Texas School Safety Laws: Plain-English Library

TEC §37.108 — Multihazard EOP & the three-year safety audit

Applies to:: School districts, open-enrollment charters (via TEC §12.104(b)(3)(V)), public junior college districts
What it requires:: Two obligations live in this one section. First, every district must adopt and implement a multihazard emergency operations plan addressing prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, reunification, and recovery — with employee (including substitute) training, classroom communication access, standardized response protocol terminology, drills, and agency coordination. Second, at least once every three years, the district must conduct a safety and security audit of all facilities — performed by the district itself or by a person on the TxSSC Consultant Registry — following TxSSC procedures, reported to the TxSSC and the local board. Since September 2025 the audit includes a §37.1087 security review for each facility, and the audit must certify safety-allotment funds were properly used. Audit documents are confidential under §37.108(c-1).
Effective:: Long-standing; significantly amended effective September 1, 2025 (HB 33) and with the 2025–26 school year (HB 121)
Official source:: TxSSC Audit Toolkit (quotes the statute)

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TEC §37.1087 — Security reviews (new, 2025)

Applies to:: School districts constructing, acquiring, renovating, or improving a facility
What it requires:: Created by HB 33 (the Uvalde Strong Act). When a district constructs, acquires, renovates, or improves a facility, it must conduct a security review as soon as practicable — checking the facility against commissioner safety standards and identifying active-shooter vulnerabilities with mitigation strategies for each. These reviews are also folded into the three-year audit for every district facility. Review standards come through commissioner rulemaking under TEC §7.061, so the details will continue to firm up via 19 TAC.
Effective:: September 1, 2025
Official source:: HB 33 enrolled text

How security reviews fit the audit →

TEC §37.0814 — Armed security officer at every campus (HB 3)

Applies to:: School districts
What it requires:: The board must ensure at least one armed security officer is present during regular school hours at each campus — sworn law-enforcement staffing under the statute’s default list. A board may claim a good-cause exception (funding or qualified-personnel availability) and adopt an alternative standard, which is met by exactly two paths: a school marshal, or an employee trained under Gov’t Code §411.1901 carrying with written authorization — the Guardian route. Nothing else satisfies the exception’s alternative standard. Since 2025, any good-cause exception must be reviewed and renewed annually. Districts must keep compliance documentation and produce it to TEA on request.
Effective:: September 1, 2023; annual exception renewal added effective 2025 (HB 121)
Official source:: TEC §37.0814 (statute mirror)

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Gov’t Code §411.1901 — School safety certification (the "Guardian" training)

Applies to:: Qualified handgun (LTC) instructors; employees of districts and charters who hold an LTC
What it requires:: DPS certifies qualified handgun instructors in school safety; those instructors may then deliver the 15–20 hour school safety certification course to LTC-holding school employees. The statutory curriculum: protection of students, interaction with first responders, tactics for denying an intruder entry, and handgun accuracy under duress. Completion is recorded by DPS as a school safety endorsement on the employee’s Texas License to Carry — one of three possible LTC endorsements — and the endorsement lives on the LTC: if the license lapses, even briefly, DPS drops the endorsement and the course must be retaken and resubmitted. Carry authority on campus comes from the endorsement paired with the district’s written authorization under Penal Code §46.03(a)(1)(A); requalification cadence is board policy.
Effective:: 2013 (SB 1857); amended 2015
Official source:: Gov’t Code §411.1901 (statute mirror)

Guardian program training →

TEC §37.0811 & Occ. Code §1701.260 — School marshals

Applies to:: Districts, charters, junior colleges, and private schools that appoint marshals
What it requires:: The school marshal is the state-licensed alternative: an employee holding an LTC who passes a TCOLE psychological exam and completes the TCOLE-approved 80-hour school marshal course at a licensed law-enforcement academy — no other course can substitute. TCOLE issues the license, which expires on the August 31 following the second anniversary of licensure, renewable by a course of up to 16 hours plus exam, proficiency, and psychological fitness. Marshal training may only be delivered by TCOLE-approved academies — which is why GSFT delivers the Guardian pathway and not marshal licensure.
Effective:: HB 1009 (2013); private schools added by HB 867 (2017)
Official source:: TCOLE School Marshals program page

Guardian vs. marshal comparison →

TEC §37.2091 — The consultant registry

Applies to:: Anyone providing school safety or security consulting in Texas — and every district that engages them
What it requires:: All school safety or security consulting — advice, recommendations, data collection, or audit services, paid or unpaid — requires registration on the TxSSC Consultant Registry, with the TxSSC verifying submitted qualifications before listing. The district-side duty in (b-1): a district must confirm a person is on the registry before engaging them. Listing is verified registration, not a state endorsement — treat any vendor calling itself "TxSSC-approved" or "endorsed" as misdescribing the law.
Effective:: Registry framework strengthened by SB 11 (2019)
Official source:: TxSSC Consultant Registry

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TEC §37.117 — Silent panic alert technology (SB 838, "Alyssa’s Law")

Applies to:: Every classroom in every Texas school system
What it requires:: Effective with the 2025–26 school year, each classroom must have silent panic alert technology allowing immediate contact with emergency services, law enforcement, health, and fire agencies. The panic alert does not substitute for the separate §37.108(a) classroom telephone/communication-device requirement. Compliance may be funded through the school safety allotment. As of the current school year this is in force statewide — and it is an audit criterion.
Effective:: 2025–26 school year
Official source:: TxSSC law toolkit — SB 838

Panic-alert documentation in audit prep →

HB 33 (2025) — The Uvalde Strong Act

Applies to:: Districts, charters, law enforcement agencies
What it requires:: The 2025 session’s broadest safety bill: security reviews (§37.1087) inside audits; at least one breaching tool and one ballistic shield at each campus (§37.1171); standardized response protocol terminology in EOPs; PIO certification requirements; county sheriff school-safety meetings; DPS-local mutual aid agreements; ALERRT active-shooter response and report templates; and TCOLE incident-command training for officers.
Effective:: September 1, 2025
Official source:: HB 33 enrolled text

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HB 121 (2025) — EOP phases, extracurriculars, and renewals

Applies to:: Districts and charters
What it requires:: Four changes districts feel directly: EOPs must address reunification as a sixth phase; EOPs must cover safety at extracurricular activities against TEA-set standards (implementing 19 TAC rules adopted July 2026); emergency response maps must go to every applicable emergency services district; and HB 3 good-cause exceptions for armed security must be reviewed and renewed annually.
Effective:: 2025–26 school year
Official source:: TEA TAA letter, July 17, 2025

EOP update support →

SB 57 (2025) — Drill accommodations

Applies to:: Districts and charters
What it requires:: Mandatory drills must accommodate students with IEPs and 504 plans, and the School Safety and Security Committee (§37.109) must include a superintendent designee who is a special-education administrator. TEA guidance was due December 2025; requirements take effect with the 2026–27 school year. Drill logs and committee rosters are exactly the kind of records the audit’s records review examines.
Effective:: Phased; core requirements with the 2026–27 school year
Official source:: TEA TAA letter, July 17, 2025

Drill records in audit prep →

TEC §48.160 — The school safety allotment (renumbered 2025)

Applies to:: Districts (funding)
What it requires:: HB 2 (2025) moved the school safety allotment from §48.115 to §48.160 and raised it: $21.10 per student in average daily attendance plus $33,540 per eligible campus, applied automatically. This is the funding stream districts use for safety work — including audits, training, EOP work, and panic-alert compliance. Any document still citing "§48.115" or the old $10/ADA + $15,000 amounts is out of date.
Effective:: 2025 (HB 2)
Official source:: TEA TAA letter, July 17, 2025

Scope safety work against your allotment →

TEC §37.1083–.1084 — TEA monitoring, IDAs, and DVAs

Applies to:: Districts (TEA-side oversight)
What it requires:: TEA monitors district safety compliance — EOPs, audits, and now security reviews — and its regional school safety review teams conduct unannounced intruder detection audits (IDAs) at every campus annually, while its Office of School Safety and Security runs District Vulnerability Assessments at roughly 30% of districts per year. Results flow through TEA’s Sentinel platform (19 TAC §103.1213). These are TEA’s own programs — no vendor performs them — but your §37.108 audit posture is the best preparation for both.
Effective:: Current; Sentinel reporting rules effective 2025
Official source:: TEA — Intruder Detection Audit annual report letter

How IDAs/DVAs differ from your audit →

How to use this library

This page is a working reference, not legal advice — statutory requirements depend on your entity type and facts, and your board’s counsel owns the final read. What we can promise: every entry above cites its official source, we review this page against each TEA update and TxSSC Annual Supplemental, and when the Legislature moves, the page moves within the month.

Texas school safety laws: a plain-English library