(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Richard A. Ross today announced that Ohio schools may now begin submitting school safety plans via a secure online portal to help first responders in case of an emergency. The portal is one of the many recommendations of the Attorney General’s School Safety Task Force which have been implemented since the task force announced its recommendations earlier this year.
“Schools told us that we can help them make it easy to submit school safety plans if they could submit them electronically, and I am pleased that we have launched this new, secure online portal,” said Attorney General DeWine. “These school safety plans are so important to first responders in case of an emergency.”
“When I talk to parents around the state, their top concern is the safety of their children. We need to support our schools’ efforts to protect our boys and girls,” said Ross. “This portal will help school administrators submit quality school safety plans that can be shared with local law enforcement and emergency agencies.”
Ohio law requires each Ohio school to submit school floor plans and safety plans to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The plans are placed on the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway (OHLEG) so they can be used by law enforcement and first responders in case of an emergency.
One of the recommendations of the Attorney General’s School Safety Task Force was to allow schools to submit these plans to OHLEG electronically. Task force members from the Ohio Department of Education and the Attorney General’s Office worked to help create a system where schools could upload the plans to the Department’s Security Application for Enterprise (SAFE) Web portal. The application in SAFE transfers uploaded plans to OHLEG for use by first responders.
The Task Force also published a model safety plan template that schools could use to discuss with stakeholders how to improve and strengthen their schools’ plans. The Task Force advised safety plans be structured so that the most pertinent information for first responders is accessible at the beginning of each plan.
For more information on the task force and school safety resources, please visit www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/SchoolSafety or education.ohio.gov/Topics/Other-Resources/School-Safety.
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