Indiana school threat assessment team law

Do Indiana schools have to have threat assessment teams?

Yes, through the school safety plan: each school corporation (school district) must develop a school safety plan that meets the state's requirements. Each charter school must do the same. Not later than July 1, 2025, that plan must include setting up a multi-disciplinary threat assessment team. The team is set up by the leadership of the school corporation or charter school, and one team may serve one or more schools. The chapter does not apply to virtual charter schools or virtual accredited nonpublic schools. Accredited nonpublic schools may set up a school safety plan under the same section, but are not required to.

Who must be on the team?

The team is a group with expertise in school physical security, school administration, instruction, youth counseling, mental and behavioral health, and law enforcement. At a minimum, it must include a school safety specialist or someone the school safety committee designates. It must also include a safe school committee member, a building-level administrator, a school resource officer if one is employed or assigned, someone with special education expertise, and a school counselor or social worker.

What must the team do?

The team's threat assessments must set procedures to assess, identify and intervene with individuals whose behavior may threaten the safety of students, families, faculty and staff. They must guide students and staff on recognizing threatening or unusual behavior. They must name the members of the school community to whom threatening behavior should be reported. They must inform the school's policies, including school safety plans and safe school committee policies. The team definition names no event or behavior that must start an assessment. It sets no duty to notify parents or police after an assessment and requires no written intervention or safety plan.

Is there a state model?

The Indiana Office of School Safety's behavioral threat assessment training is based on the National Threat Assessment Center model, with parts of the Safer Schools Together Digital Threat Assessment model. The Office's plan assessment, the tool it uses to check school safety plans, lists the team as a plan item and repeats the required members and functions. The Office's threat assessment resource page lists Indiana-specific resources as coming soon and points to federal materials. The State Board of Education's school emergency planning rule, 511 IAC 6.1-2-2.5, says nothing about threat assessment or a threat assessment team. The Office's own plan assessment names that rule as the State Board's additional requirement.

What training is required?

School safety specialists must take the yearly school safety training that the Office of School Safety sets. That training must cover identifying, preventing and intervening when someone on school property intends to harm another person. In response to the July 1, 2025 team mandate, the Office organized a statewide behavioral threat assessment summit. It invited five representatives from each school corporation, nonpublic school or charter school to the first summit.

Who sees the plan, and is it confidential?

The school corporation or charter school must keep its school safety plan confidential and withhold it from public disclosure. The plan must be available for inspection by the Office of School Safety. It must be filed with the county school safety commission. The Office may ask to meet with a school corporation or charter school to review its plan, and the school must comply with the Office's requests. The Office must keep guidelines for building and maintaining school safety plans, working with the Department of Education and the Institute for Criminal Justice. The team definition says nothing about threat assessment records: no rule on keeping, sharing, accessing or transferring them.

Is there funding?

Secured School Safety matching grants may pay for staff training on threat assessments and multi-disciplinary threat assessment teams, including travel costs. These grants can go to school corporations, charter schools and accredited nonpublic schools. The Indiana secured school fund is run by the Department of Homeland Security.

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

The safety plan section, IC 10-21-1-10, was added by P.L.150-2023 and amended by P.L.135-2024 and P.L.238-2025. The state's 2024 Secured School Safety Board report says P.L.150-2023 required each school corporation and charter school to include a threat assessment team in its plan. 2024 House Enrolled Act 1104 (P.L.135-2024) amended the section and kept the July 1, 2025 team requirement. 2025 House Enrolled Act 1637 (P.L.238-2025) re-enacted the section with the team requirement unchanged. The section that defines the team and its members has not been amended since 2023; no 2025 or 2026 act changed it. HEA 1004 of 2026 ("Various education matters") was signed on March 4, 2026.