School building safety

This section provides a description of the activities carried out by the Civil Protection Department, in collaboration with the regions, to ensure the safety of school buildings: from seismic assessments of schools to structural and seismic retrofitting measures aimed at mitigating the effects of earthquakes.

Seismic assessments of relevant strategic buildings. Following the 2002 earthquake in Puglia and Molise, Prime Ministerial Decree No. 3274 of March 20, 2003, was issued, reclassifying the entire national territory into four zones with varying levels of seismic risk, eliminating unclassified areas and introducing the obligation for property-owning entities to conduct seismic inspections of strategic buildings and those relevant for civil protection purposes. The latter category also includes schools.
Article 32-bis of Decree-Law No. 269 of September 30, 2003, converted with amendments by Law No. 326 of November 24, 2003, established the Fund for extraordinary interventions of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, for seismic assessments and first urgent interventions. The €200 million Fund was implemented through Order of the President of the Council of Ministers No. 3362 of July 8, 2004, and No. 3505 of March 9, 2006. With these funds, the Civil Protection Department—through the Regions—financed approximately 2,300 seismic inspections of school buildings. Furthermore, the Regions and Municipalities have conducted additional seismic inspections of school buildings using their own funds. The Department is currently digitizing the summary data from the inspections carried out to create a centralized database linked to the National Register of School Buildings.

Plan for seismic retrofitting of schools. Under Law No. 244 of December 24, 2007, the Fund for extraordinary interventions of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers was increased by 20 million euros per year starting in 2008 for the structural and seismic retrofitting of schools and for the construction of new school buildings, where it is essential to replace buildings at high seismic risk. Since 2008, six annual phases of the program have been implemented, with a total of 120 million euros allocated. The first year of the program is governed by Order No. 3728 of December 29, 2008, while the subsequent years are governed respectively by Order of the President of the Council of Ministers No. 3864 of March 31, 2010, for 2009; No. 3879 of March 19, 2010, for 2010; No. 3927 of March 2, 2011, for 2011, and by the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of July 8, 2014, for 2012 and 2013. The regional allocations are assigned to each region based on the different levels of seismic risk of the territories.

Of the 225 projects funded, as of February 10, 2022, there were 201 completed, with 13 projects where construction has begun and is nearing completion, and 6 where the design phase is underway.

For each project, the following information is provided: municipality, province, region, funding amount, fiscal year, school name, date of the last update, project status, and project description. In addition, the decision allocating resources to the Region, including the date of publication in the Official Gazette, and the decision to fund the project, including the date of publication in the Official Gazette, are also listed.

The projects funded by the program are defined by Order No. 3728 of 2008, Article 1, paragraphs 4, 5, 6, and 7.

The Order specifies that the measures concerned must include:

▪ the structural and seismic retrofitting of public school buildings, if deemed necessary based on technical inspections conducted in accordance with regulations;
▪ the structural and seismic retrofitting of public school buildings which, even if technical inspections have not been carried out, are in a situation of serious and imminent seismic risk; however, studies or documents certifying this must be available;
▪ the construction of new public school buildings, in cases where it is essential to replace existing ones at high seismic risk due to the excessive costs of seismic retrofitting relative to the cost of constructing a new building.

National plan for seismic risk prevention. Following the earthquake in Abruzzo on April 6, 2009, a new measure was enacted to further promote earthquake prevention. Article 11 of Decree-Law No. 39 of April 28, 2009, converted with amendments by Law No. 77 of June 24, 2009, provides for the funding of seismic risk prevention measures throughout the country and allocates 965 million euros over 7 years. As part of this National plan for seismic risk prevention, starting with Order of the Head of the Civil Protection Department No. 3907 of November 13, 2012, grants were introduced for local reinforcement, seismic retrofitting, or, where necessary, the demolition and reconstruction of buildings and public works of strategic interest for civil protection purposes. The last group includes school buildings that have strategic functions in civil protection emergency plans. Starting in 2013, as regulated by Order of the Head of the Civil Protection Department No. 171 of June 19, 2014, the Regions may allocate a portion of the total funding, intended for interventions on public and private buildings, to interventions on public school buildings not designated as strategic in emergency plans.