Texas school threat assessment law

Does Texas require school threat assessment teams?

Yes, for school districts. Each district's board of trustees "shall establish a threat assessment and safe and supportive school team to serve at each campus of the district" and must adopt policies and procedures for the teams. One team may serve more than one campus, but every campus must be assigned a team. Open-enrollment charter schools are also subject to the school safety requirements in § 37.115. The superintendent may set up a committee, or assign an existing one, to oversee the district's teams.

Who must be on the team?

The superintendent must ensure, as far as practicable, that members have expertise in counseling, behavior management, mental health and substance use, classroom instruction, special education, school administration, school safety and security, emergency management, and law enforcement. When a team serves a campus, it must include that campus's behavior coordinator. Two different versions of subsection (d-1), both added in 2025, set an extra member when a special education student is assessed:

• Under HB 6's version, the team must include a person who knows about student disabilities and how they show up, and may include an educational diagnostician or a behavior specialist, among others.
• Under HB 121's version, the team must include at least one listed professional with specific knowledge of that student's disability.

What process must teams follow?

District team policies must be consistent with the Texas School Safety Center's (TxSSC) model policies and procedures. TxSSC, working with TEA (the Texas Education Agency), must develop those model policies to help districts set up and train teams, and it has published them. The model policies must include, when appropriate, a way for students or school staff to report dangerous, violent or unlawful activity anonymously. Since August 1, 2025, teams doing a behavioral threat assessment must use the threat assessment instrument, manual and field guide in Sentinel (TEA's school safety reporting system). TEA, working with TxSSC, must adopt rules for a safe and supportive school program, and the commissioner of education may adopt rules to carry out § 37.115.

What starts an assessment?

Each team must assess and report individuals who make threats of violence or show harmful, threatening or violent behavior. Each campus must have a clear way for a student to report another student's concerning behavior. The campus behavior coordinator must report to the team any concerning student behaviors or trends that may pose a serious risk of violence. If a student at risk of suicide also threatens violence to others, the team must do a threat assessment as well as follow the district's suicide prevention program.

What training is required?

Each team must complete training on evidence-based threat assessment programs from TxSSC or a regional education service center.

What must happen before and after an assessment?

The team must notify the student's parent before it assesses the student. An assessment includes deciding the level of risk and the right intervention, including a referral for a mental health assessment and, if appropriate, an escalation procedure under district policy. After the assessment, the team must give the parent its findings and conclusions. If the team finds a serious risk of violence to self or others, it must immediately report to the superintendent and, for a student, immediately try to inform the parent. HB 121 (2025) moved that duty to try to inform the parent from the superintendent to the team itself. A team may not provide mental health care to a student under 18 without the parent's written consent. As soon as safe and practicable after an administrator or team receives information about a threat against a campus, it must immediately notify teaching staff who may be directly affected, including teacher's aides.

What happens to threat assessment records?

Materials given to or produced by the team during a student's assessment must stay in the student's school record until the student's 24th birthday. A district employee who reports a potential threat may choose to keep their identity confidential and outside the Public Information Act, except as needed to investigate. When a student who last attended a Texas public school enrolls in a public school, the records furnished must include the disciplinary record and any § 37.115 threat assessment. A district must furnish those records within 10 working days of receiving a request. On an inter-district transfer, the student's home district must give the receiving district the disciplinary record and any § 37.115 threat assessment. Since August 1, 2025, school systems must use Sentinel to send a transferring student's threat assessments securely, and assessments done before that date that relate to a transfer must be uploaded into Sentinel as TEA directs. Information collected to monitor school safety requirements under the Sentinel rule is confidential and not subject to the Public Information Act.

What must be reported to the state?

Each team must report information about its activities to TEA for each campus it serves, following TEA guidelines. The report includes the number and types of threats reported to the team. Districts and open-enrollment charter schools must submit the safety information TEA requests to monitor school safety requirements. TEA set the 2025-26 safe and supportive school program reporting window as June 1 to July 31, 2026, with each school system responsible for reporting every campus; that window has closed.

Is there state funding?

The school safety allotment must be spent on school safety and security, and its listed uses include the prevention, identification and management of emergencies and threats. The section does not name threat assessment teams.

When did the law take effect, and what changed recently?

Section 37.115 was added by SB 11, effective June 6, 2019. HB 2 (2025) added the staff threat notice duty, effective June 20, 2025. HB 6 (2025) amended the membership subsection and added its version of (d-1), effective June 20, 2025. HB 121 (2025) added its own (d-1) and amended the serious-risk subsection, effective September 1, 2025. The Sentinel reporting rule, 19 TAC § 103.1213, took effect December 15, 2024.