Education Department debuts its first crisis manual for Special Education students: what your school should know

For the first time, the Puerto Rico Department of Education (DE) has published a manual of protocols specifically for handling emergencies and crises involving students in the Special Education program — a document that spells out who is responsible for each child during an earthquake or a fire during school hours, and what a teacher must do when a violent behavioral episode erupts in the classroom ¹. The guide was developed over several months by internal staff of the Associate Secretariat for Special Education, led by Alayra Figueroa González, and it arrives just as the new school year gets underway in public schools ¹.

It is the first time the agency has issued an official guide of this kind for its Special Education population, which stands at roughly 108,444 students in the public system, according to the most recent figures released by the agency itself ¹³. For families, that detail matters: until now there was no document establishing, in black and white, who answers for a student with disabilities when the ground shakes, when a school has to be evacuated, or when a behavioral crisis ends in a security intervention ¹.

Until now, schools operated under the Manual de Protocolos para el Manejo de Crisis Escolares, presented by Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés in 2025, which for the first time unified the agency's 43 official protocols for prevention, response, and intervention in emergencies into a single document ²⁴. That general manual establishes that the school director, together with the campus Socioemotional Interdisciplinary Team — made up of the social worker, the psychologist, the nurse, and the professional counselor — is the one who activates the protocols and coordinates the response ⁴. What was missing was a guide that brought those protocols down to the reality of students with disabilities: children with limited mobility, nonverbal students, or students with sensory conditions who may react differently to an alarm, an evacuation, or physical contact from an adult they do not know ¹.

The new manual addresses exactly those scenarios: it assigns concrete responsibilities to school personnel during earthquakes and fires, sets out the teacher's immediate response to violent behavioral episodes, and defines the role of school security guards in managing crises involving students in the program ¹. The document also lands at a moment of pressure on the agency, which is paying an $11,000 daily fine for deficiencies in Special Education services ¹.

Key facts and figures

• 108,444 students make up the public system's Special Education program, according to the agency's most recent data ³.
• Between 13% and 14% of that enrollment has a diagnosis on the autism spectrum ³.
• 725 public school teachers are taking part in an autism spectrum disorder certification through an agreement between the DE and the University of Puerto Rico ³.
• 43 official protocols were unified in the 2025 general school crisis manual, available on the DE portal (de.pr.gov) under Áreas Académicas ²⁴.
• $11,000 per day is the fine the agency pays for noncompliance in the program's services ¹.

What it means for you

If your child receives Special Education services, you now have a concrete tool for demanding accountability. The manual sets specific staff responsibilities, so you can ask at your school who the designated adult is to assist your child during an evacuation, what the teacher will do if a behavioral crisis occurs, and when — and how — a school guard may intervene ¹. That information should also be discussed at the Individualized Educational Program (PEI) meeting, where the student's particular needs are documented. And if you work at a school, the document defines your role before the emergency happens, not after ¹⁴.

How to do it / Checklist

1. Ask at the principal's office whether school staff have already received the new Special Education crisis manual and who the designated person responsible for your child is in an emergency ¹.
2. Request in writing that your child's needs during evacuations, alarms, and behavioral crises be documented in their PEI.
3. Identify the school's Socioemotional Interdisciplinary Team — social worker, psychologist, nurse, and counselor — which is the group that activates the protocols alongside the director ⁴.
4. Download the general school crisis manual from the DE portal (de.pr.gov), in the Áreas Académicas section, to learn the 43 protocols in force ²⁴.
5. Before the next evacuation or earthquake drill, confirm with the teacher how the route will be practiced with your child, especially if they use a wheelchair or are nonverbal.
6. If the school cannot answer you, escalate to the DE's Associate Secretariat for Special Education, which produced the document ¹.

What's next

The agency must now distribute the manual to schools and train the personnel who will have to apply it, from regular classroom teachers to school security guards ¹. This semester's emergency drills will be the first real test of whether the protocols stay on paper or change daily practice, in a year when the program remains under scrutiny for the daily fine the agency continues to pay ¹².

Sources

1. El Nuevo Día — Desde terremotos hasta situaciones de conducta: Educación detalla cómo se deben atender crisis con niños de Educación Especial (August 25, 2026)
2. Puerto Rico Department of Education — Manual de Protocolos para el Manejo de Crisis Escolares (DE Digital)
3. El Nuevo Día — Educación promueve certificación de 725 maestros en el trastorno del espectro autista
4. Periódico El Sol — Departamento de Educación presenta Manual de Protocolos para el Manejo de Crisis Escolares