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Changes to NYS school lockdowns taking effect in the fall

Parents will soon be able to get a heads up when it comes to safety drills.

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — This fall, a new mandate will change how lockdown drills are conducted in New York State schools.

The mandate passed by the New York State Board of Regents on Monday, reads “Notice to parents and those in parental relations regarding drills must be made within one week before each drill”

2 On Your Side spoke with a school security expert, who says the mandate will not have a large impact on the effectiveness of drills.

“We will be notifying parents of the drill beforehand just to create a feeling of safety and security, so no one’s caught off guard. I don’t really think it’s going to impact our drills” said Bryan DalPorto, Director of Safety and Security for the Niagara Falls City School District.

"We’ve also done lockdown drills where we haven’t notified people, and parents get worried, and kids will text their parents and they don’t know what's going on,” he added.

In the new mandate, New York State schools must conduct lockdown drills in a "trauma-informed, developmentally age-appropriate manner."

It's something that Niagara Falls City School District Superintendent Mark Laurrie says will help the emotional toll drills can take on students. 

“Lockdown drills can be very nerve-racking, they can cause trauma, they can impact sensitive children. I completely get that and agree with that,” Laurrie said.

However, Laurrie says the conversation about lockdown drills should start at home.

“On the whole, I’d like parents to have a conversation about why this is occurring in a developmentally appropriate way,” he said.

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