no need to wait for hurricane season or for something to happen. Article 2 fixes the moment: the establishment “shall be obliged during the enrolment period to notify the parents and the municipality where it is located, in writing or by electronic means, of a copy of the school emergency operations plan.” Note three phrases. “During the enrolment period”: that is the deadline. “A copy”: not a summary or a talk. “In writing or by electronic means”: email works, but it must be in writing.

2. 2

   Step 2: The first thing to look for in the plan

   It is the question every parent asks first: if there is an evacuation, where do they take my child? Article 2 requires the notification to include “the designated relocation area.” Look for it by that name. If the plan you are handed does not say it, it is missing the item the Act puts first, and that is the most concrete complaint you can raise at the school office.

3. 3

   Step 3: If your child has special needs, it is written in

   It is not a favour to be requested, it is mandatory content of the notification. Article 2 requires “procedures to address the individual needs of children, including those with special needs.” The Act says it in those words. If your child uses a wheelchair, needs medication at a fixed hour, has a condition that prevents them understanding an alarm, or depends on equipment, the plan must say how that is handled, not only how the group is evacuated.

4. 4

   Step 4: The other two mandatory items

   The Article 2 list has four things and all four are demandable. Besides the relocation area and the individual needs, the notification must include “instructions received by the personnel designated to handle the emergency event” — that is, what the teacher was taught, not only what the manual says — and “information on drill exercises providing evacuation and contingency plans to face emergency situations and natural disasters.” And note: the Act says “shall include, among other things,” so those four are the floor, not the ceiling.

5. 5

   Step 5: If they change the plan, they have 72 hours

   This is the short deadline worth knowing, because it covers exactly when plans tend to change: when something is approaching. Article 2 closes like this: “In case of modifications to the original plan submitted, the establishment shall be obliged to notify it within seventy-two (72) hours.” If in August you were told the relocation point was the gym and in October they moved it elsewhere, they have seventy-two hours to tell you.

6. 6

   Step 6: If it was never handed to you: there is a record

   Article 3 places on the establishment a duty that gives you leverage: “Every school, college, supervised study centre or extended care centre must keep a record of having formally notified a copy of its school emergency operations plans to the parents of its students and to the corresponding municipalities.” A record in its files. If you never received anything, that is the question to ask at the office: where is the record that it was notified to me.

7. 7

   Step 7: The municipality reviews it too, and you can go there

   This is the part almost nobody knows and it gives a second door. Article 4: “The municipalities within whose territorial demarcation the school, college, supervised study centre or extended care centre is located must refer a copy of the notified emergency plan to their respective municipal emergency management corps. These, in turn, are called upon to evaluate whether they meet adequate standards for emergency management, evaluate whether the places identified as relocation points in an evacuation are appropriate, and recommend those amendments they deem convenient and necessary.” If the relocation point seems inappropriate to you — in a flood zone, without access, too far — your municipality’s emergency management corps is exactly who the Act puts in charge of evaluating that.

8. 8

   Step 8: What this Act does not give you, said plainly

   So you know where the text ends. Act 46-2019 creates the duty to notify and the municipal evaluation, but it provides no fine, creates no complaint procedure and names no forum to turn to if the school simply does not hand you the plan. We will not suggest a remedy the Act does not create. What it does give you are two concrete levers: the record-keeping in Article 3, which you can ask for, and the municipal emergency management corps in Article 4, which is called upon to evaluate the plan and recommend amendments.

At the establishment itself — school, college, supervised study centre or extended care centre — which bears the duty to notify during enrolment and to keep the record. If the plan does not arrive or the relocation point worries you, the second door is your municipality’s emergency management corps, which Article 4 charges with evaluating it and recommending amendments. The Act publishes no form, plan template, office, address or telephone, and we do not invent them.

• Believing it only applies to public schools: the Act says “whether public or private” and covers colleges, supervised study centres and extended care centres.
• Settling for a talk or a summary: what must be notified is a copy of the plan, in writing or by electronic means.
• Waiting for hurricane season to ask: the moment the Act fixes is the enrolment period.
• Not checking the designated relocation area: it is the first item the Act requires be included.
• Assuming special needs get sorted out on the fly: the plan must carry procedures for individual needs, including special ones.
• Letting a plan change slide: there are seventy-two hours to notify any modification.
• Thinking the school need not prove it notified you: it must keep a record in its files.
• Not going to the municipality: its emergency management corps is called upon to evaluate the plan and whether the relocation point is appropriate.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov