NYC DOE opens 24/7 “emergency operations center” for school safety threats

The Department of Education is opening a 24-hour emergency operations center to initiate a “coordinated and rapid response” to city schools during the crisis, The Post has learned.

The EOC is due to open on March 15th. According to an internal DOE memo, superintendents or their representatives are required to call the center or email in situations that “disturb school-wide operations.”

“Within 15 minutes of an incoming call or email, the EOC will initiate an email thread.”

Several school principals told The Post that they received no further explanation or instructions.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” one of them said. “Do they know something they don’t share?”

The move comes after several shootings near schools this month and a spate of violence that has left three students dead since September.

Last week, an alleged gunman was charged with a shooting that injured two students and a school security agent outside a school in Williamsburg on Feb. 8. Two days earlier, two teenagers were gunned down about a block from their school campus in Williamsburg.

A surge in shootings has prompted the NYPD to step up security during layoffs at troubled schools.

The memo says the new process replaces the “various escalation paths” that superintendents used to communicate emergencies.

The memo announcing the EOC comes after Mayor Adams told directors to join weekly Zoom meetings with local police commanders to share information about possible security threats.

“They want to hear about everything in the area that could be a problem,” the high school principal told The Post. “I guess they want more information from us because we really see a lot and know a lot.”

The Department of Energy did not respond to a request for comment.