Texas School Safety Center Resources

This document outlines safety and security best practices developed to assist schools in ensuring student safety and the safety of all persons in portable buildings used for instruction.

This toolkit introduces the concept of threat assessment and outlines how a threat assessment program functions in a school setting.

This toolkit will introduce you to Digital Threat Assessment, including basic techniques for conducting internet searches and verifying whether an image is stock or unique, and it will provide a more in-depth look at some of the most popular social media platforms among youth.

Training, drilling, and exercising are key features of a comprehensive emergency management program and facilitate the establishment of a culture of preparedness. This toolkit assists districts with providing emergency response training and mandatory school drills and exercises as mandated in Texas Education Code 37.108.

The K-12 Standard Response Protocol (SRP) Toolkit offers guidance and resources for incorporating the Standard Response Protocol into a school safety plan for critical incident response within individual schools in a school district.

Federal Resources

Please Note: While the federal guidance documents below are good resources, they may not correspond exactly with Texas legislative mandates. As a result, adjustments may need to be made to ensure compliance with Texas laws.

Resources available via the link above provide preventive and protective measures to address the threat of gun violence in schools. These documents outline action-oriented security practices and options for consideration. While the primary audience for these resources is the K-12 community, institutions of higher education or pre-K schools may also benefit from the information presented.

This study examines 34 targeted attacks that occurred in public or semi-public spaces (e.g., schools, places of business, houses of worship, open spaces) from January through December 2019.

In this study, the National Threat Assessment Center examined 67 disrupted plots against K-12 schools from 2006-2018. The key findings of the study are clear and consistent: Individuals contemplating violence often exhibit observable behaviors, and when community members report these behaviors, the next tragedy can be averted.

This report encompasses statistical data regarding 333 active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2019.

The Averted School Violence (ASV) reporting system, developed with support from the COPS Office, will allow law enforcement officers, school personnel, and mental health professionals to share “close calls” in order to improve school safety and prevent tragedies.