The Suffolk School Board voted unanimously to amend and adopt a slew of ordinances, including amendments to the required safety drills for schools, during its Thursday morning meeting.

The previous ordinance only made mention of fire drills within the public schools, and it required a drill within the first 20 school days of the school year and two additional throughout the remainder of the year.

The amended version builds upon the fire drill requirements and adds requirements for lock-down drills, school bus emergency drills and tornado drills.

For the new school year, fire drills will be mandatory at least twice within the first 20 school days with at least two additional drills for the remainder of the school year. The language was also added to require evacuation routes to be posted within classrooms.

School lock-down drills follow the same protocol as fire drills. There must be two within the first 20 school days with two more drills throughout the year.

The drills are required to follow the Statewide Fire Prevention Code.

Bus emergency drills and tornado drills are not required as often as the other two drills.

Bus emergency drills are required only within the first 90 school days, and additional drills will happen only if deemed necessary.

Only one tornado drill needs to be done throughout the school year, and there is no requirement on when it happens.