Audit Report on Certain Life Safety Equipment and on the Automated External Defibrillators in Department of Education Schools

Executive Summary

The objective of this audit was to determine whether the New York City (City) Department of Education (DOE) effectively monitors the availability and functionality of certain life safety equipment and of the Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in its schools.

DOE is responsible for educating over one million students, from kindergarten (K) through grade 12, in more than 2,000 public schools located in over 1,500 school buildings. DOE is also responsible for ensuring that these school buildings are safe for the students, teachers, and staff. DOE’s Division of School Facilities (DSF), the unit that is primarily responsible for the maintenance and repair of DOE school buildings, assigns custodian engineers and custodian assistants to work at DOE school buildings throughout the City.

Among other things, custodian engineers are responsible for ensuring that all required prevention and preparedness steps have been taken to avoid and, if necessary, to successfully respond to fires and certain other types of emergencies in a school building. Each day, custodian engineers are required to check, among other things, that exits, stairways, and corridors are adequately lit and clear of obstructions and that fire extinguishers are ready for use. Furthermore, on a monthly basis, custodian engineers are required to perform more detailed inspections and tests of various equipment, including, but not limited to, fire extinguishers, sprinkler and standpipe systems, elevator intercoms, and carbon monoxide detectors. DOE requires the custodian engineer to record inspections and tests in a DOE document known as the Fire and School Safety Log (Log). Custodian engineers are also responsible for ensuring that individuals performing inspections have the required certifications.

DSF’s Borough Facilities Management unit is responsible for monitoring custodian engineers. The unit’s borough teams are led by Field Directors, who oversee the Deputy Directors responsible for visiting school buildings and monitoring compliance with City codes and related DOE procedures. As an additional safety measure, DSF has a contract with Davis Technologies Group, LLC, to inspect and test the smoke detection systems in DOE school buildings twice a year, as per the City Fire Code.

To further enhance safety in public school buildings, New York State Education Law §917 mandates that school districts maintain AEDs on site in each school facility and arrange for staff volunteers to be trained and certified to use the AEDs as needed. DOE’s Office of School Health (OSH) and the schools’ principals are responsible for ensuring that DOE is in compliance with this law. To help meet this responsibility, OSH contracts with Emergency Skills Inc. (ESI) to provide AED program management and emergency response training services. ESI must conduct two unannounced drills per school year at every school building to inspect the AEDs, refresh AED certified responders’ skills, provide feedback on responders’ performance, and help to prepare the schools to respond to incidents of sudden cardiac arrest.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

DOE did not consistently ensure that the required life safety equipment in the 16 sampled school buildings we visited was in place, functioning, and regularly inspected and tested by qualified custodian engineers or custodian assistants. DOE has also not consistently ensured that the contractor responsible for regularly inspecting and testing the school buildings’ smoke detection systems has been meeting this responsibility; that school buildings without smoke detection systems are at least equipped with plug-in smoke detectors; and that the custodian engineer or an assistant at each school building with plug-in smoke detectors regularly inspects and tests these smoke detectors. In addition, DOE has not consistently ensured that the AEDs in its school buildings are up-to-date and protected in alarmed cabinets; that each school has the recommended number of certified AED responders; that the locations of the AEDs are posted at the main entrances of its school buildings; and that each school in which an AED has been used promptly reports the incident to OSH and to ESI.

Due to the deficiencies found in the audit, the students, teachers, and staff in our sampled schools are not protected from fire and other emergencies to the degree mandated by DOE and applicable laws, rules, and regulations. To the extent the conditions we found at the sampled school buildings are consistent with conditions at DOE’s other school buildings, the City faces a risk that additional students, teachers, and staff are similarly not adequately protected from fire and other emergencies when they are in its school buildings.

Audit Recommendations

To address the issues raised by this audit, we made 21 recommendations, including the following:

• DOE should ensure that DSF enhances its oversight of school facilities and custodian engineers such that each school building is equipped with all of the required life safety equipment, that this equipment is functional, and that this equipment is inspected and tested regularly by qualified personnel.
• DOE should address, if it has not already done so, any issues concerning the availability and functionality of required life safety equipment identified in this report on the 16 school buildings we visited.
• DOE should ensure that DSF enhances its oversight of the contractor responsible for inspecting and testing school buildings’ smoke detection systems such that these systems are inspected and tested regularly.
• DOE should ensure that DSF and school principals enhance their oversight such that those school buildings that are not equipped with smoke detection systems are at least equipped with plug-in smoke detectors.
• DOE should ensure that OSH and school principals enhance their oversight of the schools such that each school building is equipped with AEDs that are up-to-date and stored in alarmed cabinets.
• DOE should ensure that OSH and school principals enhance their oversight such that each school within a school building has, to the extent possible, at least six certified AED responders.
• DOE should ensure that its school principals consistently notify OSH and ESI immediately after an AED has been used.

Agency Response

In its written response, DOE agreed with most of the audit’s findings and with 15 of its 21 recommendations. After carefully reviewing DOE’s response, we find no basis for modifying any of the report’s findings or recommendations.