Massachusetts school mapping law

Does Massachusetts require schools to share building plans?

Yes, for school building projects the state approves. The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), working with the school district or city or town, must send the plans or blueprints it approved for a school's construction, renovation or reconstruction to the local police department, fire department, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and any regional law enforcement entity. That duty was added by section 10 of a 2014 act, approved August 11, 2014.

What must the plans show?

The plans must show the building's points of entry, emergency access routes in and out, and other public safety features, such as fire hydrants, utility access points and stairwells.

Who keeps the plans, and how are they updated?

When the approved construction is finished, the MSBA must, subject to appropriation, send updated as-built plans (drawings of the building as actually built) to the same police, fire, MEMA and regional law enforcement recipients. Each department or agency that receives those plans must keep a copy on file. Departments that receive the plans may send comments to the MSBA and the school district.

Are school building plans confidential?

Plans sent under this law are confidential and are not public records. Separately, the general Public Records Law exemption covers blueprints, plans and schematic drawings about a building's internal layout, security measures and emergency preparedness. That general exemption applies only where the records custodian reasonably judges that release is likely to jeopardize public safety or cyber security.

What do school emergency plans add?

Each school committee and commonwealth charter school board of trustees must make sure every school it oversees has a written emergency response plan. That plan must include a way to direct EMS or behavioral health mobile crisis staff to any location on campus, including where rescue equipment is kept. School officials must review the response sequence with local fire and police at least once a year and must do periodic walk-throughs of school campuses. The plans must be updated after new construction or physical changes to the campus, as the local police or fire department decides. The plans go to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the local police and fire departments once every 3 years, by September 1 of the third year. As DESE's 2026-2027 school safety memo quotes the state's multi-hazard evacuation plan law, the plan must be designed for each school building after a review of that building. As DESE quotes it, each district must review and update that plan each year as appropriate, with help from local police and fire departments.

Is there state funding for school mapping?

The enacted FY2027 budget's local public safety grant line (8000-0313) does not include the Boston Public Schools school-mapping pilot that a House amendment proposed. The 2026 supplemental budgets and the FY2027 interim budget contain no school-mapping, floor-plan or school safety data funding. The 2026 economic development bill (H.5576), which another amendment tried to use for the Boston pilot, went to a House-Senate conference committee on July 30, 2026, its last listed action, and was not among the 2026 acts through chapter 256.

Are there pending bills?

S.1782 would create a Massachusetts school safety data (school mapping) grant program. It was reported favorably by the Public Safety committee on September 15, 2025 and sent to Senate Ways and Means, with no later action listed, so it has not passed. If passed, it would set up the grant program in the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, subject to appropriation, with grants going to law enforcement agencies, not schools, to build school mapping data. It would cover public and private schools, including charter, vocational and approved special education schools. Under the bill, the mapping data would have to be printable, oriented to true north, carry an x/y grid and elevation data for each floor, and be checked by an on-site walk-through. H.2579, the House version of the same grant bill, was reported favorably on July 30, 2025 and sent to House Ways and Means, with no later action listed. H.749, a pending bill on school critical incident plans and drills, was reported favorably and sent to House Ways and Means; it contains no mapping language.