School safety plans of private schools may be prepared with input from students enrolled in that school, parents or legal guardians of such students, teachers in that school, other school employees, and local law enforcement, fire service, public safety, and emergency management agencies. Such plans shall be reviewed and, if necessary, updated annually. Such plans of public schools shall be submitted to the local emergency management agency and the local law enforcement agency for approval.
(Code 1981, §20-2-1185, enacted by Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 3; Ga. L. 1999, p. 379, § 1; Ga. L. 2014, p. 432, § 2-12/HB 826; Ga. L. 2014, p. 599, § 3-5/HB 60; Ga. L. 2016, p. 91, § 3/SB 416; Ga. L. 2018, p. 753, § 2/HB 763.)
The 2014 amendments. The first 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, deleted "paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of" following "as defined in" in the first sentence of subsection (c). The second 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, made identical changes.
The 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2016, inserted "and Homeland Security" in subsections (b) and (d); and inserted a comma following "equipment" in the first sentence of subsection (b).
The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, in subsection (a), inserted "juvenile court," near the end of the third sentence, added the fourth and fifth sentences, added paragraphs (a)(1) through (a)(5), and added "and the local law enforcement agency for approval" at the end of the last sentence; substituted the present provisions of subsection (b) for the former provisions, which read: "A public school may request funding assistance from the state for the installation of safety equipment, including, but not limited to, video surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and other similar security devices. Funding may be provided to a public school in accordance with a school safety plan prepared by the school and approved by the local board of education, the Department of Education, and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency."; deleted a comma following "private school systems" in the middle of the first sentence of subsection (d); and added subsection (e).
Cross references.- Carrying weapons within certain school safety zones and at school functions, § 16-11-130.1.
Georgia Information Sharing and Analysis Center, § 35-3-20.
Law reviews.- For annual survey of local government law, see 58 Mercer L. Rev. 267 (2006). For survey article on local government law, see 59 Mercer L. Rev. 285 (2007). For article, "Students, Security, and Race," see 63 Emory L. J. 1 (2013). For article on the 2014 amendment of this Code section, see 31 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 47 (2014).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Liability of officials.
- Trial court properly granted summary judgment to a county school board and the board's superintendent in a parents' negligence action arising out of an attack on school grounds that injured the parents' child as the board and the superintendent presented sufficient evidence that a school safety plan was in place at the elementary school at the time the child was attacked, entitling the board and the superintendent to official immunity barring the parents' negligence claims. Leake v. Murphy, 284 Ga. App. 490, 644 S.E.2d 328 (2007), cert. denied, 2007 Ga. LEXIS 671 (Ga. 2007).
Appellate court's reversal of a grant of judgment on the pleadings to defendants, the members of a school board of education, a school principal, the assistant principal, and a clinic nurse in their individual capacities, was in error in a negligence suit brought by the parents of a student who was assaulted by another student; the mandated action set forth in O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1185 on the part of a school to create a safety plan was a discretionary duty rather than a ministerial duty, and while O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1184 establishes Georgia's public policy concerning the need to report timely to the appropriate authorities the identity of students who commit certain proscribed acts on school grounds, the statute did not create a civil cause of action for damages in favor of a victim or anyone else for the purported failure to report timely. Murphy v. Bajjani, 282 Ga. 197, 647 S.E.2d 54 (2007).
Preparation of safety plan is discretionary; Leake v. Murphy overruled.
- Mandated action set forth in O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1185 with regard to every public school preparing a school safety plan is a discretionary duty rather than a ministerial duty; by so deciding, the Supreme Court of Georgia determined that the holding in Leake v. Murphy, 274 Ga. App. 219 (2005) was incorrect and overruled that holding. Murphy v. Bajjani, 282 Ga. 197, 647 S.E.2d 54 (2007).
ARTICLE 28 SICK LEAVE FOR FOOD SERVICE PERSONNEL
Code Commission notes.
- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1986, the "Article 28" enacted by Ga. L. 1986, p. 1172, was redesignated as "Article 29".