The city will install 21,000 audible door alarms by December in more than 1,200 public school buildings. The safety measure comes after the death of Avonte Oquendo, a teenager who died after wandering out an open door of his special needs school in Queens in October, 2013.
The City Council passed Avonte’s Law last year, requiring the Department of Education to survey schools across the five boroughs by May 30th, to determine if a ringing alarm was needed. Of the 1,263 school buildings surveyed, 97 percent requested new alarms according Brooklyn Councilman Robert Cornegy, who sponsored the legislation. The remaining three percent already have alarms, he added.
“As a parent of a child with special needs, I am grateful to have fulfilled a promise I made to the Oquendo and Talley-Jasper families,” he said, referring to Symeir Talley-Jasper, a pre-kindergarten student who left a Brooklyn school but was found safe.
Cornegy was joined at a press conference outside City Hall on Thursday by representatives of the teachers union, the Department of Education and families.
Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose said alarms are being installed on a rolling basis, at a rate of roughly 50 week for the remainder of the year. She said they will cost a total of $5.5 million.
Avonte’s Law initially met opposition from some principals who wanted to retain control of how to keep their schools safe. Councilman Cornegy said its adoption and enactment is due in large part to the public outcry of advocates and parents.
Darlene Boston, a mother and special needs advocate from Brooklyn, added, “When it comes to the safety of our children, moms and dads like me won’t take no for answer.”
“One of the scariest things that you can do is entrust the safety of your child with the city of New York, but as parents, we do this every day and hope for the best,” she said.
The Department of Education will also provide training starting this month to principals and staffers on how to respond to the door alarms, and what to do when they are activated. Schools will get additional support this fall on managing student transitions between classes, and at dismissal time, to prevent any children from walking out of the building. School safety agents will also be trained on how to support students with special needs who have the tendency to wander.
Schools are already required to call 911 when a child is missing. Principals or other officials must activate building response teams and communicate with law enforcement. A report by the Special Commissioner of Investigations for the city schools found confusion at the Queens school Avonte Oquendo attended, when he slipped away from his classmates on the way back to their room after lunch.
This spring, the state comptroller urged the city to take action after noting 184 occasions in which students left nine schools without permission, and in most of those instances there was no documentation that staff looked for them.