Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released an advisory clarifying the requirements under state law for school districts to prepare for potential threats to student safety. Texas families equipped with knowledge of the law are more empowered to hold districts accountable for implementing and following the policies essential to keeping children safe at school.
State law now requires school districts to provide every classroom with silent panic alarms, ensure armed security officers are present on each campus, require certain employees to complete mental-health training, facilitate law enforcement walkthroughs of school campuses, and adopt electronic notification systems to communicate with parents in the event of violent activity occurring on school grounds.
“Schools have an essential responsibility to protect student safety and wellbeing,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Parents deserve to know what state law requires of their school district so that they can hold school boards and administrators accountable and better understand how districts should prepare for a worst-case scenario. Although no amount of preparedness can guarantee against all threats, parental engagement and involvement is critical for keeping schools safe.”
Attorney General Paxton has additionally instructed the Law Enforcement Division of the Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”) to make available supplemental training resources for school security officers, including a state-of-the-art virtual training simulator that equips responders for real-life incidents. This is a transformative tool enabling responders to prepare for emergencies by undergoing highly realistic training scenarios.
“As part of my emphasis on top-tier training for our OAG peace officers, we acquired a state-of-the-art training simulator,” said Attorney General Paxton. “School resource officers must have access to the best training available, which is why I am making the OAG training simulator available to any school resource officer who would like to train alongside our law enforcement officers to improve threat response and preparedness.”
To read the advisory, click here.