Texas School Safety: Legislative Updates

Since the Robb Elementary School Shooting on May 24, 2022, the heightened focus on school safety and security in Texas schools has drawn many headlines and political promises.

But what has changed since then? Here’s a brief description of the latest activities and what it means for Texas school districts, administrators, and parents.

Note: The following legislative activities and events are listed chronologically, with the most recent on top.

House Bill 2 & House Joint Resolution 1

On November 10, 2023, The Texas Legislature moved closer to providing additional funding for Texas school safety. The two new funding initiatives would add $1.3 billion more to help schools pay for the mounting requirements in safety and security measures from House Bill 3 (88^th Legislature) and Senate Bill No 1 (87^th Legislature).

These previous legislative bills (see descriptions below) increased the burden on school districts to comply with expensive facility upgrades, security programs, and other security measures, such as adding an armed guard to each school campus.

HB 2 would establish two grant programs, the first of which would provide $1.1 billion annually by adding additional funds to each district’s current basic allotment. The second grant of $250 million annually would reimburse districts for future school safety projects within the scope of approved funding. To fund the grant programs, Joint Resolution 1 would create a ballot measure for presentation to voters in May 2024.

House Bill 2 and Joint Resolution 1 were approved unanimously by the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment and now go before the House Calendars Committee to send to the floor for a full chamber vote.

House Bill 3

On September 1, 2023, House Bill 3 of the 88^th Texas Legislative Session became law in Texas. The legislation was passed in June by the House and Senate and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 14, 2023. Leading up to the passing of House Bill 3, these significant events helped set the table for the passing of House Bill 3, including:

• May 24, 2022- Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers and injured 17 others. It was later determined that a backdoor failed to lock properly, allowing the gunman to enter the school.
• June 21, 2022- Governor Abbott directed $105.5 million of funding toward school safety initiatives, including bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, silent panic alert technology, and other school safety initiatives.
• June 1, 2022- Abbott orders threat assessment audits and random inspections for all school districts to see how effectively schools detect and stop intruders. The latest Statewide Intruder Detection Audit Findings Report is available on the Texas School Safety Center website, showing that 75.5% of audited campuses did not have corrective actions.
• September 1, 2022- Abbot appointed John P Scott as Chief of School Safety and Security after creating the position inside the TEA in June of 2022.
• October 27, 2022- Abbott declared that school safety is an ‘emergency’ and authorized $415 million in funds to be transferred from a surplus of Foundation School Program Funds to School Safety.

What is included in House Bill 3?

The bill’s first draft was proposed on March 8, 2023. After months of amendments and counter proposals between the House and Senate, the final bill passed on June 14, 2023, and became law on September 1, 2023.

While not exhaustive, here are the highlights of House Bill 3’s inclusions:

Budget Allocation
To help fund House Bill 3 requirements, Senate Bill 30, Section 4.02 appropriated $1.1 billion from the general revenue fund to the TEA for use during the two-year period beginning September 1, 2023, to award grants to help school districts pay for school safety requirements.

Schools can apply for Cycle 1 SAFE grants to help districts meet minimum safety standards. According to the TEA, schools can utilize grants offered in a second cycle to meet other identified safety needs.

More Authority for TEA
House Bill 3 establishes an office of school safety and security within the TEA to provide technical assistance to school districts to support the implementation and operation of safety and security requirements, establish robust active shooter protocols, and randomly conduct detailed vulnerability assessments of each school district once every four years.

Additionally, the safety and security department within the TEA was given the authority to compel school districts to comply with all school safety and security regulations. Districts and campuses that fail to comply may be assigned a conservator (Sec 37.1085) to correct a noncompliance failure. This provision does not include good cause exceptions for armed security guards.

TEA & Texas School Safety Center
The Texas School Safety Center is a research center of Texas State University tasked with collecting and sharing school safety information from schools, law enforcement agencies, and community resources.
HB 3 provides for more collaboration between the TEA and the Texas School Safety Center to develop and implement a multihazard emergency operations plan, establish a school safety and security committee, work and communicate with local law enforcement agencies, and assist in identifying and addressing deficiencies in school security and safety.

EOP & Active Shooter Plans
The emergency operations plan developed in coordination between the schools and the Texas School Safety Center must address prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery as defined by the Texas School Safety Center.

The includes mandatory school drills and exercises, coordination with local agencies and law enforcement, and safety and security audits at least once every 3 years. Safety review teams will conduct vulnerability assessments of all school campuses once a year. Peace officers and School Resource Officers must complete an approved active shooter training at least once every 4 years.

Parental Notifications
House Bill 3 also requires schools to adopt a policy for providing notice regarding violent activity that has occurred or is being investigated at a campus, other school facility, or school-sponsored activity. The policy must include SMS and email notifications, provide an option for real-time alerts, and protect student privacy.

Mental Health Training
School employees who regularly interact with children must complete an “evidence-based mental health first-aid training program” to help staff identify students who may need mental health support. The TEA will reimburse employees for the training.

Armed Security Guards
After being stripped from an earlier version, the provision requiring an armed person at every school campus was added back into the bill that passed on June 14, 2023 (Section 10, Subchapter C, Chapter 37, Education Code amendment 37.0814). The armed person can be a school resources officer, school marshal, school district peace officer, or district employee. This provision was the subject of much debate as schools argued that $15,000 per campus to fulfill the requirement is far short of the average $85,000 going rate for armed security guards.

A school board can claim a ‘good cause exception’ due to insufficient funding or qualified personnel. If a school board claims a good cause exception, they must provide an alternative plan that could include use of a school marshal or an employee or contracted individual who is a licensed handgun holder and has completed the handgun safety courses required.

Safe Storage of Firearms
As part of the provision, the Texas School Safety Center released resources regarding the safe storage of firearms to be distributed by the district with information on how parents and guardians can effectively prevent children from accessing firearms.

A video summary of House Bill 3 Legislative updates the Texas School Safety Center released can be viewed here.

Funding & Grant Uses
Each school district is entitled to $10 /student (up from $9.72) in average daily attendance, plus $1 per every $50 by which the district’s maximum basic allotment – plus $15,000 per campus to be used for improving school safety and security, including school infrastructure, perimeter security fencing, exterior door and window safety and security upgrades and security film that provides resistance to a forced entry, security cameras and video surveillance, communication technology such as silent panic alert, 2-way radios (after failed radio communications at Robb Elementary) which can be used to facilitate communication between first responders, students, and school personnel in an emergency, employing peace officers, security officers, marshals, and SROs, training and programs related to active shooter and emergency response, and mental health programs.

See important new updates on Grants for Texas School Safety.

Trusted by the White House and Schools Across Texas

Epic is a 3M Authorized Prestige Window Film Dealer. As Texas’ leading certified security film expert, Epic is committed to helping you reduce vulnerabilities and protect your school’s students, teachers, and staff. Epic is a woman-owned Texas company, and we have kids in Texas schools too.

Enhance Security Without Breaking the Budget

Cooperative purchasing groups are an excellent way for school districts to receive discounts and streamline the procurement process by not having to go out for bids.

Epic is an approved vendor for most school purchasing agreements including BuyBoard, Tips, and Choice Partners Cooperative. This means Epic has been vetted for quality and price competitiveness and can help your school complete projects faster and with cooperative discounts.

Through its purchasing cooperatives, Epic Solar Control enables districts to:

• Streamline and shorten the procurement process
• Avoid the long bid process
• Reduce risk with the built-in compliance of cooperative purchasing agreements
• Lower costs with volume discounts while increasing purchasing power

Take Your Next Steps to Ensure Compliance and School Security

• Contact Epic  for a free school security assessment. Our security experts will walk you through the process, including the documentation needed to secure your school safety grants.
• Review Epic Solar Control’s recent school safety window film projects, featuring Dallas CCC-El Centro, Princeton ISD, Paris ISD and many more.

The disturbing rise in school shootings and violence prompted the Texas Governor’s Office and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to propose specific new security requirements for all Texas schools, most of which are aimed at preventing intruders.

The School Safety Standards Rule requires all Texas schools to fortify every facility’s most vulnerable entry points – doors and windows with entry-resistant film. Additional grant money is available to help pay for the mandated requirements.

Entry-Resistant Film is Required on all Glass Windows and Doors

The proposed School Safety Standard rule requires “Windowed doors on the ground level or windows that are adjacent to or near a door and are large enough to allow someone to enter if broken must be reinforced with entry-resistant film unless within a secured area.”

Some Security Window Films Provide Breach-Resistance

While many security window films on the market help protect against impact damage such as bomb blasts or severe weather – only one meets the criteria for entry-resistance.

When installed by Epic Solar Control, Ultra S800 Safety Window films from 3M™ provide the protection required to delay forced entry. Every moment a breach is delayed gives first responders more time to respond and offers staff and students precious time to implement their emergency plan.

3M Security Film is engineered to:

• Harden glass with strong adhesives and multiple microlayers. When struck by a blunt object such as a bat, hammer, or bullet, this combination holds broken glass together.
• Delay intruders from entering through broken glass.
• Reduce injury by protecting people from flying glass debris during blasts or violent weather events.

New State Funding is Available

The proposed TEA mandates are the latest steps to increase school safety in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde last year. To help districts quickly comply, the State of Texas approved an additional $400 million in grant funding for replacing and upgrading doors, windows, fencing, communications, and other specific safety measures. The 2023-2025 School Safety Standards Formula Grant is formula-based and administered by the TEA. The grant has no cost-sharing or match requirements, and every LEA (Local Educational Agency) is entitled to a minimum of $200,000 in grant funds.

Imminent Compliance Deadlines for The School Safety Standards Rule

Whether a school applies for grant funding or not, compliance deadlines for The School Safety Standards Rule are fast approaching. Schools must procure a contractor and provide a final timeline for completing all work by August 2023.

Important Considerations

There are important factors regarding this new rule:

1. The rule language states, “entry resistant” what is meant is, the film must be “breach resistant,” and prevent easy access by intruders. Not all safety window film is engineered to be breach resistant. It’s vital to choose a security film and attachment system that is specifically designed to provide the mandated protection. 3 M’s Safety and Security Film and attachment systems offer the highest level of protection.
2. It’s also important to choose a 3M authorized dealer installer to receive expert professional installation and the benefits of the limited lifetime warranty. While many ‘window film installers’ are vying for your grant dollars, only certified security window film experts should be utilized to ensure your security window film provides the full benefits of breach-resistance.
3. School staff is responsible for ensuring all upgrades and security systems remain in working order. Be sure to contract with a certified dealer who can maintain all installations.

 

Trusted by the White House and Schools Across Texas

Epic Solar Control is a 3M Authorized Prestige Window Film Dealer. As Texas’ leading certified security film expert, Epic is committed to helping you reduce vulnerabilities and protect your school’s students, teachers, and staff. Epic is a woman-owned Texas company, and we have kids in Texas schools too.

Enhance Security Without Breaching the Budget

Cooperative purchasing groups are an excellent way for school districts to receive discounts and streamline the procurement process by not having to go out for bids.

Epic is an approved vendor for most school purchasing agreements including BuyBoard, Tips, and Choice Partners Cooperative. This means Epic has been vetted for quality and price competitiveness and can help your school complete projects faster and with cooperative discounts.

Through its purchasing cooperatives, Epic Solar Control enables districts to:

• Streamline and shorten the procurement process
• Avoid the long bid process
• Reduce risk with the built-in compliance of cooperative purchasing agreements
• Lower costs with volume discounts while increasing purchasing power

Take Your Next Steps to Ensure Compliance and School Security

• Contact Epic Solar Control for a free school security assessment. Our security experts will walk you through the process, including the documentation needed to secure your school safety grants.
• Review Epic Solar Control’s recent school safety window film projects, featuring Dallas CCC-El Centro, Princeton ISD, Paris ISD and many more.