Friday marks deadline for school districts to submit safety plans to Department of Education

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Friday marks the deadline for school districts in Rhode Island to notify the Department of Education of any safety issues in school buildings.

By the end of the day, school districts must have their surveys submitted to the Department of Education. From there, the results will be assessed and recommendations will be provided. Dr. Lawrence Filippelli, a member of the Rhode Island School Safety Committee said they are mainly looking to improve camera systems and entrance security at schools.

“Our team looks at them and then we provide feedback to all of the superintendents on what we see on the all-hazards survey reports,” Filippelli said.

Last week, Gov. Dan McKee said that all districts in the state would work with local police departments to look for safety issues within their school systems, following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

“Public safety, and especially the safety of our children, must be our highest priority,” McKee said. “The best way for us to ensure that what happened in Uvalde cannot happen here is to make serious investments in repairs and security upgrades. Rhode Island families deserve that peace of mind.”

If any districts found safety problems, they were required to work with the police to come up with a plan to fix them. McKee’s office said that school districts are eligible for up to $500,000 in emergency funds for safety upgrades.

Filippelli discussed some of the areas they will look to identify through the results of walkthroughs, to decide where they will allocate funds over the summer.

“Things that would harden the exterior of the building, looking at those. Looking at systems for internal and exterior surveillance,” Filippelli said. “Some things that would prevent easy ability to look in and out of windows.”