Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region IV-A CALABARZON
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF BATANGAS PROVINCE
SAN JUAN EAST DISTRICT
LIPAHAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas

School Safety Regulations and Guidelines

SY: 2022-2023
Introduction

Keeping our children safe is a high priority for everyone. But school safety isn't just about violence control.
In many ways, schools share the same hazards commonly seen in industries, as well as a few unique
hazards. From laboratories to food-processing areas, schools are like small communities and are loaded with
potential safety hazards.

Regulatory

Schools are like all other industries in that they have safety regulations and guidelines they must follow to
ensure a safe work environment. However, the actual regulating agency that deals with school safety varies
from state to state. For the most part, states have adopted OSHA regulations, while modifying certain
requirements to make them more applicable to schools. Typically, the agency responsible for public-sector
employee safety in your state also is responsible for school safety. But no matter what regulatory agency
oversees school safety, all schools share many rules and regulations. For information on exactly what
regulating agency is responsible for school safety in your state, contact your state's government office.

First Aid Concerns

All schools need basic first aid equipment. Bandages, antiseptic wipes, cold packs and hot packs are
frequently needed items. Items such as tweezers, scissors and disposable gloves also come in handy.

Many schools usually have one large first aid kit in the school's office or nurse's office. However, classes
such as chemistry, art, industrial art and home economics should have their own kits readily available. The
kits in these classrooms should contain the necessary items needed to deal with specific hazards in a

LIPAHAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas
(+63)9461867185
DepEd Tayo- Lipahan National High School – Batangas
307725@deped.gov.ph Leading towards the culture of excellence
particular classroom. Industrial arts classes, for example, have additional hazards such as flying debris and
welding spatter. Therefore, these kits should also contain burn creams, eye pads and eye-irrigating solutions.

Emergency Preparedness Concerns

Depending on your state's school safety regulations and guidelines, the details might differ, but the basic
elements of an emergency preparedness plan are the same. These elements include:

a written emergency program to ensure personnel and student safety during and after an emergency
 an alarm system
 evacuation plans
 emergency drills
To develop a successful emergency preparedness plan, four basic steps should be followed:

Identify the types of emergencies you might encounter. There are four basic types of emergencies:

Weather emergencies: These include emergencies such as floods, winter storms and tornadoes. Most can be
predicted, but some can occur suddenly and without warning.
Nonweather emergencies: These include emergencies such as earthquakes or hazardous-material
emergencies, such as a truck carrying hazardous materials overturning near the school.
Fires: Fires are the most common type of school emergency. A fire can be in a school, or outside a school in
a field or another building.
Medical emergencies: These happen more often than some people might think. There could be epileptic
seizures, allergy attacks or injuries that could make preparation a crucial step in a positive outcome.
Determine how to respond to the emergency. All potential emergencies have different safety concerns and a
response must be customized. For each emergency, the following actions must be considered:

 How will you become aware of the emergency?

 How will you provide warning?
 How will you evacuate if necessary?
 What steps are necessary to implement emergency response procedures?
 What steps are necessary to return to normal activities?

Assign responsibility. Normally, teachers are responsible for ensuring that their classes respond safely and
properly to an emergency. However, there also are other responsibilities including maintaining
documentation on your emergency preparedness plan. The emergency program should be evaluated and
updated on a regular basis with changes in the school, staff or policies. Also, someone needs to train
teachers and other personnel. Everyone in the school should be trained once a program is developed, when
there is a change, and at least once a year as a refresher course.
Finally, drills—scheduled and unscheduled—can help determine preparedness. Drills also help to calm fear
in case of a real emergency. When conducting drills, it's a good idea to have a person or a group of people
monitoring the situation to see how well everything operates. For monitoring evacuations, a simple
stopwatch is a good way to determine how quickly and efficiently people can evacuate a building. But
before conducting drills, notify the fire department, police and neighbors so you don't cause alarm.

LIPAHAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas
(+63)9461867185
DepEd Tayo- Lipahan National High School – Batangas
307725@deped.gov.ph Leading towards the culture of excellence
Developing an emergency preparedness plan takes a lot of planning and help from the community. Many
times, the plan for the school must also work with the plan already set up with the city. There are programs
available that can assist you in developing an emergency preparedness plan. See Quick Tips #108:
Employee Emergency and Fire Prevention Plans for more information on this topic.

Pedestrian Traffic Concerns

School walkways are extremely busy places. Between classes and even during them, these areas are filled
with teachers and students. In order to comply with applicable school safety regulations, a few issues need to
be addressed:

Means of egress: According to OSHA standard 29 CFR1910.35, a means of egress is a path from any point
in a building to a public way. The means of egress must be an unobstructed path. Exit doors cannot be
locked and obstructions such as backpacks must not sit in hallways. The number of exits must be sufficient
for the number of people in your school. The discharge from those exits must lead to a safe, public area that
is large enough to handle the occupant load. The OSHA standard details what is required for exits based on
your occupant load and your building design. However, you should still check with local school safety
regulations and guidelines to find out whether you have any additional requirements.

A great concern is whether the students and other occupants are familiar with the closest exit and the
appropriate path. Have small signs posted in each room that indicate the nearest exits and paths to exits.
Instructors should go over emergency exit procedures with all new occupants.

Appropriate signs: Exit signs must direct traffic in case of an emergency. Doors that look like they could be
exits but are not need to be marked, "Not an Exit" so they are not mistaken as exits during an emergency.
Exit signs must also be illuminated by a reliable light source, giving off no less than 5 foot-candles; the word
EXIT must be written in letters at least 6 inches high with brush strokes at least 1 inch wide; and the exit
sign must not blend into its background. It should be a color and a shape that makes it readily visible.

Emergency lighting: Required to provide illumination automatically in case of a power outage for a
minimum of 1 1/2 hours. NFPA 101, Life Safety Code 2003, Section 7.9.2.1, describes exactly what is
required for emergency lighting. When emergency lighting is required, a minimum of 1 foot-candle is
required at the light, and a minimum of 0.1 foot-candle required along the path of egress at floor level. Not
all buildings and areas require emergency lighting. Refer to NFPA 101 and local municipal codes to
determine whether your school needs emergency lighting.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Indoor air quality is a growing concern for newer airtight buildings and buildings that have poor or
inadequate ventilation. There are two basic illnesses associated with IAQ problems.

Sick building syndrome (SBS): Sick building syndrome is a physical reaction to multiple low-level
contaminants. The contaminants might be chemical, biological or physical in nature. The symptoms
generally include nausea, headache, fatigue or eye irritation. SBS symptoms usually disappear when the

LIPAHAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas
(+63)9461867185
DepEd Tayo- Lipahan National High School – Batangas
307725@deped.gov.ph Leading towards the culture of excellence
person leaves the building for a prolonged period of time such as over the weekend, but return when the
person returns.

Building-related illness: Building-related illnesses differ from SBS in that they are caused by one
contaminant. An example of building-related illness is Legionnaires' disease.

Poor building ventilation or new building materials are usually the cause of indoor air-quality problems. To
avoid IAQ problems, properly maintain ventilation systems. With costs in mind, many newer ventilation
systems use less fresh air than older units, contributing to IAQ problems. A good indicator of insufficient
outside air intake is carbon dioxide. OSHA has a proposed IAQ standard that says the CO2 levels need to be
maintained below 800 ppm. Although CO2 is not a hazard at this level, it is a good indicator of inadequate
outside air intake. Take a closer look at the problem area and identify potential contaminants and stressors to
help diagnose other potential IAQ problems. Once identified, they can be eliminated one by one. Often, the
activities in a laboratory or new carpeting or furniture can be the culprit.

Janitorial Concerns

Janitorial closets and supply cabinets accumulate various chemicals. The two main safety concerns with
janitorial chemicals are proper storage and maintaining compliance with the hazard communication
standard.

Chemical storage: To determine what type of storage container you need, you must first understand the
OSHA definitions of flammable and combustible liquids. A flammable liquid is any liquid with a flashpoint
lower than 100ºF. A combustible liquid is any liquid with a flashpoint at or higher than 100ºF. These two
categories are further divided into different classes dependent upon their exact flashpoint and boiling point.
This classification determines the amount of liquid you can have before requiring a flammable safety cabinet
or safety can. The OSHA standard that specifically deals with this topic is 29 CFR 1910.106. However, local
building codes or even insurance agencies might have rules that are more stringent than the OSHA code.

Hazard communication standard: The purpose of the OSHA hazard communication standard 1910.1200 is to
ensure that chemical hazards in the workplace are identified and evaluated. In schools, the main areas of
concern with this standard are chemical labeling, material safety data sheets (MSDS) and employee training.

Chemical labeling: All chemicals in a school need labels that must identify the material, the appropriate
hazard warnings and the name and address of the manufacturer. Most containers provide this information.
However, if the manufacturer's label is incomplete or if the chemical has been put in a different container, a
new, properly completed label must be applied to the container. Labels used for complying with this
standard are an NFR- or a HMIG-style label. It doesn't matter which style of label you choose. The
important thing is to be consistent with your labels and train people on how to read and understand them.
For more information on labeling, see Quick Tips #200: Hazard Communication Labeling.

Material safety data sheets: All hazardous chemicals in schools need to have an accompanying MSDS. The
MSDS is available from the chemical supplier or manufacturer. These sheets contain information about the
product's physical hazards, health hazards, routes of entry, exposure limits and precautions for safe handling.
Information like this is invaluable for proper use or in case of an emergency.

LIPAHAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas
(+63)9461867185
DepEd Tayo- Lipahan National High School – Batangas
307725@deped.gov.ph Leading towards the culture of excellence
Employee training: Employees must be trained to understand the hazard communication standard.
Specifically, they should be able to read an MSDS and understand the labels. If an employee is buying
products, that person should be trained to acquire and file an MSDS for each product.

Hazard communication standard requirements filter down to individual classrooms—such as science labs,
art classrooms and industrial arts areas—that encounter or use the chemicals.

Subject-Specific Requirements

Each classroom and subject have its own safety requirements and guidelines for protecting students, but
individual school district curriculums might require more. Each classroom needs a hazard assessment based
on its activities. Although the following suggestions mirror OSHA requirements, you should check with
your state school-regulating agency to determine whether more stringent requirements apply. This document
points out only the most common concerns in certain classrooms.

Home Economics

Home-economics classrooms mirror many of the hazards found at home. Burns and cuts are even more
likely in the classroom because of distractions from other students. Crowding also becomes an issue when
students work with others because someone might push or bump another classmate, leading to a serious
accident. General first aid procedures should be taught before any hands-on teaching. Students should also
be aware of the types and severity of burns and other potential dangers. Students should always be aware of
what other students are doing and where they are.

Prepared by:

MARY ANN E. ABELLERA

SDRRM Coordinator

Noted by:

JENNIFER M. MAULION
School Head

LIPAHAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Lipahan, San Juan, Batangas
(+63)9461867185
DepEd Tayo- Lipahan National High School – Batangas
307725@deped.gov.ph Leading towards the culture of excellence