Texas Senate Unanimously Passes School Safety Bill

An FBI agent outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

The Texas Senate unanimously passed a school safety bill that would require increased security measures across the state.

“Texans have been reminded far too often that evil exists and that we live in a broken world,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a press release on Wednesday following the bill’s passing. “SB [Senate Bill] 11 is a top priority of mine and of all 31 senators because it represents a blueprint for our schools to use to harden their facilities moving forward.

“This is the most robust school-based response framework that Texas has ever designed and is the product of a year’s worth of bipartisan research and planning.”

The legislation would provide funding for increased security measures and create a new office within the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to oversee districts’ compliance with school safety and security regulations (pdf).

The bill would increase school security funding from $600 million to approximately $1.5 billion in the state’s biennial budget, Patrick told KTVT-TV.

Senate Bill 11 passed nearly 11 months after the Robb Elementary School shooting, leaving 19 students and two teachers dead in Uvalde, Texas.

School security is a top priority for Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott in this legislative session.

Republican state Sen. Robert Nichols authored the bipartisan bill, which was co-sponsored by nine others.

School Safety Funding

Currently, funding for school safety equipment and programs is based on a rate of $9.72 per student across all schools, Nichols said, adding that some of the smallest districts receive only about $1,000 annually, forcing schools to use classroom funds to improve safety.

“Senate Bill 11 restructures the school safety alarm allotment to reflect a per-campus funding formula,” Nichols said during Wednesday’s debate at the state Capitol.

The new formula would provide $16,800 per campus for schools with 1,100 or more students enrolled, scaling down to $15,000 for the smallest campuses with 350 or fewer students.

TEA Oversight

Following the Uvalde tragedy, Patrick commissioned a special committee to evaluate the school safety problem across the state and make recommendations for improvement, according to a Senate report.

Nichols and the committee offered their recommendations through the proposed legislation.

Among the issues found was a lack of clarity of authority between state agencies involved with school safety issues.

Senate Bill 11 would provide TEA oversight by creating the Office of School Safety and Security.

A governor-appointed and Senate-confirmed Chief of School Safety would head up the office.

The new office would work with the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) in San Marcos to develop the state’s standards for school emergency plans.

Districts would submit emergency plans to the TxSSC for review and approval.

Schools would also be subject to an intruder detection audit each year by plain clothes school safety personnel who would go on campus to check how easy or difficult it is to access various areas of the school. The auditors would not act in suspicious or threatening ways.

If a district fails to meet the state’s standards, it could be assigned a conservator to oversee school safety.

The TxSSC did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

School Law Enforcement

All school-based law enforcement officers would be required to complete the TxSSC’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training program.

“The ALERRT center is the gold standard for active shooter response training, and it’s imperative that our school-based law enforcement receives that training,” Nichols said.

The legislation strengthens the state’s truancy laws and requires parents to be notified of any violence occurring on campus.

The next step is for the House to bring the Senate bill up for debate.

Next week, the House will debate its two school safety bills, House Bill 3 and House Bill 13.