How to see if your child’s school is up to date on safety drills
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - If you’re concerned about your child’s safety in the aftermath of Wednesday’s deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, you can find out what kinds of drills are being done on campus – usually.
There’s a state portal where parents can check on whether schools are complying with regulations on drills.
But the portal happens to be down this week, just as many parents are probably wanting to check.
When the portal is working, the Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Fire Safety makes it easy for you to see when your child’s school is doing fire drills.
“When you go to our online reporting system, you can get down to the nitty-gritty of each individual school in Georgia,” said Bryce Rawson, press secretary for the Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Fire Safety.
The office requires all public and private schools to have a fire safety drill at least once a month, with the option to substitute for an intruder drill (in lieu of the fire drill), which is required by Georgia state law.
“An intruder alert drill is done. It can be substituted in the months of September, November and February,” said Rawson.
Just last year, Georgia state lawmakers ed a bill making annual active shooter drills mandatory, and there’s a time-frame attached to this.
By law, every public school has to complete one of these drills by Oct. 1.
Lawmakers gave Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security the task of guiding the schools on how to do these, but also of keeping track of who’s done them and who hasn’t.
We asked how many schools have done the active shooter drills so far and they couldn’t give us exact numbers, but say it’s fewer than half.
MORE FROM NEWS 12:
Safety takes more than metal detectors, local school board chief says
A year after a shooting injured a Josey student, Richmond County schools still don't have metal detectors. Neither did Apalachee High School.
This device saved many Apalachee teens – and it could save your kids
Several of our school districts are now using panic alert systems. Richmond, Columbia and McDuffie counties all have a similar system in place.
Meet the lifesaving school resource officers of Apalachee High
Two school resource officers helped bring the suspect in Wednesday’s deadly Apalachee High School shooting into custody. Learn about them.
Apalachee High shooting: How the terror unfolded
Students describe what they saw, heard and felt as a shooting rampage erupted at a Georgia high school.
But, there is still a lot more time until the deadline.
We have reached out for more information on this, and will make an update as soon as one is available.
When the system is working again, you should be able to visit the Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Fire Safety public portal, choose your county, choose your child’s school and choose the school year.
“Parents can have that peace of mind when they send their kids to school. They know that their kid is going to be well taken care of. They’re going to arrive home safe and sound. And if an emergency, you know, we hope it doesn’t happen. But if it does that these kids are going to be safe,” he said.
Each year, schools follow a schedule for fire safety drills:
By the numbers
The Gun Violence Archive said that in Georgia schools since 2022, there have been:
- 97 gun incidents
- Five gun fatalities
- 17 gun injuries
- 72 arrests for gun incidents
Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
