Sec. 12. (a) Each school corporation shall establish a safe school committee. The committee may be a subcommittee of the committee that develops the strategic and continuous school improvement and achievement plan under IC 20-31-5. Each committee may include at least one (1) member who is a member of the support staff of the school or school corporation career and technical education school.

(b) The department of education, the school corporation's school safety specialist, and, upon request, a school resource officer (as described in IC 20-26-18.2-1) shall provide materials and guidelines to assist a safe school committee in developing a plan and policy for the school that addresses the following issues:

(1) Unsafe conditions, crime prevention, school violence, bullying, criminal organization activity, child abuse and child sexual abuse, and other issues that prevent the maintenance of a safe school.

(2) Professional development needs for faculty and staff to implement methods that decrease problems identified under subdivision (1).

(3) Methods to encourage:

(A) involvement by the community and students;

(B) development of relationships between students and school faculty and staff; and

(C) use of problem solving teams.

(c) As a part of the plan developed under subsection (b), each safe school committee shall provide a copy of the floor plans for each building located on the school's property that clearly indicates each exit, the interior rooms and hallways, and the location of any hazardous materials located in the building to the law enforcement agency and the fire department that have jurisdiction over the school.

(d) The guidelines developed under subsection (b) must include age appropriate, research based information that assists school corporations and safe school committees in:

(1) developing and implementing bullying prevention programs;

(2) establishing investigation and reporting procedures related to bullying; and

(3) adopting discipline rules that comply with IC 20-33-8-13.5.

(e) In addition to developing guidelines under subsection (b), the department of education shall establish categories of types of bullying incidents to allow school corporations to use the categories in making reports under IC 20-20-8-8 and IC 20-34-6-1.

(f) The materials and guidelines provided under subsection (b) must include the model educational materials and model response policies and reporting procedures on child abuse and child sexual abuse developed or identified under IC 20-19-3-11.

As added by P.L.106-2005, SEC.3. Amended by P.L.1-2006, SEC.90; P.L.132-2007, SEC.3; P.L.172-2013, SEC.5; P.L.190-2013, SEC.3; P.L.285-2013, SEC.1; P.L.2-2014, SEC.12; P.L.40-2014, SEC.4; P.L.233-2015, SEC.7; P.L.25-2016, SEC.3; P.L.115-2017, SEC.1.