Arkansas school tip line law

What does Arkansas require of schools?

Each public school district and open-enrollment public charter school must work with law enforcement to improve school safety and security. Part of that duty is putting in place and expanding strategies to promote reporting, and those strategies must include anonymous reporting. The state's School Safety rule spells out what must be reportable anonymously: suspicious activity and behavior, and threats. For this rule, "public school district" includes open-enrollment public charter schools. The same section also requires each district and charter school to set up a behavioral threat assessment team (a group that reviews worrying behavior and decides how to respond).

Does the law say how the anonymous reporting must work?

No. The duty is one sentence: it requires anonymous reporting but says nothing about publicizing it, who receives tips, response times, tipster confidentiality, false reports or data reporting.

Does Arkansas have a state tip line?

A 2019 law directs the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Psychiatric Research Institute to set up and run a pilot school safety and crisis line called "ARSafeSchools." The line is to be reachable by phone, text message and smartphone app. Public schools do not have to take part in the pilot. Participation is voluntary. The statute sets no start date; the Institute decides when, and in what phases, the line begins operating. The line must operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The 2022 Arkansas School Safety Commission recommended, but did not require by law, that the Arkansas Center for School Safety coordinate a planning group to develop a statewide anonymous or confidential school safety tip line.

How are ARSafeSchools reports handled?

When necessary or required by law, line staff must promptly forward a report to the right school officials or law enforcement agencies. Each district's student discipline policy must include procedures for responding to reports received through the ARSafeSchools line. Act 911 of 2025, which restated that discipline-policy duty, was approved on April 21, 2025.

Are reports confidential?

Messages, recordings and personal information received by ARSafeSchools line staff are confidential and exempt from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (the state's public-records law). A person operating the line in good faith is not liable for civil damages unless the act or omission is gross negligence or willful misconduct.

How is the line funded?

The ARSafeSchools Fund may be used only by the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, and only to create and maintain the line. The fund's money comes from private grants or other designated sources, and from any other funds the law provides. The Institute does not have to carry out the fund section if the line is not funded. Act 419 of 2025, which moved the fund to its current code section, was approved on March 25, 2025.

Has the law changed recently?

The anonymous-reporting duty sits in the LEARNS Act (Act 237 of 2023), which rewrote Ark. Code § 6-15-1303. The Act was approved on March 8, 2023. In 2025, that section changed only in a part covering the Arkansas Center for School Safety's training role; the anonymous-reporting duty was not amended. The Department of Education must also study how the Arkansas State Fusion Center could better receive and pass on information about threats against public schools. This is a study duty, not a tip line.