Emergency plan rules in Arkansas
One licence type researched, regulated by Arkansas Department of Human Services — Office of Long Term Care. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in Arkansas as Residential Care / Assisted Living Facility, by Arkansas Department of Human Services — Office of Long Term Care.
Arkansas Fire Code Ch. 4 (emergency planning and preparedness), §405 drills
Fire and evacuation drills in residential care assisted living facilities must include COMPLETE EVACUATION of the premises. On top of the drills required by §405.3, staff take part in drills an additional two times a year on each shift — and in the FIRST YEAR of operation, twelve drills must be conducted with all occupants.
- The first-year rule is unusual and easy to miss: a newly opened Arkansas facility owes twelve full-occupant drills in year one, then drops to the steady-state schedule. New buildings are exactly where staff and residents have never practised together.
Reviewed 2026-07-30
What this page is
The requirements Arkansas places on a facility emergency preparedness plan, taken from the state’s own rules rather than a national template. Where we have confirmed something against primary text it is stated plainly; where we have not, it says so and names what to check. Nothing here is inferred from what other states do.
The part that is the same everywhere
The federal floor does not vary by state. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 binds any employer: reporting an emergency, evacuation and exit-route assignments, critical-operations shutdown, accounting for everyone afterwards, rescue and medical duties, and naming who to ask about the plan. That layer, plus the exit-route, alarm and first-aid rules and the fire code’s plan structure, is covered in the main crash course rather than repeated on all fifty state pages.
Write the plan
The Emergency Plan Builder produces the document itself and is driven by this same research, so the two cannot disagree about what Arkansas requires. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.