State legislators are pushing for the city and other large school districts to introduce a text-message alert system that would inform parents about public-school emergencies.
The proposed system would imitate those colleges have adopted in the wake of campus shootings.
“Parents just need to be informed – we’re not asking for anything more than that,” said Assemblyman Mark Weprin (D-Queens), one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “It seems like a commonsense thing the city should be doing.”
The bill, which is in the education committees of the state Senate and Assembly, would require text notifications to parents, staffers and even school neighbors, but not to students, who are forbidden from bringing phones to school.
Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said officials were reviewing the legislation and awaiting results of a pilot emergency-alert system tested in four city neighborhoods since December.