And Details Grant Programs to Pay for it
TEA Proposes Tougher Standards
To Make Schools More Secure
In the wake of the Uvalde CISD Robb Elementary massacre, the TEA posted (Nov. 3) proposed rules (summarized here), for public comment, to address school safety and security that all ISDs and charters will have to follow once the final version of the rule is adopted.
Panic Alert Systems
The proposed rule would require (among other things) all classrooms, campuses and district central offices to be equipped with workable panic alert emergency notification systems so that when an alert is triggered, all campus staff are simultaneously notified of the alert.
The school’s administration would determine, after evaluating the situation, if law enforcement is needed.
The alert would also be triggered automatically to all school staff should a school employee use the system to call 911 directly.
Other parts of the rule would require that school perimeter fencing be at least six feet high and be designed to deter intruders from scaling it, or be at least eight feet high.
Meanwhile, the proposed rule would also require that all schools must: 1) include a means for personnel to visually identify (via camera or another method) a person seeking to enter the locked main entryway, 2) have a main check-in point for visitors, 3) ensure that ground floor windows that are large enough to crawl through have intruder resistant glass and 4) institute a logical door numbering system in which the numbers can be clearly seen from a distance.
School facilities must also have a lock box containing a master key to allow law enforcement and emergency personnel to enter a school building in case of emergency.
Weekly Inspections
And, weekly inspections must be conducted of exterior doors to ensure that the doors are set, by default, to be closed, latched and locked, and that they cannot be opened from the outside without a key.
These are just a few of the requirements in the proposed rules, that TEA posted online and are expected to be published soon — to start the official public comment period — in the Texas Register.
The version of the proposed rule that the TEA posted on its website contains a link to submit a public comment.
- Update: The proposed rule was officially posted in the Texas Register on Nov. 11. An in-person (only) public hearing will be held at TEA headquarters on Dec. 5. The public comment period ends on Dec. 12. More info here.
Many parts of the rule, when finally adopted, would require ISDs and charters to begin implementing the mandates this school year.
Older school facilities would not be grandfathered out of the requirements.
By August 2023, school officials would need to show they have contracted with a company and produced a final timeline to finish any necessary upgrades.
Related Grant Info
Meanwhile, the same Nov. 3 TEA advisory, also provides more details about school safety related grant opportunities that can be used to pay for implementing the new requirements under the rule, when finally adopted.
They include:
- 2023-2025 School Safety Standards Formula Grants — Grants that ISDs can use to beef up school safety standards via purchases made on or after June 1, 2022.
The grants will be awarded, on a formula based on enrollment, to
every ISD and charter that applies, and are being funded by the $400 million in school security grant funding recently announced by the governor. Smaller districts will receive at least $200,000, and larger districts will receive more (Houston ISD is getting nearly $8 million).The
allowable expenditures include beefing up school facility fences, exterior doors, windows, silent alarms, etc. The TEA said it will announce the start date for accepting applications for the grant soon. - The new 2022-24 Silent Panic Alert Technology (SPAT) program to provide a total of $17.1 million to ISDs and charters to buy silent alarms and related technology. The TEA has announced how much each district and charter will receive. See TEN, Nov. 7.
The TEA website contains pages devoted to school safety related grants and school safety resources.