147th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

FISCAL NOTE

Bill: HOUSE BILL NO. 33

sponsor: Representative Miro

DESCRIPTION: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SILENT ALARM SYSTEMS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

ASSUMPTIONS:

1. This Act requires every public school building to be equipped with an alarm system capable of notifying local law enforcement of an emergency that may be manually activated from at least one location within the public school.

2. Based on the Department of Education, there are 228 public school buildings through the State (207 regular and vocational district buildings and 21 charter schools). This does not include Pencader Charter School, which is scheduled to close at the end of the school year. Based on a survey performed by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, there are a total of 6 school buildings that will meet the requirements of this Act. As such, there are a total of 221 public school buildings impacted by this Act.

3. Depending on the infrastructure needs of the school buildings, the estimated one-time cost per building to satisfy the provisions of this Act is expected to range between $500 to $1,500, which includes labor installation as well as the necessary hardware to install a panic button. Statewide, the projected one-time installation costs range between $110,500 ($500 X 221 buildings) to $331,500 ($1,500 X 221 buildings). The Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, as written by the Joint Finance Committee, includes $700,000 for School Safety Plans that could potentially be used as a source of funding.

4. The ongoing monitoring cost of the system for the link to local law enforcement, through a third party vendor and using a standard telephone line, is assumed to be a local school district/charter school expense at $360 annually per school building ($30 per month/per building). Statewide, monthly monitoring costs are projected to impact all districts/charter schools by $79,560 in total ($360 annually/per building X 221 buildings).

Cost: Fiscal Year 2014: $110,500 to $331,500 for installation (State)

$79,560 statewide monitoring costs (Local only)

Fiscal Year 2015: $79,560 statewide monitoring costs (Local only)

Fiscal Year 2016: $79,560 statewide monitoring costs (Local only)

Office of Controller General (Amounts are shown in whole dollars)

March 08, 2013

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