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GSFT School Safety Certification

Charter school safety audits — the 2025–2028 cycle

Open-enrollment charter schools carry the same three-year safety and security audit obligation as ISDs — TEC §12.104(b)(3)(V) applies §37.108 to charters directly. What charters usually don’t carry is a safety department to absorb the work. That is the gap we fill.

Listed on the Texas School Safety and Security Consultant Registry, as required by Texas Education Code §37.2091.
Verify our listing on the official registry → Registry listing is verified registration under state law — it is not a state endorsement.

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Where charters stand in the current cycle

The current open-enrollment charter cycle runs September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2028, with reporting due to the TxSSC by September 15, 2028 (source: TxSSC School Safety and Security Audit Toolkit). A three-year window sounds generous; it isn’t. Findings need time to become budget items, budget items need time to become completed corrective actions, and the criteria themselves shift each September when the TxSSC publishes its Annual Supplemental. Charters that audit early in the cycle report from a position of strength.

Why the new methodology hits charters hardest

For this cycle the TxSSC retired the single audit checklist in favor of a full instrument suite — records review, on-site assessment, structured interviews, climate input, and §37.1087 security reviews, roughly 300 items in all. A large ISD spreads that work across a safety department. A charter operator typically hands it to an administrator who already has a full-time job. The methodology is the same either way; here is everything it covers.

What a charter engagement looks like

The engagement runs the same five stages as every GSFT audit — the process, step by step — and the prep checklist shows what to gather first.

Charter audit questions

Are charter schools really required to do the safety audit?
Yes. Texas Education Code §12.104(b)(3)(V) applies the Chapter 37 safety requirements — including the §37.108 three-year safety and security audit — to open-enrollment charter schools, and HB 33 (2025) reconfirmed and expanded that applicability. The obligation is the charter’s own; it does not disappear because a campus is small or shares a building.
When is our charter audit due?
The current open-enrollment charter cycle and its TxSSC reporting window are posted on our cycles and deadlines page, sourced to the TxSSC toolkit. The practical answer: audit work can begin at any point in the cycle, and starting early means corrective actions can be budgeted and completed before reporting instead of after.
We lease our building. Does the audit still cover it?
Yes — the audit covers the facilities the school operates, and the on-site assessment evaluates the campus as your students actually use it: access control, entry points, communications, and grounds. Leased facilities often carry the most surprises because safety improvements were never in the landlord’s scope.
We have no safety director. Can we handle this ourselves?
The statute allows self-auditing, and some charters do it. The honest picture: the 2026–2029 methodology spans roughly 300 assessment items across multiple instruments, most charter operators have no staff member whose actual job is safety compliance — and when you self-audit, the liability and the accuracy of the audit rest on the school and the individual completing it. That is exactly the gap an outside registered auditor fills — and if you engage any outside help, TEC §37.2091(b-1) requires confirming they are on the TxSSC Consultant Registry first.
Does the audit cover the 2025 law changes?
It has to — silent panic alert coverage (SB 838), breaching tools and ballistic shields (HB 33), six-phase emergency operations plans including reunification (HB 121), drill accommodations (SB 57), and §37.1087 security reviews for new or renovated facilities are all part of the current criteria. Charters are subject to these alongside ISDs.
What does a charter audit cost?
Less than a 40-campus district audit — scope scales with campuses and facilities, and single-campus charters are the smallest engagements we run. Request an estimate with your campus count and enrollment and we will return a scoped proposal the same business day in most cases.

Get a charter-scoped estimate

Tell us your campus count and enrollment. Proposals come back the same business day in most cases, scoped to charter realities.

Request a Charter Audit Estimate or call 817-625-2700

We respond to every inquiry the same business day in most cases.