The Texas DPS school safety certification course
Government Code §411.1901 defines the training behind every Guardian-style program in Texas: a 15–20 hour school safety certification course, taught by a qualified handgun instructor holding the DPS school safety instructor certification, to school employees who hold a License to Carry. This page explains exactly what the course is — and is not.
The statutory curriculum
The course must train participants in four areas, set by statute:
| Area | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Protection of students | Decision frameworks that put student safety first in every scenario, including when not to engage. |
| Interaction with first responders | What responding officers see, expect, and need from an armed staff member — trained by instructors with law-enforcement training backgrounds. |
| Denying entry | Classroom and facility tactics for keeping an intruder out — the highest-value minutes of any incident. |
| Accuracy under duress | Live-fire qualification and stress-inoculated shooting, because range-calm accuracy is not incident accuracy. |
How we deliver it
- Format: the statutory 15–20 hours, typically delivered over two days, scheduled around your school calendar — with extended training blocks available beyond the course where district policy or local recommendations call for more
- Location: our North Richland Hills training facility, or on-site with your district (five-participant minimum for travel; classroom portions at your facilities where practical, live-fire at a qualified range)
- Class size: capped at 12 participants for instructor-to-student ratio on the firing line
- Pricing: $475 per participant at our facility — district on-site delivery quoted in your proposal
- Documentation: completion records, qualification scores, and the paperwork your district retains for its files
Plain-language disclosures
- DPS certifies individual instructors to teach this course. No company is “DPS-certified,” including ours.
- Completion is recorded by DPS as a school safety endorsement on the participant’s Texas License to Carry — one of three possible LTC endorsements. The endorsement lapses with the LTC: an expired license, even by a day, drops the endorsement and requires retaking the course. The endorsement alone does not authorize campus carry — that authority comes from the school board’s written authorization under Penal Code §46.03(a)(1)(A).
- This course is not the School Marshal course, which is an 80-hour TCOLE program delivered only by licensed law-enforcement academies. See the comparison.
Official source: Texas DPS — Handgun Licensing Instructor Certifications
Frequently asked questions
Who can take the DPS school safety certification course?
Employees of a school district or open-enrollment charter school who hold a current Texas License to Carry, selected by their employer. The course exists so a district can train the staff it has chosen to authorize — it is not open-enrollment public firearms instruction.
How long is the course?
By statute, not less than 15 and not more than 20 hours of instruction (Government Code §411.1901(b)) — most district engagements run it across two days. Districts can also choose extended training beyond the certification course under their own local rules and recommendations, and many do; we build those extensions into the proposal.
What does the course cover?
The four statutory areas: protection of students; interaction of license holders with first responders; tactics for denying an intruder entry into a classroom or school facility; and methods for increasing a license holder’s accuracy with a handgun while under duress.
Who issues the certification?
The course is delivered and documented by a DPS-certified school safety instructor, and completion is submitted to DPS, which records it as a school safety endorsement on the participant’s Texas License to Carry — one of three possible LTC endorsements. DPS certifies individual instructors to teach the course; companies are not “DPS-certified.” Authority to carry on campus comes from the endorsement paired with your district’s written authorization.
Does the endorsement expire?
It can — because it rides on the License to Carry. If the LTC lapses, even by a single day, DPS drops the school safety endorsement, and regaining it requires retaking the initial certification course and resubmitting to the state. Keeping the LTC current is therefore a program-management item, not just a personal one. Beyond that, the statute sets no requalification interval for trainees; districts set requalification policy, and we recommend — and deliver — recurring proficiency and scenario training as part of a standing program.
Can individual teachers sign up without their district?
The course serves employees selected and authorized by their school system. If your district is scheduling training and you want to participate, ask your administration to include you — or have them contact us about joint sessions with a neighboring district.
Bring the course to your district
Tell us your participant count and preferred window. We build the schedule around your calendar.
We respond to every inquiry the same business day in most cases.