Alyssa's Law in Texas
Texas requires each school district and open-enrollment charter school to provide silent panic alert technology in every classroom. The requirement applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. It sits in Texas Education Code Section 37.118, titled "Silent Panic Alert Technology."
Every fact checked against the official source by an independent reviewer · Last verified October 25, 2026
What does the Texas law require?
Every classroom needs silent panic alert technology. The law's operative verb is "shall provide."
The technology must allow immediate contact with district or school emergency services, emergency services agencies, law enforcement agencies, health departments and fire departments.
The panic alert technology does not satisfy a separate requirement that employees have classroom access to a telephone or other electronic communication device.
TEA describes silent panic alert technology as a silent signal, set off by a device manually or through software, that signals a life-threatening emergency.
Who is covered?
School districts and open-enrollment charter schools.
When did it take effect, and what is the deadline?
The Governor signed SB 838 on May 5, 2023, and it took effect immediately. The classroom requirement applies beginning with the 2025-2026 school year.
How can schools pay for it?
Districts and charter schools may pay for the technology with the school safety allotment under Education Code Section 48.160, or with other available funds. The school safety allotment lists silent panic alert devices as an allowed use. TEA earlier ran a 2022-2024 Silent Panic Alert Technology (SPAT) grant that awarded $17,104,000.
What has the state published?
The law requires TEA or the Texas School Safety Center to publish a directory of approved school safety technology vendors that districts may choose from when spending allotment funds. TEA published a vendor directory for silent panic alert technology on August 12, 2025.
Bill and statute history
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Bill | SB 838, 88th Legislature (2023), titled Alyssa's Law |
| Signed and effective | May 5, 2023 |
| Renumbered | HB 1620 (89th Legislature) moved the section from 37.117 to 37.118, effective September 1, 2025 |
| Amended | HB 2 (89th Legislature), effective September 1, 2025 |
How can QuickSecure help?
Panic, the QuickSecure mobile app, lets any staff member raise an Alert from a phone. Schools start with Lockdown, Fire, Medical and Admin Alerts, each with its response workflow already built, and can add their own Alert types with their own workflows.
Schools can also add a physical panic button.
Each school sets how every Alert type behaves: silent or announced, a critical alert or a normal notification, whether it also sends email and text messages, and how it looks, down to its color, icon and wording.
Dispatch sends the Alert straight to 911 through RapidSOS, with one confirmation step. Each school chooses which Alert types call 911.
Mass notifications lets a school choose how each message goes out: app notifications, critical alerts, text messages or email.
Nexus holds campus maps and floor plans, plus details such as where the AEDs are, who is on site, which class each person is in and their status, and responders can see them during an Alert.
Drill management runs practice drills through the same workflow as a real Alert, so in a real emergency every step is already familiar and nobody stops to second-guess it. A drill never sends a real Dispatch.
If you plan to pay with school safety allotment funds, check TEA's approved vendor directory first.
This is not a statement that any product satisfies the Texas law; that reading belongs to your district and its counsel.