Texas school safety audit: frequently asked questions

It scales with the work: campus count, facility size and type, enrollment, and how complete your records are. Districts comparing quotes should confirm what is actually included — under the 2026–2029 methodology a complete audit spans roughly 300 assessment items across records review, on-site inspection of every facility, structured interviews, and climate input, plus the §37.1087 security reviews. We quote per campus from your facility inventory; request an estimate and it comes back the same business day in most cases.

Yes — genuinely. TEC §37.108(b) lets the district conduct its own audit, and the TxSSC describes the process as a self-assessment. The honest trade-off: the new cycle replaced the single checklist with a full instrument suite, which makes self-auditing a much larger project than last cycle — and when a district self-audits, the liability for the audit and the accuracy of its findings rest on the district and the individual completing it. Districts hire an outside auditor for independence, capacity, depth, and that accountability — not because the law forces them to.

Yes. TEC §37.108(b) recognizes only two lawful audit performers: the district itself, or a person on the TxSSC Consultant Registry. Separately, TEC §37.2091(b-1) requires the district to confirm registry inclusion before engaging anyone for school safety or security consulting — paid or unpaid. Check anyone you are considering, including us, at registry.txssc.txstate.edu.

The schedule is driven by campus count and document readiness. Records review happens before fieldwork, so the fastest engagements are districts whose documents are organized — our prep checklist covers exactly what to gather. Your proposal includes a schedule scoped to your facility inventory rather than a generic estimate.

Board safety policies, the multihazard EOP and annexes, drill logs, safety committee records, facility inventory, panic-alert coverage documentation, HB 3 armed-officer documentation, prior audit reports, and school safety allotment records, among others. You receive a checklist tailored to your district type with a secure submission channel — the full prep list is published here.

Your board of trustees receives the report, the TxSSC receives the reporting your cycle requires, and the district retains a signed copy. Audit documents are confidential under TEC §37.108(c-1) — they are not public records in the ordinary sense, and we never publish findings or identify district results.

Minimal by design. Fieldwork is scheduled around your calendar, observations and photos are captured digitally in one pass, and exact on-site dates are disclosed only to your superintendent and local law enforcement.

Yes. Open-enrollment charter schools carry the audit obligation through TEC §12.104(b)(3)(V) — see our charter audit page — and public junior college districts audit under §37.108 on their own cycle, with their own TxSSC toolkit.

It is now. HB 33 (2025) created security reviews for facilities that are constructed, acquired, renovated, or improved — identifying active-shooter vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies — and amended §37.108(b) so the three-year audit includes them. If your district has built or renovated since September 2025, those facilities carry this additional layer.

No. TEA’s regional teams run unannounced intruder detection audits at every campus annually, and TEA’s Office of School Safety and Security conducts District Vulnerability Assessments on a random basis. Both are TEA’s own programs — no vendor performs them. A well-documented §37.108 audit is the best preparation for both.

The methodology changed for the 2026–2029 cycle: the single checklist is retired in favor of the TxSSC instrument suite, and the 2025 session’s laws are built into the criteria. Work performed for a prior cycle satisfied that cycle. For the new one, the assessment needs to be conducted against the current instruments — and kept current against each September’s Annual Supplemental.

Each entity type runs on its own three-year cycle with a reporting window at the end. Rather than repeat dates here, we keep one always-current page: audit cycles and deadlines, sourced to the TxSSC toolkits.