Arkansas school threat assessment team law

Do Arkansas schools have to have threat assessment teams?

Yes, for public districts and charters: each public school district and open-enrollment public charter school must support student mental health, including by establishing a behavioral threat assessment team. The state school safety rule, 6 CAR § 249-105, repeats the duty to establish a team that follows best practices for team composition and process. In that rule, "public school district" includes open-enrollment public charter schools. The team duty names only public school districts and open-enrollment public charter schools; private schools are not mentioned. The rule says districts support student mental health on a timeline set by the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Who serves on the team, and is there a required model?

The law does not list who must be on the team or name a model or assessment tool. It only says the team must follow best practices for team composition and process.

What training do team members need?

All team members must receive basic and advanced behavioral threat assessment training. That training comes through the Arkansas Center for School Safety of the Criminal Justice Institute, or another organization approved by the State Board of Education. The Arkansas Center for School Safety's training includes behavioral threat assessment and management, and its classes are free.

When must a student be assessed?

Since 2025, when a teacher removes a student from class and the required conference finds the removal was for violent behavior, the staff at that conference must decide whether the student needs a behavioral threat assessment. That step came from the Teacher and Student Protection Act of 2025 (HB1062), which became Act 565, approved April 14, 2025.

What must happen after a threat is reported?

The team provision itself sets no trigger for an assessment, no required follow-up such as parent or police notice, no records or confidentiality rule, and no reporting to the state. The rule's team section (current copy dated March 27, 2026) likewise sets no membership list, trigger, follow-up, records rule, state reporting or fixed date. Separately, a principal who knows of, or reasonably believes there is, a threat of violence or a deadly-weapon crime must immediately report it to the superintendent and to local law enforcement. This general duty is not tied to the team. Districts must also promote reporting, including anonymous reporting of suspicious activity and behavior and of threats.

Is there funding?

State school safety grant funds are meant to carry out the Arkansas School Safety Commission's 2018 and 2022 recommendations; this is general school safety money, not money just for threat assessment teams.

When did the law take effect, and has it changed?

Act 237 of 2023 (the LEARNS Act), Section 8, rewrote Ark. Code § 6-15-1303, the Safe Schools Initiative Act. Under its emergency clause, the act section with the team duty took effect on the date the Governor approved the act. The 2025 ACCESS Act (Act 340) amended the clearinghouse part of § 6-15-1303, not the threat assessment team duty. 2025 SB451, on regional behavioral health programs, was vetoed by the Governor and died in the Senate. In the 2026 Fiscal Session, the only education-related non-appropriation bill the Senate authorized concerned the Educational Freedom Account program.