South Carolina school threat assessment law

Do South Carolina schools have to have threat assessment teams?

Yes, under the state budget for this fiscal year. Each school in South Carolina must identify key staff and maintain a threat assessment team. The duty sits in a budget proviso (a rule written into the yearly budget act) titled SDE: Safe Schools Initiative, which applies for the current fiscal year. The proviso is part of the General Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2026-2027. The FY 2025-26 budget also had an SDE: Safe Schools Initiative proviso, numbered 1.65. That FY 2025-26 proviso also required each school to maintain a threat assessment team.

Was the proviso vetoed?

H.5126 was passed by the General Assembly on August 11, 2026, and ratified as R276. The Governor vetoed certain items in it on August 17, 2026, and legislative action on those vetoes is pending. Proviso 1.64 was not vetoed: it is not among the five vetoes the Governor's veto message lists for the Department of Education in Part IB, Section 1.

What does the state do?

The Department of Education and the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) must support school threat assessment teams and training in districts through a state-level Threat Assessment Team. The Department of Education must work with stakeholders to provide professional development to staff on the team. The state-level team must collect and compile Threat Assessment & School Safety Plans from each school district. The Department of Education and SLED must give the Governor and General Assembly school safety recommendations, including projected costs and needed law changes.

What does the proviso leave out?

Proviso 1.64 does not say who must sit on a school's team. It does not say what triggers an assessment or what process or model a team must use. It sets no duty after an assessment: no required intervention plan, parent notice or police notice. It sets no deadline for districts' Threat Assessment & School Safety Plans to reach the state team. It appropriates no money for school threat assessment teams.

What does the state guide recommend?

The Department of Education publishes a behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) best-practices guide for K-12 schools, 2nd edition, October 2023. The guide (not law) says the core team must include an administrator, at least one school mental health professional and law enforcement. Under the guide, the first screening is done by at least two members: an administrator and a school mental health professional. A full threat assessment uses at least three team members. The guide lists one district-level team handling all threat cases as one possible team structure. When choosing training, it says the model should be validated and multidisciplinary, such as the Secret Service/National Threat Assessment Center model the guide discusses. It says administrators, school mental health professionals and school resource officers should be trained, preferably together. Under the guide, the core team assembles to gather early information when a concern about possible targeted violence is reported. For an imminent threat, the guide says to notify law enforcement immediately. For a low level of concern, it lists notifying the subject's parents as a possible response.

What about records and confidentiality?

The districts' Threat Assessment & School Safety Plans are exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act (the public records law). Proviso 1.64 says nothing about a student's threat assessment records or their transfer; its only records rule is that FOIA exemption for district plans. The state guide says a threat assessment record may be an education record covered by FERPA (the federal student privacy law). It says threat assessment records should be stored securely, with access limited to team members.

Is there a state school safety center?

State law sets up a Center for School Safety and Targeted Violence within SLED to provide training and expertise on school safety and targeted violence. SLED must adopt guidelines and procedures for training school staff, law enforcement, parents and the public on school safety and targeted violence. The Center was created by 2023 Act No. 79 (H.3360), effective June 19, 2023, and that act depends on funding in the general appropriations act. SLED's Special Operations Services Department houses the South Carolina Center for School Safety.

Are there recent bills?

The Safe Schools Act of 2026 (H.5201) is in the Senate Committee on Education. It would create a school safety task force and require school districts to develop multihazard emergency operation plans.