Bethany Bump reports in The Albany Times-Union that the state Board of Regents passed new rules June 14 mandating New York school districts conduct four lockdown drills a year. The rules were recommended by the Safe Schools Task Force, a group of law enforcement and state officials commissioned a month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newton, Conn. to make schools safer. In a lockdown drill school officials clear hallways, lock doors, and take cover positions. The rules also require eight evacuation drills; policies and procedures for contacting parents when there is an implied or direct threat of violence by a student; and the assigning a chief emergency officer to coordinate communication between staff and first responders. Bump writes, "In the years since Sandy Hook, there have been more than 100 school shootings in the U.S. for an average of nearly one a week, according to Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced database." Read the full story in The Albany Times Union.