Texas school emergency plan law
What Texas requires of school emergency operations plans: who writes one, what goes in it, and how it's reviewed.
Every fact checked against the official source by an independent reviewer · Last verified October 26, 2026
Does Texas require school emergency plans?
Yes. Education Code § 37.108(a) requires each school district to adopt and carry out a multihazard emergency operations plan for use in its facilities. That duty names only school districts and public junior college districts; private schools are not named. The plan must address prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, reunification and recovery.
Who writes the plan?
Each district must set up a school safety and security committee. The committee takes part in developing and carrying out emergency plans that match the district plan. The committee must include, to the greatest extent practicable, representatives of a county or city emergency management office. It must meet at least once each semester and at least once during the summer. The Texas School Safety Center's training program includes help developing the plan.
What must the plan contain?
| The district plan must include | Source |
|---|---|
| Emergency response training for district employees, including substitute teachers | § 37.108(a)(1) |
| Classroom access to a phone or other device that can reach emergency services immediately | § 37.108(a)(2) |
| Standardized response protocol terminology developed with the Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC) | § 37.108(a)(3) |
| Mandatory school drills and exercises, including those under § 37.114 | § 37.108(a)(4) |
| Coordination with the state health department, local emergency management, law enforcement, health departments and fire departments | § 37.108(a)(5) |
| Any other requirements TxSSC sets | § 37.108(a)(7) |
| A chain of command naming the final decision-maker in an emergency, and alternates | § 37.108(f)(1) |
| Physical and psychological safety for a natural disaster, an active shooter and other identified dangerous scenarios | § 37.108(f)(2) |
| Safety of students in portable buildings | § 37.108(f)(3) |
| Equal access to safety for students and staff with disabilities | § 37.108(f)(4) |
| Immediate notice to parents and guardians of a significant threat to student health or safety, naming who oversees it | § 37.108(f)(5) |
| Psychological safety during response and recovery | § 37.108(f)(6) |
| Substitute teacher access to buildings and materials during an emergency or mandatory drill | § 37.108(f)(7) |
| Safety during district extracurricular activities, as TEA (Texas Education Agency) determines | § 37.108(f)(8) |
| Each safety committee member and the date of each committee meeting in the past year | § 37.108(f)(9) |
| Certification that the district follows § 37.117 (emergency response maps and walk-throughs) | § 37.108(f)(10) |
| A policy for responding to an active shooter emergency | § 37.108(g) |
| A policy for district property used as a polling place | § 37.108(e) |
The plan must also include a policy for a train derailment near a district school, but only if a district facility is within 1,000 yards of a railroad track. Since SB 57 (2025), the plan's equal-access provisions for students and staff with disabilities must be based on the commissioner's § 37.1086 recommendations and guidelines, which districts must follow when adopting and carrying out the plan. By TEA rule, school systems must consider IEP and Section 504 plans (individual special education and disability plans) that need safety accommodations when drafting their plan. Silent panic alert technology does not satisfy the plan's requirement that employees have classroom access to a phone or other communication device. By TEA rule, every panic alert must include the location it came from; staff, including substitutes, must be able to trigger it, and a 9-1-1 call from a district device must trigger it automatically. Where exterior doors have remote electronic locks, the rule says the alert system will trigger them to lock automatically. By TEA rule, a school system may name in its plan specific exterior doors allowed to stay open for specified periods of time.
How often is the plan reviewed?
The district safety and security committee recommends plan updates to the board "periodically"; that provision sets no fixed update interval. One fact the public can see under the Public Information Act is whether the plan was reviewed within the last 12 months, and the review dates. In TxSSC's 2026-2027 review criteria, the plan's Formal Adoption Statement must be signed every year by the superintendent, and annual reviews and significant changes must be recorded in the plan's Record of Changes. By TEA rule, school systems must consider using lessons learned from drills to find gaps and update their plans. Each district must also conduct a safety and security audit of its facilities at least once every three years, and since HB 33 (2025) that audit must include a § 37.1087 security review of each facility.
Is the plan submitted to anyone?
TxSSC reviews and verifies district plans on a random or need-based cycle. A district must send its plan to TxSSC no later than the 30th day after the center asks for it. If the center finds deficiencies, the district must correct the plan and resubmit it. The center may demand a plan for immediate review if audit results show noncompliance. After reviewing a plan, TxSSC may upload it, with appendices, to TEA's Sentinel portal. Districts must report safety audit results to their board of trustees and to TxSSC.
How do schools work with police and fire?
Districts and open-enrollment charter schools must give DPS (the Department of Public Safety), local law enforcement and first responders campus maps, and offer them a walk-through of each campus and building using the map. In TxSSC's review criteria, the district plan must certify that accurate maps of each campus and building were given to DPS, local law enforcement and first responders. By TEA rule, electronic door-numbering site plans must go to 9-1-1, DPS, emergency service districts, law enforcement and first responders. Memoranda of understanding and mutual aid agreements with first responders are encouraged, not required: TxSSC must encourage districts to enter them. A district that signs one must give TxSSC a copy when the center asks. Each district board must set up a threat assessment and safe and supportive school team for each campus.
What about extracurricular events?
By TEA rule, school systems must certify that their written extracurricular safety plans are reviewed, amended and kept locally, and must submit them to TEA on request. Those plans must include temporary shelter sites or evacuation measures for bad weather, evacuation routes and assembly points, and coordination with local first responders on injury plans. Each event location with more than 250 attendees needs written security and medical plans. TEA's extracurricular safety rule took effect September 23, 2026.
Is the plan confidential?
Safety and security audit documents are not subject to disclosure under the Public Information Act, except as § 37.108(c-2) provides. Documents from TxSSC's plan review and verification are not subject to disclosure under the Public Information Act. TEA's safety monitoring documents are confidential and not subject to the Public Information Act. MOU and mutual aid agreement copies given to TxSSC are confidential and exempt from the Public Information Act. By TEA rule, plan updates must avoid personally identifying information.
Are there compliance checks or penalties?
TEA must monitor district multihazard emergency operations plans, and must run a detailed vulnerability assessment of each district on a random basis once every four years. A board that receives a noncompliance notice must hold a public hearing. If TxSSC notifies TEA that a district failed to submit a plan, the commissioner may appoint a conservator. In the safety audit, a district must certify that it used school safety allotment funds only for permitted purposes. TxSSC reviews district and charter plans against its Basic Plan Evaluation Criteria Checklist (2026 edition). Its 2026-2027 criteria mark items (M) as legislatively mandated, and missing one counts as non-compliance under § 37.2071(g). Those (M) items include threat notification procedures from the threat assessment team, citing § 37.115(c)(6), and a per-campus equipment requirement citing § 37.1171. TxSSC's 2026-2027 Reunification Annex criteria list a standard reunification method as (M), citing § 37.108(a)(7), and TxSSC publishes a reunification annex template and checklist for districts and charters. TxSSC has EOP Review Specialists who help districts, charters and junior colleges develop plans, and it publishes the criteria and checklists used in its reviews.
Who is covered?
The § 37.108(a) plan duty names school districts and public junior college districts. An Education Code provision applies to an open-enrollment charter school only where that is specifically provided, and charters are made subject to the school safety requirements in §§ 37.108, 37.109, 37.207 and 37.2071, among others. TEA's safety rules define a school system as a public independent school district or a public open-enrollment charter school.
What changed recently?
HB 121 (2025), on public school safety and security requirements, amended § 37.108 effective September 1, 2025, and added reunification to the phases the plan must address. HB 33 (2025), on active shooter incidents and other emergencies, amended § 37.108 effective September 1, 2025; it added that standardized response terminology must be used for communication among police, emergency services, staff and the public. SB 57 (2025), on the safety of individuals with disabilities or impairments during drills and emergencies, amended § 37.108 effective June 20, 2025. HB 2 (2025) changed § 37.108 only in subsection (b-1), updating the school safety allotment cross-reference; the duty to certify allotment use in the audit is unchanged. Every 2025 amendment to § 37.108 came from the regular session; no 2025 special-session act amended it. TEA's school safety requirements rule took effect September 1, 2026. The last Texas legislative session held was the 89th Legislature's 2nd called session, which ended September 4, 2025; no session is listed for 2026.
How can QuickSecure help?
SOPs keeps your emergency operations plan and procedures in one place, and staff can open them from their phones.
Each procedure keeps its version history, so you can see what changed and when.
You choose which roles can see each procedure, and staff confirm they've read it, so you can see who has.
During an Alert, your procedures become step-by-step checklists for each staff member.
This is not a statement that any product satisfies Texas's requirements; that reading belongs to your district and its counsel.